Swimmers/Triathletes... help me with open water swimming.... (Read 1819 times)

I'm training for my first tri. We have a lake house and I want to do some of my swim training in the lake to get ready for the open water swim. My question is, how do you calculate distance in the water? I was going to try to put a buoy about 0.25 mile from our dock, or maybe farther if reasonable. Thanks in advance!

Do you have a Garmin? I have no idea honestly. Have done tons of open water swims but never measured one. Good question. If you have a Garmin you could get in a boat, start the Garmin and go out until you reach the desired distance but this assumes a straight line as well.

I don't have a Garmin, but good idea, Marcus! I may be able to borrow one from a friend to see if it'll work. Protoplasm-- I had first thought your idea might work, but because the lots at the lake are really deep, there's not a way to accuartle measure (ie:drive) the distance at the shoreline. Meaning, the distance driven on the road would be much longer than the distance at the shore. And, unfortunately, it's not really feasible to drive it by the shoreline either. If I can get my hands on a GPS, I may be able to just walk the distance next to shore. Hope the neighbors won't mind my tramping across thier land. Come to think of it, I may be able to measure it using mapmyrun.com. ??? or Google maps?? or tax assessors website?? Hmmm. Thanks for jumpstarting my thoughts! Any other ideas are greatly appreciated! Thanks guys.

I do ocean swimming every year from May to October. I remember seeing my triathlon swim coach using something that looked like a telescope to map out the swim course and place the buoys. I will ask him next Wednesday about it.

One of these may work for you as well. if you have a buddy who is into golf or huting, see if he / she has one and give it a shot.

I have lots of friends/family that do both! I'll check with them. In fact, my husband my have a cheap one in his golf bag from his "I think I want to be a golfer... ooops maybe not" days. I'll have to try it out and see how it works. Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions!

I always guesstimated - I always alternated pool & open water training so I knew my time range for distance in the pool ... I didn't get caught up in 'exacts' in the open water. If I swam without stopping more than a few moments - I would think time would be pretty close unless there are strong currents or very choppy conditions. I wish I could get rid of my nerves out in the open water because I LOVE swimming but can't seem to shake my childhood phobias when I'm 'out there'! Good luck with tri season!

Great question! I too have pondered this same query, and beleive I have just found the answer! I went to mapmytri.com. I punched in the lake I'll be using, found the Island I plan to swim around, plotted my course and presto! .66miles! Can not say exactly how accurate it will be, but it gives me a pretty good guesstimate. Try that, and good luck.

If you can find your lake house on the RA google map, you could measure the distance with that. That should work as well as any GPS, although it may be a few feet off (a gps wouldn't be exact either).