Long Distance Open Water Training

by Cheryl Wagner

Every New Year, looking forward to the next open water season, I ask myself the same question: How should I train? I’ve tried a number of approaches but decided to ask some fast swimmers who completed the Wye Island Swim (14 statute miles) on May 22 last year how they trained, what they ate and drank during the swim, and how they felt and performed during the swim. Craig Dewing was the first solo swimmer in a time of 4:53;Maureen Rohrs was third solo in 6:09; and Nick Olmos-Lau was fourth solo (first non-wetsuit) in 6:49. Here are their answers:

How did you train for the Wye Swim?

• Craig Dewing: My distance freestyle training (open water) started on February 1 when I started keeping a log of my workouts. I trained between 30,000 to 40,000 yards a week, Monday and Wednesday evenings, Saturday and Sunday mornings, and doubles on Tuesday and Thursday. Starting April 1 at UMBC (Maryland Masters) I trained long course meters Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sunday was not coached, so I used that as a day to work on long straight swims, usually between 3,000 to 5,000 yards.
• Maureen Rohrs: I did 200,000 yards in the February Fitness Challenge, then relaxed a bit in March. After that I started doing 8,000 - 10,000 about five days a week. I added in a couple of longer swims: one 15,000 and two weeks later a 12,000. All of my swims had to be split. I would do 3,000 in the morning and the rest at lunch. The more you swim outside, the better you become at open water. I think it helps with sighting.
• Nick Olmos-Lau: I had been training since December and gradually increased my weekly total to 30-45,000 meters/week with four long swims a month. One of those long swims I gradually increased to cover about 90 percent of the length of the race.

What did you eat and drink during the swim?

• Craig Dewing: After the first hour I alternated 8-10 ounces from a 20 ounce cup of citrus Cytomax, with 1.5-2.0 servings of caffeinated Power Gel (strawberry banana) every 15 minutes. I tested this mixture for about a month to make sure it would not give me an upset stomach. On average I was stopping for about a minute to a minute and a half to feed, check the map, and the status of the other swimmers. If there was one thing that I could have improved on it would be the length of my breaks. But I do think that I was able to recover during the breaks. The time/benefit ratio may have actually helped me by allowing me to maintain a consistent speed.
• Maureen Rohrs: I was stopped every 20 minutes, had water first, then Endurox. At the third stop, I added a banana, and continued this way for two hours. At two hours, I took some Motrin and continued all of the above. At 2.5 hours, I felt sleepy, so I had some coke. At 3 hours, I added in some GU at every other stop. At 5 hours, I had more Motrin.
• Nick Olmos-Lau: I forced myself to stop every 15 minutes for Gatorade and fruit juices, some water, some Gif bars, Cliff bar pieces, and candy (couldn’t tolerate solids).

How did you feel during the swim?

• Craig Dewing: The overall swim was great. My kayaker was wonderful. He kept me on course and motivated me during the swim.
• Maureen Rohrs: My hip hurt. This always happens to me if I don’t get enough open water practice. The water was very cold this year so I didn’t get much.
• Nick Olmos-Lau: I was pushing harder than any other training swim so I did experience more fatigue than usual. I had outstanding crew support and that made a world of difference. I did have food poisoning so I had a lot of trouble tolerating food after four hours.

Any special notes?

• Craig Dewing: I would like to mention a couple of great articles and resources that I have been using for advice on open water swimming. (Please don’t hesitate to e-mail me: cdewing@usms.org.)

3. Chuck Wiley, who was the 25K USS Open Water Champion and USS Open Water web master. I have e-mailed him several times about training for open water. He has set up an Open Water Discussion Forum at http://www.usswim.org and can be e-mailed at cawiley@instanton.com.

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