Did anyone experience breathlessness in" Open Water Swimming!!"?Hi All,
I took part in a sprint triathlon and open water swim was a must.
The water was extremely cold. We jumped in the water to acclimatise our bodies with the temperature. despite having done 3 similar triathlons before and team relay ironman, I struggled to finish the swim and exerted 3 times as much efforts and time. Ran out of breath but managed to finish the entire race. later on I
was wheezing badly the whole night and it's really affecting my performance and confidence. The problem is the compression combined with the colder water as once I'm out or in a normal pool I'm absolutely fine.
My GP diagnosed me with "Exercise Induced Asthma" and put me on Asthmavent "reliever" blue salbutamol inhaler.
Any tips please on controlling asthma during open water swimming when wearing a wetsuit?!!
Thank you both for the lovely feed back. really took that on board. Casey, I adopted the warm up session and tried that yesterday. I felt a lot better.
With regards to BeyondTransition, your answer makes Sense. Can you please highlight on
the psychological and physiological discomfort, and how to tackle this problem. Sure you've encountered few of those....Have Never wheezed, nor was short of breath, ever since that day. Do you think I should still use the inhaler? Look forward to hearing from you.. BTW have signed up for open water training in the Serpentine Hyde-Park UK. hope that meets your both recommendations.
Cheers HRA
-Casey
take your inhaler before hand. one thing about swimming in open water that is extremely cold, is that your muscles tense up when you enter the water and it constricts your breathing..also, its very difficult to warm up which can affect your performance..and also obviously the cold can put your health at risk. i would suggest making sure you warm up significantly before you start the swim. do some active stretching, jog for 10 mins, stretch. then, proceed to your warm up in the water...go in the water, swim around for a few mins then get out..then once your body warms up again, go back in the water for a little longer than before..do this a few times total til your comfortable in the water and your muscles are warmed up. that should help with the shock of the cold water. another thing you can do to get used to the cold water is to do some more training in it. not everyone's body can handle the cold, and we all react a little differently..you just have to figure out how to become more comfortable and relaxed in the cold. good luck!
-BeyondTransition.com
I've found that this issue is often a combination of stress and cold water. The stress of the race start with high levels of adrenalin and the psychological and physiological discomfort of the cold water can make it very difficult.
Practice more in cold water and make open water swims part of your training. From this you ill either be able to resolve the problem with experience, or you will get used to it - and that psychological familiarity is key under race conditions.
You could also try swimming without a wetsuit. Wetsuits can be very constraining and that can make it much worse. Of course the water will be even colder but its a balancing act.
Another thing you could consider is to start at the back and take the mass start stress out of the equation or comitt to swimming breaststroke which will significantly reduce the stress on your body.
Hope that these ideas help
chronic lung condition. Get all your questions answered now Learn how you can make a difference.
Orignal From: Did anyone experience breathlessness in" Open Water Swimming!!"?
No comments:
Post a Comment