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Ask the Experts: Open-Water Q+A with James Lock
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Wouldn't we all! For me i only really started swimming 3 years ago after focusing only on running. I started off always thinking that i couldn't match the 'natural' swimmers but in the last year i've started to think i was just using that as an excuse not to work hard at swimming! I started swimming 4 or 5 times a week and i'm starting to get decent times now, though it is still possibly my weakest. I think it is worth the extra effort because i've gained about 3 minutes in a sprint over the last year. No chance i could have gained that in the run or bike. The nutrition in the 10k was a sight alright. One thing that struck a chord with me during the olympics was that the 1,500m swimmers swim up to 120km a week! That's not just natural talent, its incredibly hard work!
I am quite geeky when it comes to looking at results and its surprising well distributed at the top end anyway. Generally the top 10 overall are pretty close to the top 10 of each discipline. In any race i've done this year I don't recall the winner having a relatively weak swim. There are obviously exceptions. One guy that races regularly is a monster on the bike and makes up about 5 minutes!! He can also swim and run pretty well though.