Open Water 750m Sprint Race Simulation Session

Session Overview

This 45-minute open water session simulates the full demands of a 750m sprint triathlon swim. It combines a hard race-effort start, sustained threshold pace, and a fast finish — building the specific fitness and confidence you need to nail your sprint distance swim leg.

What You’ll Need

• Open water venue (lake, reservoir or supervised sea) with buoyed course or visible landmarks
• Wetsuit (recommended below 18°C)
• Tow float for safety and visibility
• GPS watch with open water swim mode (optional but useful for pace data)

Warm-Up (10 minutes)

Enter the water slowly to manage the cold-shock response. Spend 5 minutes swimming easy front crawl at Zone 1–2 effort, stopping twice to practise sighting (lifting your eyes forward to locate a landmark every 8–10 strokes). Finish with 3 x 25m build-pace efforts with 20 seconds rest, going from 60% to 80% effort.

Main Set

Complete the following as a continuous 750m race simulation with structured effort changes:

• First 50m — Race start effort (95%): Surge hard from the start as you would in a race. Focus on short, powerful strokes and strong kick. This is deliberate — race anxiety is real and your body needs to learn to manage it.
• 200m — Settle to race pace (85–88%): Ease back slightly but maintain a fast, efficient rhythm. Sight every 8 strokes. Aim to hold your CSS pace or slightly above.
• 300m — Sustained threshold (83–85%): The meat of the swim. Maintain relaxed form: high elbow catch, long pull through, two-beat kick. This is the pace that determines your swim split.
• 150m — Negative split finish (88–92%): Build pace progressively over the final 150m, finishing with a hard 25m sprint to simulate the run-up from the water.
• 2 minutes rest, then repeat once.

Cool-Down (5 minutes)

Easy backstroke or front crawl at Zone 1 effort. Focus on slow, controlled breathing to bring your heart rate down and warm up any cold limbs before exiting.

Coaching Notes

• Sight every 8–10 strokes in open water — poor navigation can add 50–100m to your swim.
• The race-start surge is uncomfortable by design. Practising it in training removes the panic factor on race day.
• If 2 x 750m feels too long, do 1 full rep and 1 x 400m for the second effort.
• RPE target for the sustained section: 7/10. You should not be able to hold a conversation but should be able to maintain form.