Internal Mono(b)log

A friend forwarded this article to me yesterday:

Pulmonary Edema and Triathlons | Triathlons Fitness Plans and Advice | OutsideOnline.com.

While it’s interesting, I don’t buy it.

Based on the logic that special forces cadets swimming 2.4km showed some fluid in their lungs the author is hypothesising that triathlon swim deaths are being caused by  pulmonary edema.

How then, does the author explain the competitive swimmers who log 8-10km daily 6-7 times per week.  Why aren’t they collapsing on the deck?

He cites tight wetsuits, chilly water, and several other potential causes; pretty much everything including “swimmers put their faces in the water”…

This has little to do with triathlon, other than that’s where we’re seeing these fatalities.

What I think is going on is this: many triathletes are poor swimmers, fear the swim, and don’t practice enough in the pool or in open-water race-like conditions.  They get out into the race environment, hopped up on caffeine, adrenalin, and sugar, wearing a wetsuit they aren’t familiar with, and haven’t practiced with.  The gun goes off and they sprint off the line like a bat out of hell.  Maybe they get kicked or punched or dragged on in the fray.  Maybe they suffer some panic.  Maybe they just forget to breathe because they’re hammering so hard (I’ve done this).   Now they’re in trouble, already freaked out, pulse high, CO2 high, panic sets in and it’s a tailspin from there.

I think this is, somewhat, avoidable: don’t let people enter a full-distance event until they’ve qualified by completing at least one 1/2 distance event.  WTC has also been experimenting with different approaches to the swim including waves and self-seeding.  All of their approaches are designed to have fewer swimmers congregated at any point in the swim so that safety personnel have a better chance of detecting and getting to a swimmer needing aide.

I don’t think this is a medical issue, it’s a training issue.