After a decade on the German national swim team and being first out of the water at the Ironman World Championship for four consecutive years from 2001, Sibbersen returned as a 43-year-old age-grouper in 2018 to set the swim course record \u2013 46min 29sec for the 2.4 mile out-and-back course.<\/p>\n
As founder and managing director of swim brand Sailfish, Sibbersen was joined by three-time Ironman world champion Craig Alexander to share their top tips for conquering the swim\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Especially making sure your goggles are comfortable, don\u2019t leak or fog up.<\/p>\n If the tide\u2019s running out you want to be in the deeper water to the right and hug the line of the buoys.<\/p>\n It\u2019s common for the bike leg and the marathon, but less so for the swim. Start with the first half of the first half.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t want to build up lactate at the start of the race. The start has changed from a mass start to wave starts but everybody should still start at a steady pace. And nobody does!<\/p>\n For the first quarter of the race you shouldn\u2019t feel any effort. Keep it super easy and fluid.<\/p>\n This is obvious advice, but if you swim 4km instead of 3.8km that\u2019s a lot of extra time. Pick off the marker buoys one by one.<\/p>\n Even if it\u2019s a calm start, when the sun comes up over the Hawaiian mountains the wind and waves start to pick up.<\/p>\n Take it safe and wide enough so you don\u2019t hit the buoy or the boat. I\u2019ve hit the buoy before and tangled myself in a rope.<\/p>\n When you make the turn, it can be helpful to focus on the mobile phone antenna to the right of the King Kamehameha hotel.<\/p>\n When you turn to start swimming toward home, 90% of the time the current will be against you. This is when the swim starts.<\/p>\n You started in the deep water and you\u2019ll be swimming all the way back to the pier, so it\u2019s about 150m longer on the return. If you look at your watch \u2013 and I wouldn\u2019t recommend it \u2013 bear in mind you have a couple of minutes to add.<\/p>\n If you swim just 2sec slower per 100m you\u2019re only giving up 20sec per kilometre. It\u2019s not a lot of time but can be the difference from swimming easy to being on the rivet. Whatever you gain from pushing too hard, too early, you\u2019ll lose 20 times in the back half of the race.<\/p>\n Jan Sibbersen is the founder and managing director of premium wetsuit brand Sailfish<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Top image credit:<\/strong> Jason Rappaport\/Ironman via Getty Images<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/body><\/html>\n By Tim Heming Published: Thursday, 06 October 2022 at 12:00 am Jan Sibbersen knows better than anyone how to produce a fast swim in Hawaii. After a decade on the German national swim team and being first out of the water at the Ironman World Championship for four consecutive years from 2001, Sibbersen returned as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18265,"template":"","categories":[1,23],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/how-to-master-the-kona-swim.jpg",1500,1000,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/how-to-master-the-kona-swim-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/how-to-master-the-kona-swim-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/how-to-master-the-kona-swim-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/how-to-master-the-kona-swim-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/how-to-master-the-kona-swim.jpg",1500,1000,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/how-to-master-the-kona-swim.jpg",1500,1000,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Tim Heming Published: Thursday, 06 October 2022 at 12:00 am Jan Sibbersen knows better than anyone how to produce a fast swim in Hawaii. After a decade on the German national swim team and being first out of the water at the Ironman World Championship for four consecutive years from 2001, Sibbersen returned as…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/18264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to master the Kona swim<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Check your equipment<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Check the currents<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Break it into segments<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Start easy and ease in<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/10\/jan-sibbersen-at-ironman-world-championship-279a88d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>5. \u2026 and I mean really easy!<\/strong><\/h3>\n
6. Swim straight<\/strong><\/h3>\n
7. The swell can rise<\/strong><\/h3>\n
8. Be careful at the turnaround<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/10\/tim-o-donnell-racing-kona-2019-62d226d-1.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>9. Sight the antenna<\/strong><\/h3>\n
10. Prepare for the current<\/strong><\/h3>\n
12. The return leg is a little longer<\/strong><\/h3>\n
13. Finally, consider slowing down<\/strong><\/h3>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"