Hi everyone,

This is my first time on the site and it's great to see so many helpful people enjoying triathlon.

My question is a bit silly but I'm not sure how to approach it: Unlike many of the readers, I live in a place where ocean swimming is the only option. I'm training in a developing country and very very few gyms have anything remotely resembling a swimming pool. Thus, I choose to get outdoors and swim amidst the waves, heat and jellyfish.

While ocean swimming is great for building strength and endurance, it presents a difficult challenge when beginning a proper training regiment. For example, I've just begun a 14-week Olympic Distance training regiment and all of my training distances are listed like this: 6 x 50m or 1 x 200m, etc. etc.

I've been swimming for quite a while so none of the distances make me nervous but while in the water, I have no idea what constitutes 50m. Like I said, it's a silly question but if I cannot determine that benchmark, I'm in rough shape.

Any ideas?