[Torchwatch]

Runners train on roads, cross country and round tracks, whatever the weather and day or night.
Road cycling training takes place on the roads, in most weather and mainly in daylight.
Swimming training takes place in swimming pools. on club night if you are a club member or in public pool lane swimming session, dodging the grannies in the fast lane if you are not a club member. There is a big difference between swimming in an indoor pool and swimming in the sea or across a lake. Outside the water is colder and darker, it tastes and smells different, the waves are bigger and unpredictable.
The runner or cyclist swim training alone for a triathlon will not have a chance to perfect his stroke style but will instead strengthen his poor style. He knows that he cannot compete with proper swimmers on the swim section and so needs a steady swim to get into the cycle section in a good condition. For that reason he will train for distance.
The cyclist or runner who has trained indoors for a triathlon may be daunted when finally he faces the ocean. He may not be prepared for the pile ups that occur as swimmers cut across each other at the buoy turns.
The mind set of a cyclist or distance runner is to keep going if at all possible, if something goes wrong in the water he will struggle on and into danger. He is liable to be on the edge of drowning before he thinks of giving up and asking for help. Instead of swimming ashore or to a rescue boat and climbing aboard, the rescuers will have to pull him out of the water coughing and spluttering and recorded as a rescue.
I have done the London to Brighton Cycle Ride on 3 occasions, on each of the last 2 rides someone ahead had a heart attack and died, so blocking the route. In the London Marathon last Sunday a young woman had a heart attack and died. A young professorial footballer (soccer) collapsed with a heart attack at a match last month. Bad things do happen in mass participation sports events, the swim section of a triathlon needs lifeguards while the cycle and run sections need marshals and first aiders. No one plans to get into difficulty but it happens.
A few years ago i went to a martial arts for the disabled event, i greeted the organiser and went off to get changed, when I came back i discovered that he had died of a heart attack, I may have been the last person to have spoken to him. He hadn't seemed strange. It is sad it happened but it is better to participate fully in the things you love than to sit at home feeling bored.