I'm a whole 2 minutes slower on my 500 free compared to my 1 mile time. As you might imagine, swimming is still by far my weakness, not that I'm particularly good on either the bike or run, either.

No where close for me...but I'm not that great a swimmer (or runner). I'd say my 500 yd free is probably 8:25 - 8:40...I'm probably a minute better on the mile. There's probably a tighter dispersion the younger/faster you go. I'm 55 and an adult onset swimmer, cyclist and runner so I'm going to use that as an excuse.

I'm actually pretty close to that difference also. Maybe more like 1 minute but than again I can neither swim not run very well.

My 500 would be 6:25ish-6:40ish. I'm one month in on a 6 month block of 18-22k/week right now, and I'm looking to get that 500 down to about 5:45.

As a 6:25, I'm 1:30 off my best mile of 4:55, done in a workout on the track. If I was within 30 seconds of that in a 500 I'd be much happier. Running is my background, and I've been swimming for less than a year, so there's time.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

Haven't done either for time in years but I'd estimate:

500 = 5:30
1mi = 6:30

my mile lifetime PR is 4:43. I've probably never broken 9 minutes in 500 yards of swimming.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
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I'm 34 sec faster on the run. 4:44 vs 4:10. I stopped swimming for college xc/track.

Recently:
Best 500 free 6:43
Best 1 mile 6:32

This is an interesting question in many ways.
I think you will find a lot of people who ran track in high school and are adult on set swimmers. Their mile is faster than their 500. (Both current and their PR).
There are a few that were competitive swimmers in adolescence but are adult onset runners. These people never raced a mile and could not come close to their swim PR if they did. (I fit this category).
People who have youthful PRs for both are probably rare but would make great triathletes.

Adult 43 yrs old estimates for me:
Mile - 5:15 (7 hrs/week good training - but for longer races)
500- 5:15 (3.5 hrs/wk crappy training)

17 yr old:
Mile- 5:15 (No training. On field day I ran 4:50 for 1500m)
500- 4:37 (Too much training really)

What is interesting is that my adult times would be about the same. (In spite of huge differences in training).

I'm not totally sure, as I haven't done either all-out for time, but my best guesstimates are 4:55ish for a mile, and 5:15-20ish for 500yd, which comes out to ~4:40 for 400m.
By that analysis, I suppose that makes me more of a swimmer, but not by much. Keep in mind the 500yd and the mile are both pretty "soft" records, as neither takes place at the highest levels of international competition.

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IG: idking90

 
Today:
1 mile = 6:58
500 yds = 8:48

CJ
Slow, 54 year old, 2x IM

Best mile 5:23 in 2014 best 500 probably around 5:55 or so 20 years ago. Today I MIGHT be able to drop a 6:20 if it were an all out from the blocks race.

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Ironman Certified Coach

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PR's
500y - 6:00 (converted from 5:16 400m) - complete adult onset
mile - 3:51 - young prodigy

Probably take another 15 years of swim improvement and run 'decay' before I get the differential under a minute.

Yikes.

1 mile: 5:20 or so
500 free: 9:00 or so

I think my weakness is clear.

Never done a mile all out. Best was 5:17 in a series of 4 mile intervals two years ago - this was the first and the other three were in the low 5:20's. Current fitness may not even break 5:25. For a 500 yard free in the pool my best has been around 7:10, but that was during an IM build where I was swimming 60-70k a month. I'd probably be around 7:30 for 500 right now.

So, for me there's around a two minute discrepancy.

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I'm ~+70-75 sec for both. And both of those were achieved by me ages ago that it might not even be fair to discuss it in today's world.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
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Hmmmm, best mile is 5'30", done in a 5km race so would actually be a bit quicker. Best 500 8'16", done yesterday as a 400m and worked up. Guess where my weakness lies. I am working on it, having doubled my swim volume already, and planning on increasing that over the next couple of months.Getting slightly faster, but not much. I have no proprioception - you know the kid at school whose forward rolls in Gym class went sideways. Yup, that was me. Fortunately I can run and bike a bit better!! Makes for an encouraging race as the last half iron distance I did I didn't get overtaken once all race, but overtook more than half of the field. Very motivating!!

Well, I suck at running, but I was a 4:29 500 FR (5:30 now) in my prime, and probably couldn't break 7:30 for a mile....

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

I'd guess around 5:30 for the mile and 6:45 for 500 scy. Maybe faster for the 500 since I did a 1:09 100 this summer, but probably not much more.

Good question.

5k vs. 1500 is a little more skewed towards running as far as world records. Probably around 2 minutes difference for your top ITU guys?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

 545 scy HS swimming & 504 mile age 32.
Now it's more like 625 & 540 age 45. (Not in great shape right now)
... I bet the best ITU dudes can do 410 or 415 in both. Maybe not 410 Lcm swimmers. BUT They are 410-15 milers for certain ...

My best 500 free is about 20 sec slower than my best mile. I've always thought the 400 lcm free and the mile run were analogous, and hence that triathlons should routinely have a 4:1 swim/run ratio, i.e. 2500 m swim to go with the 10K run. Of course, we both know this will never become mainstream:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Dont worry. That's way closer to the norm of AG triathletes than the few regular forumites who tend to gravitate to swim threads and make you feel totally inadequate if you can't swim 100 in sub 1:00!

In June I ran 1 mile on track in a meet in 6:14. Last time I swam a 500 SCY was in a meet back in 2011, went 7:00. Had I swam the 500 SCY this year probably would have come in at about 6:45 ish.

I would think Ali would be 3:55 in the mile and 4:05 in the 400m free. So something like 4:30 in the 500 free. This is in race conditions. Total time of 8:25 for the combo. I think anyone who could aggregate under 9:00 using the 500 or 8:30 using the 400 could reasonably have Olympic aspirations.