alcam24 wrote:
Ive been stuck at 2:00......could you share how you got to 1:40?
Just made sure to swim three times a week (sometimes 4 but usually 3) almost every week of the year and worked hard pretty much every workout, always doing some intervals and not just steady swimming. When I started I had only a rudimentary freestyle stroke and probably hadn't swum more than a few hundred yards in a pool in my entire life. But I was comfortable in the water, had played in the waves for years, and had even done a little bit of open water swimming using breaststroke. It also helps that my wife is a former competitive swimmer so I had an example to follow and a yardstick to measure myself by. I did take an 8-session technique class and have had video analysis done as well.
It depends on how you define 1:40, if that's a steady pace or 100 yard repeats, etc. It took me about a year and a half to go from 2:00 to 1:40, although almost half of that came in short order after the technique class. Last year I held 1:41 pace in my first Ironman swim using a wetsuit, and have improved a few seconds/100 since. Currently 1:40 pace (SCY) is an easy long set warm up pace, and I do 100 repeats from 1:28-1:34 depending on the number of repeats and amount of rest. Which isn't bad for 60-65 AG triathlete but in master's competition I'd be fighting hard to avoid last place judging on local masters results.