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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [victorine_anna] [ In reply to ]
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victorine_anna wrote:
lightheir wrote:
victorine_anna wrote:
Hi! Just to clarify, I swam 50m @1:26min/100m pace last week at the end of a training session. I think my current 25m time is 16 seconds.
.

Oh - then you definitely got this! I'll bet you can do it today if you can do a 1:26 at the end of a training session . That's a very fast 25m - I'll almost guarantee you can do it right now then!

I find it odd that you can swim a 50 and 25 that fast but then open your thread with 1:50/100m for a one-off. Those numbers definitely don't match up at all. With that sort of 50 and 25 times, you should already be sub 1:30 for a one-off 100 all out.


Update: I finally timed it today, no jump but with flip turns. Don't know how accurate the time is 'cause I timed it myself.

Visual timing said 1:35. My watch said 1:32.

I'm completely baffled. Didn't think I was ANYWHERE near that yet.

This is awesome what do you accredit it too? I've been trying for 6 months to get my time into the 1:30s and you did it in a week. Lol.
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [Boundless] [ In reply to ]
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Boundless wrote:
victorine_anna wrote:
lightheir wrote:
victorine_anna wrote:
Hi! Just to clarify, I swam 50m @1:26min/100m pace last week at the end of a training session. I think my current 25m time is 16 seconds.
.

Oh - then you definitely got this! I'll bet you can do it today if you can do a 1:26 at the end of a training session . That's a very fast 25m - I'll almost guarantee you can do it right now then!

I find it odd that you can swim a 50 and 25 that fast but then open your thread with 1:50/100m for a one-off. Those numbers definitely don't match up at all. With that sort of 50 and 25 times, you should already be sub 1:30 for a one-off 100 all out.


Update: I finally timed it today, no jump but with flip turns. Don't know how accurate the time is 'cause I timed it myself.

Visual timing said 1:35. My watch said 1:32.

I'm completely baffled. Didn't think I was ANYWHERE near that yet.


This is awesome what do you accredit it too? I've been trying for 6 months to get my time into the 1:30s and you did it in a week. Lol.

Honestly, I barely swam before and now I'm on week 4 of coached training sessions. So I've had about ten sessions since, in which we do tons of technique work. While none of those sessions are with a personal coach who gives me personalized tips, I think that getting in the water regularly helps immensely with my feel for the water.

Plus, I never timed it with a flip turn before, I've never done the dolphin kicks after pushing off the wall before and I think my stroke is a little bit more efficient now. Although, I'm very well aware that I have tons of work to do still.
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [Engner66] [ In reply to ]
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Engner66 wrote:
Sorry my comment was aimed towards the poster implying that you need to bench press god knows how much to be a decent swimmer. I reckon 1:30/100 m might be hard for some folks but some swim coaches go as far as saying that "any swimmer" does not need any specific sets until their 400 m time is below 6:00. I find this a bit too hard to go without main sets, but whatever, they do have point.

Just read you already got your time down to 1:32/100m, congratulations ! and I am certain that you didn't have to bench anything, which was my point. With the speed you have on the 25 m, you should have no issues getting your 100 m to around 1:20, just keep building at it.

Haha, not bench pressing here (yet). Just more swimming and more core work actually (which I've neglected immensely before).

Thank you! I think my new goal will be to swim a sub 1:30 for the test. I'll re-time in 2-3 weeks.
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [Boundless] [ In reply to ]
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Boundless wrote:
victorine_anna wrote:
lightheir wrote:
victorine_anna wrote:
Hi! Just to clarify, I swam 50m @1:26min/100m pace last week at the end of a training session. I think my current 25m time is 16 seconds.
.

Oh - then you definitely got this! I'll bet you can do it today if you can do a 1:26 at the end of a training session . That's a very fast 25m - I'll almost guarantee you can do it right now then!

I find it odd that you can swim a 50 and 25 that fast but then open your thread with 1:50/100m for a one-off. Those numbers definitely don't match up at all. With that sort of 50 and 25 times, you should already be sub 1:30 for a one-off 100 all out.


Update: I finally timed it today, no jump but with flip turns. Don't know how accurate the time is 'cause I timed it myself.

Visual timing said 1:35. My watch said 1:32.

I'm completely baffled. Didn't think I was ANYWHERE near that yet.


This is awesome what do you accredit it too? I've been trying for 6 months to get my time into the 1:30s and you did it in a week. Lol.

Oh and I don't know if you caught that, but this was the time for an all-out, one-time effort for 100m. I could not possibly hold that pace for any longer. Any swims I've done during tris before were well above the 2min/100 mark. Granted, I've never done proper swim training before because I hated getting in the pool in the past. So motivation is apparently a big factor for me too! Makes sense :D
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [victorine_anna] [ In reply to ]
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victorine_anna wrote:
Engner66 wrote:
Sorry my comment was aimed towards the poster implying that you need to bench press god knows how much to be a decent swimmer. I reckon 1:30/100 m might be hard for some folks but some swim coaches go as far as saying that "any swimmer" does not need any specific sets until their 400 m time is below 6:00. I find this a bit too hard to go without main sets, but whatever, they do have point.

Just read you already got your time down to 1:32/100m, congratulations ! and I am certain that you didn't have to bench anything, which was my point. With the speed you have on the 25 m, you should have no issues getting your 100 m to around 1:20, just keep building at it.


Haha, not bench pressing here (yet). Just more swimming and more core work actually (which I've neglected immensely before).

Thank you! I think my new goal will be to swim a sub 1:30 for the test. I'll re-time in 2-3 weeks.

To clarify, since I'm taking a weird amount of heat for my comment, I said not to neglect strength training. Not to stop swimming and hit the gym 5x a week. N. Adrian example is obviously an extreme example. I thought that the ST community would understand that. I didn't think that I actually suggested that you do "highly specialized" dryland training. How many times do we see people suggest the same type of thing for other sports? This is why swimming is stuck in the 80's. Swimmers (even myself, at times) are unwilling to try new things to advance our sport or drop their times. Just my $.02.

"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [boobooaboo] [ In reply to ]
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boobooaboo wrote:
victorine_anna wrote:
Engner66 wrote:
Sorry my comment was aimed towards the poster implying that you need to bench press god knows how much to be a decent swimmer. I reckon 1:30/100 m might be hard for some folks but some swim coaches go as far as saying that "any swimmer" does not need any specific sets until their 400 m time is below 6:00. I find this a bit too hard to go without main sets, but whatever, they do have point.

Just read you already got your time down to 1:32/100m, congratulations ! and I am certain that you didn't have to bench anything, which was my point. With the speed you have on the 25 m, you should have no issues getting your 100 m to around 1:20, just keep building at it.


Haha, not bench pressing here (yet). Just more swimming and more core work actually (which I've neglected immensely before).

Thank you! I think my new goal will be to swim a sub 1:30 for the test. I'll re-time in 2-3 weeks.


To clarify, since I'm taking a weird amount of heat for my comment, I said not to neglect strength training. Not to stop swimming and hit the gym 5x a week. N. Adrian example is obviously an extreme example. I thought that the ST community would understand that. I didn't think that I actually suggested that you do "highly specialized" dryland training. How many times do we see people suggest the same type of thing for other sports? This is why swimming is stuck in the 80's. Swimmers (even myself, at times) are unwilling to try new things to advance our sport or drop their times. Just my $.02.

Just curious, but how do you have time to go to the gym 5x a week and train for triathlons? Or are you a swimmer "only"? I find it impossible already to train all three disciplines equally (which obviously, you don't always have to), add in my core workouts, yoga sessions etc. Besides the time management, how can you physically take that much training?
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [eblackadder] [ In reply to ]
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eblackadder wrote:
I find alternating 100s with a pull buoy and just swimming helps me to feel what going faster should feel like. The buoy lifts you hips and legs, lessening the drag and making you faster. Pay attention to how th water feels over your shoulders, along your abdomen, and legs when using the buoy. Then mimic that feeling when free swimming by engaging your core, tucking your chin, making your breaths as economical as possible (i.e. just barely getting your lips out of the water). It’s all technique. I’m no swimming titan and repping 1:30s is well within my ability, but I was swimming 2:10 a few years ago. Flip turns are free speed too, at least in the pool. It doesn’t count in open water obviously.


I feel so bad reading so many stories of getting improvement in a short time. I'm still currently at 1:50 on 2:10 100 m repeats. I got no improvement whatever in my first few years of swimming and finally I got a lesson last year and started making progress. However my training was totally interrupted since February and after 7 months and all my progress and technique since then had lost, and I have to redo everything again.

For me, using a pull buoy is much slower because it inhibits rotation.
Last edited by: miklcct: Oct 31, 20 5:58
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [eblackadder] [ In reply to ]
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eblackadder wrote:
I find alternating 100s with a pull buoy and just swimming helps me to feel what going faster should feel like. The buoy lifts you hips and legs, lessening the drag and making you faster. Pay attention to how th water feels over your shoulders, along your abdomen, and legs when using the buoy.

Eblackadder, am I correct in guessing you are male? As a woman who was coached in swimming while quite young, I’m significantly slower WITH the pull buoy than without. The pull buoy does not change my body position so the only effect it has on my swim speed is that I don’t have the extra power from the kick; thus I’m slower. I was training for tris for a while before I even realized some people were actually faster with the buoy and it does seem mostly to be men who don’t have a good natural body position. Same with wetsuits: they barely help me and in salt water I feel as if I’m above the surface and having to reach down. It has to do with distribution of body fat and learning body position early.

Just to say, your advice to use a pull buoy to experience greater speed may or may not work for our heroine in this thread. But it’s cool that works for you 👍.
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Re: How to drop my swim time from 1:50/100m to 1:30/100m in 14 weeks [Isabel] [ In reply to ]
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Isabel wrote:
eblackadder wrote:
I find alternating 100s with a pull buoy and just swimming helps me to feel what going faster should feel like. The buoy lifts you hips and legs, lessening the drag and making you faster. Pay attention to how th water feels over your shoulders, along your abdomen, and legs when using the buoy.


Eblackadder, am I correct in guessing you are male? As a woman who was coached in swimming while quite young, I’m significantly slower WITH the pull buoy than without. The pull buoy does not change my body position so the only effect it has on my swim speed is that I don’t have the extra power from the kick; thus I’m slower. I was training for tris for a while before I even realized some people were actually faster with the buoy and it does seem mostly to be men who don’t have a good natural body position. Same with wetsuits: they barely help me and in salt water I feel as if I’m above the surface and having to reach down. It has to do with distribution of body fat and learning body position early.

Just to say, your advice to use a pull buoy to experience greater speed may or may not work for our heroine in this thread. But it’s cool that works for you 👍.


Here's my n=1 story with PBs and wetsuits -

In my first 5 years of swimming in tri (AOS not good swimmer during that time!) I was significantly slower with PB, and wetsuit gave no advantage. Was so bad with the PB slowdown that I'd have to ditch it in masters swims when the PB sets started up as I'd go from leading my lane to the slowest in the lane. Without the PB, I'd be in the front of the lane even as most others got faster with the PB.

Interestingly, now I'm further along and with significantly stronger pull muscles, I'm now the opposite, with approx a 5 sec speed advantage with either PB or wetsuit in the pool. I suspect I had good body position before but just didn't have the pull strength to capitalize; with the PB though, with a stronger pull, the small energy saved from keeping the back end up could be put to use in a more powerful pull. At least that's my theory, as I didn't make any body changes or real technical changes during that flip in PB swim times. Was actually a shock to me when I retested it last year and found it was the case that I'd flipped.
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