Trying to get self-motivated swimming more, so making some has-been-swimmer level benchmark swim times for achievable by mortals - but tough goals, here’s my first pass. I couldn’t do any of these now…some not even close. Please add/refine/comment
Pool swims (all scy):
100 free 1:00.00 (used to be the HS swimmer benchmark back in the day)
200 free 2:10.00
500 free 6:00.00
1000 free 12:30.00
200IM 2:20 (maybe too tough?)
I’m thinking these equate more-or-less to a 20min 1500m tri swim
One thing, if you can only do a 12;30 for a 1000SCY, you will be closer to a 22 minute 1500m OW swim. Just the pool conversion would be just under 21 minutes, back out the turns and add over 50% more distance and you are looking near 22 minutes…
Now throw on a wetsuit and draft you ass off, then maybe you get back to 20 minutes…And i think you 2;20IM is the toughest of those goals, better be pretty good at all the strokes with those freestyle times…
The longer times I’m much less sure about - I’ve swum a wetsuit 21 min Oly, not consistent drafting, just from passing earlier waves. I haven’t timed a rested 1000yds in LONG time, so that was a WAG.
You think closer to 12:00.0 for 1000 to be ~consistent with 20min Oly?
Yeah, I’d say freestyle was traditionally not my best stroke - was an IM’er and backstroker back in the day. I haven’t broken 1:00.0 100yds since ~1984 or so, I think.
If you can do 1:00 100 free, you should be able to go 2:08 or so for the 200.
6:00 for 500 free is a good benchmark.
Anything in a 200 IM is tough to equate to anything in a 1650 free. Those are just two different animals.
yeah, true about 200IM - my favorite race, but definitely hard to compare to free times.
I wasn’t really thinking too hard about the 20min 1500 equivalency, more about what would be decent benchmark times for common swim distances.
Now I’m thinking a 2:30 is more achievable IM time, and maybe more in-line with free times like Monty suggested
At 14 (SCM)
58 - 100 Free
2:08 - 200 Free
4:29 - 400 Free
18:00 - 1500 Free
.
I can play the 14yo game too 
SCY
100 fr - 55.71
200 fr - 1:59.83
500 fr - 5:07.93
1000 fr - 10:10.49 ← probably the best swim of my life
1650 fr - 17:15.01
I kinda peaked a bit at 14, took me 3+ years to beat that 1000 time.
.
Honestly looking at the times, there is a huge falloff in pace between the 100 and 500 paces, your 500 pace is 25% slower than your 500 pace. This is where more volume in swimming comes in. The ability to continue to hold your stroke together for longer periods even as you start to fatigue. If you can shrink that pace difference down to somewhere closer to 15% that would get you down to 5:40ish, something like 1:06, 1:08, 1:09, 1:09, 1:08 splits.
My splits for 100m and 1500m vary quite substantially. If I could do 100m in 1 minute, my equivalent pace for 1500m would be just under 2 minutes/100m? Clearly there is something very wrong with me. I would not blame it on technique since I am fairly confident on the 100m distance. So does it mean that I am not working hard enough for the longer distance?
Thoughts, please.
something seems a bit off on those numbers. However you do state that they are 'if’s and ‘would be’s’ so I suppose we have yet to see. For reference my best 1500m swim was 25 minutes which is 1’40" per 100m (LCM). I could barely get under 1’20" for the 100m flat although one time I did do 1’11 with a diving start SCM with the added motivation of it being a relay race. I could consistently do an IM swim in 1hr though, which seemed good enough for my needs. I have to say that the majority of my pool work was long endurance sessions rather than messing about with IM sets, flippers and all that stuff.
A friend of mine can knock out sub 1’30/100m for about 2K-3K yet his lifetime pb for 100m is 1’04".
I guess that was my point exactly. The disparity between the 100m and 1500m pace is too far. Makes me wonder if i just slack off during longer distances. Go figure.
I guess that was my point exactly. The disparity between the 100m and 1500m pace is too far. Makes me wonder if i just slack off during longer distances. Go figure.
That kind of disparity seems huge. I haven’t done a real 100 race (blocks, rested),
but my in practice best (scy) is 1:05-1:06, so maybe shave another couple of seconds.
My recent 1000 TT swim pace was 1:18 and I did the hour swim at a pace of 1:21/100.
So for me, I see about a 20-25% fall off from 100 to >1000y.
Some decent times, was freestyle your best stroke?
I’ve one of those folks who has quantifiable zero athletic talent, and managed to hit some of USA swimming’s AA times of the era through hard work.
SCY
50 free- 26.9r
100 free 58.2r
200 free- 2:07.1
500 free- 5:41
1000 free- 12:00 (aargh. so wanted to break 12:00)
1650 free- 19:52ish
I’ll skip the 200 IM because I’ve got a truly pathetic breaststroke. As in the one time I swam it i high school, I split like a 53 on the breast leg and my coach just patted me on the arm and promised me I’d never ever have to do it again.
Backstroke-
100 back- 1:05
200 back- 2:22
100 fly at that tie was 1:01.9, 200 was 2:18
.
Here’s an interesting thread on the US Masters website that has a chart of “Motivational” time standards based on actual meet results. This is a similar format to the USS age-group time standards.
http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=15722
For comparison, here are the “A” SCY Standards for Men 40-44 in the events you listed.
(I chose the “A” Standard as it was the closest to the 1:00 100 Free in your example)
100 Free, 58.29
200 Free, 2:09.49
500 Free, 5:54.49
1000 Free, 12:35.19
200 IM, 2:27.29
Yep, free is definitely my best, good enough in the others to not embarass myself completely. Had an ok 400 IM by the end of my college career. I’m actually pretty stoked that I’m almost back down to being able to go those times I went as a 14yo.
Here’s an interesting thread on the US Masters website that has a chart of “Motivational” time standards based on actual meet results. This is a similar format to the USS age-group time standards.
http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=15722
For comparison, here are the “A” SCY Standards for Men 40-44 in the events you listed.
(I chose the “A” Standard as it was the closest to the 1:00 100 Free in your example)
100 Free, 58.29
200 Free, 2:09.49
500 Free, 5:54.49
1000 Free, 12:35.19
200 IM, 2:27.29
Thanks! Compares pretty well with my WAG “motivational” goals, except the 200IM, that I’ll concede is better at 2:30 anyway. I’ll check the USMS standards for 50-54 (sadly, my new AG)
No way I’ll remember 14yo times - but I started “late” at ~12 yo. A couple of PB’s from HS I can recall;
100 fr - 51.xx, though from a relay start
200 IM - 2:07
100 bk - 57.1
never raced longer than 200yds back then…can’t remember any 200 fr times, just as well I guess…
http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1470&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en
U.S.A. swimming times search, that’s the only way I remember my old times 
It goes back pretty far, at least back to the 70’s