Started swimming about 2.5 years ago in my early 40’s to mix up my run training. Over the last couple of years, I have averaged about 8 swims per month and roughly 1500m per session (pathetic by ST standards)
I am very comfortable in open water and can breathe to either side. My Olympic swims are in the 32 – 34 min range so BOP. My times have been stuck in this range for the last couple of years. The one improvement that I have seen is that I can swim this pace at a much lower effort level than previously. However, if I bump up my effort level, my time stays roughly the same but I simply use a lot more energy (i.e. I seem to swim very close to the same 2:12 per 100m pace regardless of whether I swim “easy” or “hard”).
My 100m repeats are normally in the 1:58 to 2:02 range in the pool on 2:20. I do a mix of intervals ranging from 100m to 500m in length. I have worked on my technique for 2+ years – lots of drills but no real breakthrough.
Ironically my run and bike times have improved tremendously since I started swimming but not my swim times.
I read all the swimming horror stories on the website but I would like to hear one success story before I decide to throw in the towel and accept this pace forever. Have any runners or others who started swimming later in life been able to move from BOP to MOP? Was it more volume or a technique breakthrough? Or is it that if you don’t get it in the first year you never will?
Maybe take a few lessons from a swim coach.
Three years ago I could not swim 2 continuous lengths in a 22 yard pool. This summer I swam a 25K sub 2:00/100m pace.
Keep with it, you’ll get there.
Not sure if this constitutes “success”, but I’ve seen large improvements in the pool and open water since the beginning of this year. To spare you the details, I’ve averaged between 15 and 20k a week (4-5 sessions at 3.5-4k). I’m pretty young (25), but I don’t have a swimming background or really even an endurance background (wrestling/weight lifting in high school). My initial pace was probably around what you’re swimming now and I’ve improved to 1:30s rather comfortably. It took a lot of work and a lot of “oh my god I may puke” moments, but it’s definitely possible. Oh, and a lot of youtubing.
As far as technique vs volume breakthrough - my n = 1 is both. Initially, my method of swimming faster was just flailing faster - which was exhausting and ineffective. The only way to spend more time improving form is spending more time in the pool - which inevitably leads to more volume.
Brandon
Started swimming just over 3 years ago. Swam 25 yards at a time, surviving on a lap-to-lap basis.
Had streaks off on and on where I’d swim a lot (thinking a lot was 10-12k) a couple of weeks at a time.
This year, under the coaching services provided by our very own desert dude, I’ve managed to take it up to another level. Broke 1:00 for 100 scy with a push this August, something I’d never done before. Set a new 500 scy pr of 5:58 back in March/April (previous was 6:15). Swam a 19:36 1500m swim at Best of the US a couple of weeks ago (admittedly a current aided swim) and was 3rd out of the water.
Too many triathletes skive off from swimming b/c they convince themselves that it isn’t worth their time.
Swimming is fun, a great workout, and you do get better. If you put in the work to do so. Patience my good man.
Thanks for all the replies so far. Maybe there is still hope!!!
This past April was my first time going to a pool to swim laps, I was pretty fit and thought it would not be to hard. Well I was wrong, I could barely do 25m and I was breathing like I sprinted a mile. Yesterday I swam 3000m straight in 1 hour. Not very fast but I did it and felt fresh after.
What I learned in the few months I’ve been swimming is complete relaxation allows you to use all your energy in moving forward and not wasting it movement you would not feel if your slightly tense.
I started swimming in June…and biking. I’ve run for years and was a mid pack D3 runner in college.
Now I took about 5 years of lessons…20 years ago and I’m in my mid 30’s now. My first day of swimming I made it 2 laps freestyle. I thought I was going to die. By the end of June (swimming 3 days a week 500± yards) I could swim a straight 500. Then mid July a straight 1000. Now I regularily do 1500’s and intervals. I’m not fast, but in open water sprints have averaged about 1:30 / 100.
My key has been being a SPONGE for information. Youtube videos / books / ST, all self coached at this point. I realize that I will only get so fast on my own and keep an open mind and try to pay attention to my stroke at all times.
Someday I hope to actually become a halfway decent swimmer not just a good triathlete. I’m planning on bumping my yardage way up this winter in the hopes of being closer to FOP next summer in the water.
I took up swimming a year ago (40 yrs old). I wish I had got a coach right away rather than waiting and wasting nine months of trying to self teach. Get a coach, work on technique first, then swim ALOT. I swim between 10,000 - 12,000 yards / week which is a lot for me but when you start reading the yardages some people do, mine is barely their warm up. Stay with it. You are already comfortable in the water, so it will be a matter of working on your technique and then improving your times. Good luck. It sucks not coming from a swimming background and having to pick it up later in life. I now have a swim coach (Brian Grasky) that I see 2x/month - it became apparent very quickly all the things I was doing wrong. It is hard to shed old habits but once you start to feel a good swim stroke a light bulb will start to come on.
I started swimming in college because I wanted to do a triathlon. I was limited to doing 150 yds at a time before I’d need a break to rest and recover. This summer I swam a 55 min IM split… admittedly 18 or so years after I started swimming in college. It takes time, but don’t give up! All the usual advice applies - swim lots, swim masters, get coaching, and swim lots more. My number seems to be around 10,000 yds/week. more than that and I improve a bit, less than that and I just maintain or get slower.
Swimming can be great fun. keep working and enjoy it!
J
GO GET LESSONS, DO TONS OF DRILLS, SWIM 6 DAYS A WEEK, PROBLEM SOLVED!!!
My first swim ever (other than playing in the lake) was 1 mile, i told myself i am going to do a mile, i think it took me roughly 38min(really slow turns to get in a decent break)—2.5 years later i just clocked in at 20:34 for a 1500m. Secret—go swim. Anybody can swim if they work on it. I thankfully had a friend who helped with my swimming from day 1, i also did drills for 75% of my swimming for the first 6months and still do drills for about 25-30% of my swimming. Since this is a skill sport, the more often you are in there the better, even if it is just 15min. Now i am a FOP swimmer and use it too my advantage even though i was primarily a runner.
My story to sucess
-lessons or follow the total immersion book step by step. For the people who hate TI, i agree that it is not necessarily the best for competitive swimmers, but for people who need to conceptualize swimming this book does a good job of explaining how things should feel etc.
-do lot’s of 25’s or 50’s and focus on form and drills, do this for several months, dont worry about fitness right now.
-swim 5 times a week for a minimum of 30min each time.
-once you have done this for 3-4months, increase volume but keep 30-40% of your volume as drills, try for 10-12k a week.
- after a few more months go to 12-15k and you will be faster
- i now sit around 14-16k a week and have seen huge improvements and from joining a masters group and having people constantly critiquing my stroke.
GO GET LESSONS, DO TONS OF DRILLS, SWIM 6 DAYS A WEEK, PROBLEM SOLVED!!!
Swim is technique much more than it is fitness at the kind of level you and I are talking about. If you are stuck at a pace and no matter how hard you are pushing it doesnt get better then I would say it would be worth a few quid and get some coaching. I started swimming about 2.5 years ago too - I could swim before that but not at any kind of pace or distance (basically I could stop my self drowning). I tried for a few months to train but I just spent hours and hours of my time wet, frustrated and tired. I then gave in and asked for help. An ex racer mate joined me on a few swims and told me what I needed to do and that was it, I re learnt how to swim. I am no pro swimmer and I still have some issues to work on but I can do an IM swim in around an hour at the moment. Swimming is easy when you know how 
until then its a pain and the one thing that I was most worried about and I know its the reason a lot of people I know dont get into triathlon.
So you are a slow swimmer, but every time you swim (all 8 times a month), you get in and do the same long 1500 yds and get out.
Would you expect to run 2 miles twice a week and get super good at running?
(get swim LESSONS - adult swim lessons will suffice; or ask a Y coach for a private lesson. You probably have some glaring technique errors that can be fixed. After that, you’ll simply need more pool time).
I started swimming in november. By then I haven’t been in a pool for years (except for recreational swimming ;). And I have never swam freestyle at all.
At first I couldn’t even swim one lap without being totally out of breath and have my nose full of chlorine, it was horrible.
I started swimming with our local triathlon club right away so I could get some tips on the technique. However, the main problem at first was just being able to breath!
In april I swam 400 meter in 5:56! And in most triathlons in the summer I swim about 22:30 for a 1500meters (however that is mainly open water, so it’s hard to say). I think i can swim under 15minutes for 1000metres now. I can’t do flip turns yet however.
Ofcourse these times are still really bad for a swimmer. But knowing where I came from it’s pretty amazing to me.
My swim sessions consisted of 2 times a week 2.5k of swimming, just following the class so mainly intervals 100 to 500meter. And in march I started swimming 3 times a week. So about 8k a week.
I think the most important aspect is technique. I rarely use a pullbuoy so I can get my body position right myself. And I am convinced my technique is still very bad, otherwise I must be faster.
Fitness is an aspect too i think, when I have a triathlon my arms tend to get tired. So I think when I have some more experience swimming, my arms will fatigue less and it will be easier to keep up good form when swimming. But seeing that a lot of 14 year old girls totally kick my ass in the water, I don’t believe they have a that much better fitness than me. Must be the technique.
I hope to break 14mins for a kilometer next year. To achieve that I am going to join the local swimming club. There are a lot of really good swimmers there, so I will get better when training with them i guess. I hope the coaches are better too 
My tip would be, join a masters class.
Masters class did it for me. Did a sprint this past weekend. I was 2 minutes faster in the swim than last year.
And, taking a victory where I can, 13 minutes faster overall.
Just needed to stop doing whatever I felt like doing and have somebody make me do it.
Thanks again for the motivation everyone - I have done the lessons. Sounds like more days and more yardage in the pool is the next step.
At those paces, you are doing something fundamentally wrong with your technique. You need to have a competent instructor observe you and tell you what you are doing wrong.
I started swim training at the age of 26. My first 50yd free in a meet, about 4 months later, was 26.57. I broke 1:00 for 100yds a month or two later, 1:57 for 200yds in 2+ years. Within a couple of years I did 4700+ yds in an hour swim. I can’t remember the last time someone in my AG (I’m now 53) beat me in the swim in a sprint/Oly triathlon.
It can be done, but not by swimming twice a week for a distance that should be your warmup/cooldown. Try 4-6 times per week, and 3000+yds a shot.
My results have been similar to yours, except I spent a lot more time in the pool.
I started trying to swim 2.25 years ago. Unlike you, I initially went to Masters 4-5 days/week red-lining many times each session. I still swam slowly. My 2nd Masters coach, trying to be helpful, told me to quit swimming and focus on bike/run. Despite all my effort, my cruising speed and all-out sprint differed only slightly in time (but most dramatically in heart rate). My speed remained at about 2:00/100y for over a year.
I recently decided to give swimming one last-ditch effort (might as well, my foot has prevented me from running). I started lifting weights on the advice of my favorite Masters coach (since I’m weak even by female standards), I started ramping up my swim volume, and I signed up for the Finding Freestyle internet program. After completing 8 weeks of Finding Freestyle and reaching 16km/week swimming, my pace had not improved at all - it remained stuck at 2:00/100y. Finally I submitted a video of my swim to Robert at Finding Freestyle - jackpot. Robert noticed my kick timing was 180deg out-of-phase (i.e., I was kicking with my right foot when I should have been kicking with my left - evidently I am indeed that clueless). No one else watching me swim had ever noticed. That was a month ago. I’ve continued lifting weights (which has definitely helped), I’ve ramped up my swim volume now to 20km/week (6days/week with 4-6 Masters sessions), and I’ve continued the Finding Freestyle program - all while working on correcting my kick timing. In a few weeks time I’ve dropped at least 10sec/100y from my sustained pace. After having plateaued for well over a year, I’m finally seeing improvement.
Clearly I have not yet progressed to the point of success. But I am now, finally, improving my speed. So I’m hopeful. What I’d suggest to you is that
- you really aren’t swimming enough to write the activity off as hopeless
- you consider signing up for Finding Freestyle and asking Robert to look at your technique - a technique flaw could be holding you back
- you consider joining a Masters program to help get you to the pool more frequently, and to push you harder when you are there
Best of luck!
Cheers,
Cathy
You need to be in the pool a minimum of 3 times per week, and when I upped that to 4-5 I really noticed an improvement. My first year I was around 24-25 minutes for Olympic distance races. After two years of lots of drills and swimming 8-10k a week I dropped down to a 20 minute swimmer.
Swimming is not like running/biking when just doing mileage will drop time, get in that pool and drill, drill, drill!
My results have been similar to yours, except I spent a lot more time in the pool.
I started trying to swim 2.25 years ago. Unlike you, I initially went to Masters 4-5 days/week red-lining many times each session. I still swam slowly. My 2nd Masters coach, trying to be helpful, told me to quit swimming and focus on bike/run.
To me, that’s not “trying to be helpful”. It’s more like not doing his job, which is to help you improve. It would be better for him to quit coaching. Ticks me off to hear stories like that. I hope you aren’t with that guy anymore.