Question for the swimmers. Swimming long course is harder but is there a rule of thumb for how much slower your split would be than short course. I know this is probably proportional to the actual split time but if you can swim for example around 1min 30 sec per 100m short course what should you expect to see long course.
Just as an additonal question I was thinking about. When cycling your workload against speed is quite linear until around 17mph I think, when the workload starts becoming exponential to the speed increase due to air resistence etc. Is there a similar barrier/speed when swimming when technique and body position start becoming critical to going faster as opposed to just working harder?
<<Is there a similar barrier/speed when swimming when technique and body position start becoming critical to going faster as opposed to just working harder? >>
Rule of thumb when transitioning from short course yards to long course meters, add seven seconds per 100 from sc yards to lc meters. This is mainly what all scholastic, both high school and collegiate, swimmers do. This is pretty much only freestyle.
You may be interested in reading the following publication:
Sanders, R.H., and Byatt-Smith, J. (2001). Improving feedback on swimming turns and starts exponentially. In J. Blackwell and R.H. Sanders (Eds.) Proceedings of Swim Sessions XIX International Symposium on Biomechanics in Sports (pp. 91-94). San Francisco, California, June 26, 2001.
This is a model that Prof Sanders has used to evaluate swimming performance:
Some of the factors are linked to decay in speed during the glide as a result of water resistance.
I think a good rule of thumb is about 1-2 seconds slower per 100m long course than short course. Everyone is different though. There have been some excellent short course swimmers who haven’t done nearly as well in long course. If you are used to short course, long course will be slower for you than if you swim long course all the time. The moral of the story… take all conversions with a grain of salt.
I can tell you it is not even close to 1-2 seconds. I believe the OP is refering to SCY to LCM times. Perhaps the reference of 1-2 seconds is a guide for SCM to LCM??? Generally for a good swimmer when rested and tapered in a meet it is around 7 seconds per hundred. 100 repeats while training are closer to 8. Anything over a 200 in training is probably closer to 8.5, 9, or maybe even 10 seconds per hundred.
Since LCM is a harder workout, you will generally fatigue faster, especially in training. If you use the 7 second rule, the a 500 at 5:00 SCY would be a 4:28 400 in LCM. In training I would say the 4:28 is more impressive. In racing, they are pretty equal.
If you are swimming 100 yards in 90 seconds, then I would say it should take you around 140-142 to do 100 LCM. It really depends on speed and how quickly you fatigue.
The conversion programs assume things like you are relatively competent at turns, which is true of almost all competitive swimmers, but not so much for triathletes. If your turns aren’t very good, then the time differentials will be smaller.
IMO, body position and technique are probably more important in swimming if you want to improve from being a slow swimmer to being a more or less competent one. Once you get to the competent stage, then the difference is mostly things like your genes, how hard you work, how smart you work and how strong you are. But, anyone that is a competent swimmer is going to be a FOP swimmer in triathlons.
The conversion formulas on the web are based on analysis of large samples of LCM, SCM and SCY competition swims and they are very accurate for competetive swimmers.
However, mortals may need to apply a little fudge factor, particularly because of the turns. Competetive swimmers actually go faster the more turns there are (i.e SC vs LC) while most of the rest of us are slowed down by turns.
The original poster said that their average was 1:30 for 100 meters. Converting to LCM, I would add 1-2 seconds. Obviously, SCY to LCM would add a lot more time.
Thanks for all the feedback. Seems to be a little variation in conversions. I don’t have a swimming background but would now call myself a competent swimmer rather than competitive. Can swim 60 mins for IM distance. Over the past 5 years I have been swimming it has always been SC meters with now a regular once a week LC swim. SC I find I can swim 1.27 for 100m reps off 1.45 but in the LC pool its hard hitting 1.30 and the effort feels a lot harder.
For 200m SC I could swim reps on 3mins but LC i find I’m taking 3.10 and working hard. I guess I just need to adjust my times accordingly. mentally it can be tough not hitting the same times thats why I was keen to find what the conversion would be. Perhaps just noting what my LC splits are and then using that as a benchmark is the best idea. At least if I swim LC and then SC the day after and can hit my usual SC splits or better at least I still know I’m on track.
I think to me swimming is just swimming anywhere, I fail the appreciate the different environments.
