If you have broken 50 for an IM swim, what kind of swim sets did you do in the build-up to the race? I don’t want to hear from someon who killed themselves to break 50. 50 minutes, nice EZ 140ish HR. If I can do 7 x 1000 on 11:30 scy should that be good enough? I would like to be FOP for the swim but don’t want to have to put in huge hours in the pool…any thoughts?
I guess there aren’t many sub 50’ swimmers out there in slowtwitch land…sorry I can’t contribute, I race OLY!
There are not that many sub-50 minute IM swimmers period let alone ones that can do it as an “easy” swim.
I haven’t broken 50, but I do take it easy to a 52. 1000scy in 11:30 is 1:15/100m pace which equates to 47.5 for an IM swim. So yeah, if you can do 7 of them at easy pace then you won’t have any problem.
Not too sure of your current time, but I don’t think there is any magic set that will enable you to get to this point. It’s just a matter of doing the hours.
Good luck,
Vaughan.
yeah, i agree about there not being magic set, but i used to swim mega distance in college and high school. i got the idea of the 7 1000s because it would only take about 1:20 to get through and it would be great if it could get me out front on the swim and away from others. AZ will be my first IM distance, and i am just curious about how fast the top swimmers really are. do the top pros just cruise the swim as a w/u for the bike?
If its your first IM and your a swimmer, I would just cruise the swim. 3-5 min on the swim is pretty insignificant considering you will have another 11+ hours of racing to go. I Know of no IM that has been won on the swim. Do your first one and then assess as to wether you should/could go faster. I did a 55 min at IMLP and was going pretty easy. going any harder wouldn’t have changed my overall time at all
The pros are completely different animals and can afford to hit the swim with a solid effort without serious repercussions later in the day. Having said that, I don’t know what sort of effort they put in, but getting out early in the swim can be advantageous for the bike, even with the 7m draft zone, so I think there are examples of solid efforts at FOP.
Flanagan, what sort of swim time do you think you are capable of at an easy pace? If you have done mega mileage in school and college you are going to be quicker than most people out there. There is going to be plenty of time to make up for an easy swim later in the day. Treat it as a nice warm up and have comfort in the fact you will spend less energy and time in the water than a lot of people and save this for the last 20km of the run.
Also leverage off it in your training. I never swim more than 6km/week to maintain my swim technique and fitness and use this to spend extra time riding or running. I can’t justify the extra time required to reduce my swim time a few minutes when I can make much larger inroads on the bike and run.
I wish I had the time to do that much. Sub-50 IM swim isn’t in my book, but I’m getting closer to it. I did 2x1000, the first in 12:15 and the second in 12:20, but these were a significant effort and I doubt I’ll go that pace come November for IMFL. I can pull 12:30’s fairly compfortably right now, though, I haven’t gone the IM distance. But the pace feels good. So, I’m shooting for a decent 56, but I won’t be dissappointed if slower due to conditions - rough Gulf waters, two loops, traffic, etc.
A swimmer may have never won, but at Hawaii, the leader out of the water would sure get air time - that’s worth something… Good luck with that!
I swam 58:30 at IMAZ off of an average of 4k per week and no swimming for 8 years prior to January 2005. You’ll have no problem getting out in front. It took me 10 min to find a pack to swim with. ( For reference I was out of the water about 100th +/- a few OV)
You probably can get by with two times per week in the water doing several repeats in the 4-8 min range. Sprinkle in some 1 & 200’s and a few 1k repeats and you’ll be out in front after 6 minutes. You, as a former swimmer, have the technique. You don’t need to focus mainly on technique like 90+% of all triathletes need to.
dude, if you have to ask. . .
-mike
7x1000? Why not 8?
Homey ain’t even close to being a 1:00:00 swimmer, but I think a person who wants to go sub 50:00 would have his or her best chances on a one loop swim like IMAZ. I felt that the IMAZ swim course pretty ‘open’ open almost from the beginning. At IMCDA, where I swam faster, that course was (for me) very tough going for the first loop.
I loved the swim at Ironman Arizona, I noticed very little contact during it. Probably would have gone even better if I had been in good swimming shape. However I heard several people (who were properly trained for the swim) mention that they thought the swim was long. It would probably be a good course for a superfast swim if it is marked the corect distance, there are difintely time savings in not having to get out of the water and back in to do the 2nd lap.
/A swimmer may have never won, but at Hawaii, the leader out of the water would sure get air time - that’s worth something…/
Come on buddy, I swam in the era of Mark Allen, Dave Scott, and later it was Molina, and let us not forget Paula Newby-Frasier. Ok, they were not Olympic swimmers, but all were good to great college swimmers before anything else…
Are we talking wetsuit swim here, or Hawaii?? Makes about a 3 minute or so difference…I swam 50 in Hawaii once, so I suppose that a 47 in a wetsuit swim might qualify me to give you some advice here. First of all, forget about the time. You cannot control the conditions of the race, and it could just be a slow current. What you need to focus on is staying with the leaders. Usually the first AG’er will go under 50, and often he will have the fastest time. That;s the guys feet you need to be on. Your conditioning is good to do the time, actually much faster than I was in my day. But open water is a totally different animal, and not all good pool swimmers excel at it.
I remember back when Lars Jorgensen came to Hawaii for the swim. At the tme, he ws ranked in the top 6 or so in the world in the 1500. Everyone just thought that he would blow the field, and the record away. I made a lot of money that day, because I bet all my friends that Wolfgang Deittrich could hang with the guy. We talked a little stragedy that day, and he hung to the very end, no problem. I think they went a 46 or something, very fast for Hawaii. The draft was worth about 2 minutes to Wolfgang in that race, an advantage he had never had in a swim.
SO just go over in great swim shape, shave down, and swim on the leaders feet until the last bit, where if you have it left, go for it. the time will be what it will be. And don’t forget to have fun too…
in my book, a 40+ yo dude who can do 20 or 25 times (forgot) 100 leaving on 1.10 can definitely give swimming advice…
(I still don’t buy the compact cranks though… 
)
What ever happened to Lars Jorgensen. He had some super fast swims in Hawaii in the Mid 90’s? I wonder what kind of sets he did prior to those swims?
Here are the accurate numbers for your Rain man brain. I was 48, did 25 100’s on 1:10, and if you would spin 95 rpm’s, you could use compact cranks. By the way, great race last weekend. You race like I do now, swim your ass off, ride like hell, and run until you cannot suffer anymore, and trudge in. Sounds like you got pretty far before the trudging began…Good job…
now, I just need a few more races, when the achille is pain free, and put the ‘trudging’ a bit later in the race, and I’m ready to eventually do something decent.
I do spin 95rpms btw…I just use longer minutes
You’re absolutely right. My mistake. I percieved them the way the general public see’s them, more of great riders and runners. I knew about Paula being a great swimmer. I didn’t know about the guys, other than Thomas Boughey - swam against him (more against his younger brother, Simon) in H.S.
BTW: When are you going to take up the distance again? I suspect you’d give a great battle to the top AG old timers.