Sub 60 min IM Swimmers, What SCY Pool Times are you Hitting?

I am curious what sort of pool times you sub 1 hour ironman swimmers are hitting for various distances in the pool, both the swim times and the send offs you do when you are on form. Ideally in SCY.

Wetsuit or non wetsuit 1 hour swimmers, makes a big difference…

Wetsuit ideally

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I’m expecting to go sub 60 at placid in July…

I can do 4000 yards in my drag suit with flip turns in 55 minutes… That is approx 1:24-1:25 per 100 yards. Can almost set a metronome to my pace. Very very steady.

With a wetsuit I’m a little faster… about 3-5 seconds quicker per 100 at the same effort. So it’ll hopefully save me 2-3 minutes on race day. Ideally I can swim a little easier and still go 55ish minutes.

I know a lady who went 53 minutes.

‘Course…it was IMNC (B2B) and the current was RIPPIN! She’s a ‘just’ sub 2’/100 swimmer.

Just a thought. I’d want to know which IM.

48xx Ironman split back in '13. Most of my base work is 100/200 repeats. Race pace training 25s up to 200s.

10-20 x 100 @ 1:25 holding 1:08ish (scm).

My 5000m time was 59:52 this year.

Wetsuit ideally

This is where you run into problems in comparisons, some people swim so differently in a wetsuit vs without, and you are asking to compare swimming non wetsuit in a pool with a wetsuit race. You are going to get times and intervals all over the place, but looks like you are already getting that now(48 to 55 swimmers), so continue on.

**But for a 1 hour wetsuit swim I would say you need to at least be able to do 20x100SCY on the 1;35, holding a 1;30 average. That would be close to the minimum expecting the actual race to be an accurate course. This would also imply that you would be doing a lot of drafting to get to that hour too, also part of the race experience. **

Wetsuit ideally

This is where you run into problems in comparisons, some people swim so differently in a wetsuit vs without, and you are asking to compare swimming non wetsuit in a pool with a wetsuit race. You are going to get times and intervals all over the place, but looks like you are already getting that now(48 to 55 swimmers), so continue on.

**But for a 1 hour wetsuit swim I would say you need to at least be able to do 20x100SCY on the 1;35, holding a 1;30 average. That would be close to the minimum expecting the actual race to be an accurate course. This would also imply that you would be doing a lot of drafting to get to that hour too, also part of the race experience. **

Thanks for the numbers… Yea I get that the times will be all over the place. Pool splits and open water race splits are functions of different factors. I am just looking to get an idea what the sub 1hr swimmers are hitting in the pool.

When I’m in decent swim shape (MY decent swim shape) I’m doing a set of 10 to 15 100’s (SCY) on the 1:30, coming in between 1:20 & 1:22. With that I’ve done two 70.3 swims with wetsuit in 29:XX and I did IM Louisville 2016 in 59:24 something like that. Louisville has current assisting for 2/3 of the swim so without current that’s probably like 1:02-1:03 range. I don’t think you have to be super fast in SCY to get under an hour so I think if you can get your 100’s down to 1:15-1:20 or so for a set of 15-20 you’re looking pretty good for sub 1 hour in a wetsuit.

What you should ask for is a particular set and what people do on it and their corresponding ironman swim times. Something like the 20X100’s I posted. Just about everyone does that exact set or something very similar.

What you should ask for is a particular set and what people do on it and their corresponding ironman swim times. Something like the 20X100’s I posted. Just about everyone does that exact set or something very similar.

I’ve never done a full but I’m a 25:43 HIM swimmer (wetsuit). Before that particular time I could do the 20 x 100 on 1:20 and hold 1:12s.

Another set I like to get ready for HIM swims (and the mile for swim meets) is 8 x 300 odds easy, evens fast. The trick really is to have about a 20+ second difference between the fast and the easy… the easies should be EASY.

Wetsuit ideally

This is where you run into problems in comparisons, some people swim so differently in a wetsuit vs without, and you are asking to compare swimming non wetsuit in a pool with a wetsuit race. You are going to get times and intervals all over the place, but looks like you are already getting that now(48 to 55 swimmers), so continue on.

**But for a 1 hour wetsuit swim I would say you need to at least be able to do 20x100SCY on the 1;35, holding a 1;30 average. That would be close to the minimum expecting the actual race to be an accurate course. This would also imply that you would be doing a lot of drafting to get to that hour too, also part of the race experience. **

Thanks for the numbers… Yea I get that the times will be all over the place. Pool splits and open water race splits are functions of different factors. I am just looking to get an idea what the sub 1hr swimmers are hitting in the pool.

i’ve done 3 IMs, :59, 1:00 (both wetsuit) and 1:01 (non-wetsuit cozumel with current in both directions - seriously). Monty’s times pretty right on, usually in decent shape for the IM swim and leaving on 100 scy/1:30 sendoff coming in 1:15-20 depending on effort. This has been consistent as my IMs have been over 9 years.

Holding 20 x 1:30 with a consistent-ish split in the 1:20 or below range throughout should get you there

Former D1 swimmer, in a galaxy far, far away.

I swim 1:15/100. Doesn’t matter the send off, doesn’t matter the distance. If I try to go faster, I slip water and tire out. It’s just the pace I have.

Wetuit IM’s are 58,56,57,50,54.
Non wetsuit 53.

I do a lot of open water races; for IM distance I’m right around 1 hour, although that’s with no wetsuit and no drafting. I do all my swim sets on a 1:20 base (scy).

48xx Ironman split back in '13. Most of my base work is 100/200 repeats. Race pace training 25s up to 200s.

10-20 x 100 @ 1:25 holding 1:08ish (scm).

My 5000m time was 59:52 this year.

This is really impressive! A Very small number of people on this board, could do that set, at your pace, in a scy pool! Great job!

I have won the amateur swim at lots of WTC races.
The conditions are variable, distances imprecise, and my own effort and tactics change.
I have swum anywhere from 46 (partial downstream) to 54 (non-wetsuit swim going easy).

I save most of my “hard interval” for running and biking. But occasionally do hard 100s in training.

Two typical sets of 100 in scy (assuming I am in good swim shape)

  1. 20 x 100s on 1:30 average 1:07 (1650 pace)
  2. 10 x 100s on 2:00 average 1:03 (500 pace)

Could probably swim (in good swim shape):
100 - 53
200- 1:58
500- 5:15
1650- 18:30

This is really impressive! A Very small number of people on this board, could do that set, at your pace, in a scy pool! Great job!

The scm after his times mean short course meters, so now you can be really impressed!!!

This is really impressive! A Very small number of people on this board, could do that set, at your pace, in a scy pool! Great job!

The scm after his times mean short course meters, so now you can be really impressed!!!

I’ve swam competitvely since I was 6. I thought the fact that that difference was immediately apparent to me was provided by the fact that I pointed out that most people here couldn’t do that set in a shorter pool.

Ha, you are right, most people here couldn’t do it in a shorter pool, and almost no one here could do it in his pool!! There are a few though, we have some pretty talented swimmers who post here, a few even faster…

This is interesting to me. I would have no problem hitting those times in the sets below, but I have hard time seeing myself swim in the high 40s for an IM swim. I guess it’s time to work more on the OWS!