So a couple of weeks ago I posted about trying to improve my swim through joining a masters program and since then I’ve joined and have been swimming much more frequently which is a good thing. I’m also very happy with the experience and while my swim “stroke”, if you could call it a stroke, is all messed up now I believe I’m on the LONG LONG road to improving my swim technique…
That said I read a post earlier that referenced swimming 10 x 100’s @ 1:20 and just felt like killing myself. Right now I’m LUCKY if I can finish 100 in 2:20. Last night I was the ABSOLUTE last person to finish the masters workout. I’m a really competitive person and am usually in the FOP of the Bike and Run, so it totally kills me to be so horrendous at swimming, but for the life of me it just seems like such an insurmountable task to improve. And considering swimming a 100 in 1:20 seems like I’d have a better chance at robbing a bank successfully armed with toothpicks…
Anyway, just venting and hoping that others out there have once felt like me and have since conquered the swim…
Hey you’re not alone! I’m lucky if I swim 2:05/100 on speed sets! My cruising pace is usually 2:10 to 2:15 so trust me there are other folks out there!!!
Keep working at it and you will see improvements. Would an improvement from 2:20 to 2:00 please you? It should because that would be a 16% improvement. How about going from 2:20 to 1:40? It might take a while but you should be able to that and that would be a 32% improvement. If your master’s coach is actually coaching, you’ll see your times drop. Just be patient and hang in there. Good luck!!!
I can relate. I do feel better, though, ever since doing a local sprint tri in which several of the masters swimmers participated. Sure, they all had a serious head start on me, but it was pretty gratifying to start running them down on the bike leg.
(Well, except for that one guy who’s faster than me at EVERYTHING, and had already finished posing for photos for the newspaper before I crossed the line. The bastard. Doesn’t have a fancy bike, doesn’t even care about fancy bikes, never heard of Slowtwitch, and just to add insult to injury, he’s a really nice guy.)
You put your ego aside and joined a masters group, which is the hardest part for most people. I’ve been doing a group for the past year, my 400 time has dropped from 12 to 7 minutes. Still puts me in the slow lane at my group, but makes me a lot faster at a race. Keep at it!
If you are talking yards, not meters, then you aren’t swimming (heck, even in meters). I don’t know what to call it, but it isn’t swimming. 2:20 for a 100? There are people who are three times as fast as you in the water for that distance. Let me repeat that: triple your speed. Can you imagine any two athletes with a 3:1 speed ratio in running or biking? Even the slowest ironman biker is more than half as fast as the fastest biker.
You should be able to go 1:45 within two weeks of being competently evaluated. That’s how wrong your technique is.
(edit)
Allow me to rephrase. You are not *yet *swimming. With some simple changes, you should be 30% faster in a couple of weeks. With practice after that, you should be 15% faster than that.
I was not attempting to put you down. I wanted to impress upon you that what you are doing is not working and is not leading you to become a competent swimmer.
I’m depressed because I’m :05/100 slower than I used to be, on :10/100 more rest interval. You, sir, have a huge improvement ahead of you.
If you are talking yards, not meters, then you aren’t swimming (heck, even in meters). I don’t know what to call it, but it isn’t swimming. 2:20 for a 100? There are people who are three times as fast as you in the water for that distance. Let me repeat that: triple your speed. Can you imagine any two athletes with a 3:1 speed ratio in running or biking? Even the slowest ironman biker is more than half as fast as the fastest biker.
You should be able to go 1:45 within two weeks of being competently evaluated. That’s how wrong your technique is.
Shit, just 2 days ago, I was in the pool with a friend who was about 2:30/100scy. He’s ambulating forward non-stop through the water, which I’d call swimming, but he needs LOTS of help. And 2:1 can be easily found in running or biking speeds in the results sheets of any local race.
15 months ago I was swimming in a 22 yard pool and could barely do a lengths despite being able to run 10+ miles.
I watched a bunch of youtube videos and other swimmers and could barely swim 2 lengths after a month or two of training.
I hired a swim coach and went once a week for 2-3 months. I could swim 100s and eventually a 200. Most of the work was drills and swims at 25m, maybe 50m.
I kept with my coach and eventually we would drill for 100s and I eventually could swim a 325m.
I backed down on lessons to every other week for cost reasons but kept swimming often in a pool. I gave up on bilateral breathing and days later I was doing a 1000 yard continuous swim.
I went open water swimming for the first time. When you don’t have to worry about walls, etc. you just feel the length and efficiency of your stroke. Biggest improvement for me was breathing every other stroke and swimming open water.
Joined a masters team for 3 months. Learned how to feel pain in the pool. Before I would do a 200 fast, and recover for a full minute or until I felt good. Having intervals, a coach and team, I really learned to push myself.
Quit masters for cost reasons, but started swimming more than ever (5+ times a week.)
As of now, I can swim a mile right around 30 minutes. I can swim a 100y in less than 1:15, a 200y in less than 2:50 and can hold some pretty decent intervals for me.
My relaxed pace for cool downs and EZ swims in below 2min for 100y now, but a year ago I could barely swim 100y.
ITS ALL ABOUT CONSISTENCY AND THE DRIVE TO IMPROVE WITH OUT GETTING FRUSTRATED.
I’ve got a lot bigger goals and am still looking to dramatically improve, but I understand its baby steps. Best of Luck.
If you are talking yards, not meters, then you aren’t swimming (heck, even in meters). I don’t know what to call it, but it isn’t swimming. 2:20 for a 100? There are people who are three times as fast as you in the water for that distance. Let me repeat that: triple your speed. Can you imagine any two athletes with a 3:1 speed ratio in running or biking? Even the slowest ironman biker is more than half as fast as the fastest biker.
You should be able to go 1:45 within two weeks of being competently evaluated. That’s how wrong your technique is.
He may of said it like an ass, but he’s right. I can say this because I was there last summer and over the course of a month and a hell of a lot of time in the pool learned how swim in the 1:40’s. I went from dreaming of sub 4 min 200’s to doing 5x200’s on 3:45 as a warm up. What did it for me was a solid month of 7 to 8 swims a week and a hell of a lot of work not just doing drills, but analyzing through drills, what was working and what was not.
The swimming will come and you should be a lot faster in the race. I average 2:00 / 100 yards in the pool, but can do a 1/2 Ironman swim in 30:00 and an 800 meter sprint in under 13:00. Don’t get frustrated by the swim training. A lot of the “slowness” is in the turns. Also keep in mind the swim is by far the shortest part of the race, so if you are going to have a slow leg, let it be the swim. Good luck and keep with the laps. it will help in the long run.
you swim the mile in 30 minutes but knock out a 1:15/100y???
i swim 2000 yards(20 yards over 1.2 miles) in sub 29, closing in on sub 28 and i have to gut myself to break a 1:16/100y… and i most likely couldnt back it up with another. when im doing my speed workouts im doing 100y sprints around 1:19-1:22
you swim the mile in 30 minutes but knock out a 1:15/100y???
i swim 2000 yards(20 yards over 1.2 miles) in sub 29, closing in on sub 28 and i have to gut myself to break a 1:16/100y… and i most likely couldnt back it up with another. when im doing my speed workouts im doing 100y sprints around 1:19-1:22
^^ whats wrong with that picture??
2000yds is 120 yards *short *of 1.2 miles.
So you can hold 20 100s in 1:24, yet can only go < :10 slower flat out? So, your top speed is something like 12% faster than your distance pace? Maybe I’m just a better “sprinter” than distance swimmer, but my top speed for a 100 is over 20% faster than my 2000 pace. I’ll bet you can benefit from more speed work.