Forums » General Training » Swimming

1. milestogo
   Member

   Hi all,

   Just thought I would post some information about swimming. I swam for years competitively and thought I would share this resource

   United States Masters Swimming.

   http://www.usms.org

   This is probably the best resource for those who are interested in swimming and can swim more than a couple of laps consecutively. Local masters programs exist all over the country. There is probably one at your local lap pool. Each program typically has a highly qualified coaches who write workouts for each skill level each day (most programs have workouts 6 to 7 days per week morning and evening). The workouts focus on all strokes incorporating short and long distance work and last an hour. The lanes are typically divided by speed with the slowest being greater than 1:50 per 100 yards. Fins, kick-boards, paddles, and floats are all incorporated into the workouts. Masters is a great community and I encourage anyone interested to seek out their local club and do a trial workout (usually free).

   Swimming on your own

   I have never been successful with this due to the grinding boredom associated with swimming solo. But I think it can be done by those with ironwills.

   Posted 10 months ago #

2. Lisa Sabin
   Administrator

   Thanks for the information. Swimming is my weakest sport.

   Posted 10 months ago #

3. trunner
   Member

   I am not a race swimmer yet but I would like to be. Do you know how I can find the average speed for the female 400m swim in a sprint triathlon. I want to do my first tri in April and I am trying to set goals so I want to work towards that. Do you have any suggestions for me? My town is too small to offer a swimming program so I am going to have to drive to the next town a few days a week to train.

   Posted 8 months ago #

4. Brad Hefta-Gaub
   Administrator

   Great question...

   I'm not a very fast swimmer, I've never done any competitive swimming, but I was always "comfortable" in the water. So when I took on triathlon, I wasn't sure if my swimming would be behind the pack or ahead of the pack.

   What I did was I went to the race results of the race I was planning on swimming, and checked the historical splits. Most triathlons will give you the splits for swim, bike, run separately. This is a good judge of the swimming time, since unlike competitive swimming where the distances are shorter, and the race is in a pool. Most triathlons are longer and in the open water, and so there are other factors which make the pace different.

   What race are you planning to participate in?

   Posted 8 months ago #

5. Andy
   Member

   The swimming sections - on both the sprint triathlons I've done - was on a lake with very calm water. I don't have any figures to back this up, but I'd guess the average speed for ladies (over 750m) was around 2:15-30min per 100m. Thus, 9-10mins for 400m.

   That's the average though. I saw people that swam 1:30:00 on the 1500m section. That's 6min per 100m.

   As for the fastest, again just a guess, but it should be around 1:40-50min/100m.

   Hope this helps.

   Posted 8 months ago #

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