November marks 3 months that I have been swimming now. I have been swimming an average of 5 times a week and have just recently got my 800 yd. free down to 16 minutes and my mile down to 45 minutes. My question is how long should it take me to get my miles down to 30-35 minutes and my 800 down to about 10? I was involved in zero physical activity before I started swimming so my cardiovascular health was not at its peak. When I started I was doing good if I could swim 400 yards in 45 minutes. Perhaps I am being overeager or impatient but what sort of timeline should I set for the goals I mentioned above? If it matters I am 30 years old, stand rougly 6 feet tall and weigh about 165. This swimmer carries no extra bulk!! BTW, all of my swimming is done in regular boxer type swim trunks with pockets. When I switch to a jammer or brief will I notice a big difference in drag? I feel a lot of drag when doing my pushoffs especially. Thanks for any input.
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Former Member
It sounds like you have made some pretty drastic improvements already ....and over a really short period of time....So based on this I would say that you will probably continue to improve at a similar rate for several more months (and maybe even longer...who knows?)...."Eventually" you will probably reach some "plateaus" and the drastic progress will slow down some for some period of time each time you hit one....but if you keep swimming, I think you will probably break through these and start dropping your times again (perhaps at a slower rate than you are currently dropping times though)....If you kept improving at the exact rate you have been improving at for the last 3 months, you would probably break the world record in those events before the next Olympics....thats why you will have to expect that at some point the rate of improvement will slow down...but for now I would expect more drastic time drops as you keep swimming....You may be breaking 30 minutes in a mile (or 25 minutes in a mile) by this time next year....It is certainly possible. Even though I am new to masters swimming, I have also had similar drastic improvements over the last 5 months or so since I started back...part of that is due to the 65 pounds or so that I have lost over the last 5 months....I probably swam a mile (32 laps of a 25 yard pool) about 4 months ago in around 35 minutes or so?...Now I think I can swim one in just under 20 minutes (I timed myself a couple of weeks ago in just over 21 minutes)....but I was a pretty decent swimmer about 18 years ago...and that definitely helps!!....I too wear swim trunks with pockets....but mine are made of some pretty lightweight material so I don't really feel that much drag....I think it is good to workout with a little drag so that when you wear jammers or speedos for competitions you will feel a major difference (kinda like shaving down).....Keep up the good work!!
newmastersswimmer
It sounds like you have made some pretty drastic improvements already ....and over a really short period of time....So based on this I would say that you will probably continue to improve at a similar rate for several more months (and maybe even longer...who knows?)...."Eventually" you will probably reach some "plateaus" and the drastic progress will slow down some for some period of time each time you hit one....but if you keep swimming, I think you will probably break through these and start dropping your times again (perhaps at a slower rate than you are currently dropping times though)....If you kept improving at the exact rate you have been improving at for the last 3 months, you would probably break the world record in those events before the next Olympics....thats why you will have to expect that at some point the rate of improvement will slow down...but for now I would expect more drastic time drops as you keep swimming....You may be breaking 30 minutes in a mile (or 25 minutes in a mile) by this time next year....It is certainly possible. Even though I am new to masters swimming, I have also had similar drastic improvements over the last 5 months or so since I started back...part of that is due to the 65 pounds or so that I have lost over the last 5 months....I probably swam a mile (32 laps of a 25 yard pool) about 4 months ago in around 35 minutes or so?...Now I think I can swim one in just under 20 minutes (I timed myself a couple of weeks ago in just over 21 minutes)....but I was a pretty decent swimmer about 18 years ago...and that definitely helps!!....I too wear swim trunks with pockets....but mine are made of some pretty lightweight material so I don't really feel that much drag....I think it is good to workout with a little drag so that when you wear jammers or speedos for competitions you will feel a major difference (kinda like shaving down).....Keep up the good work!!
newmastersswimmer
