has anyone gotten under 60 sec (100yd) as a new swimmer?

I started swimming at 45.5 yrs of age (now I am 49.5 yrs) with zero swimming background. Could not swim one legth of the pool without stopping and could not side breath or flip turn. But I took this sport ULTRA seriously and read and watched everything I could swimming related. In 2006 at World Master at Stanford I did a 108.7 100m free which converts to a 59 high in short course yards. Prior to that, my best 100 yard free was 60.30 (I'm just 5'10" / 155 lbs). Here is are some of my thoughts, at least the ones which helped me: 1. Must have a VERY fast first 50 to go under 60 seconds so your first 50 should only be about 1 to 1.5 seconds slower than your fastest 50 race. Then your lactate/threshold training needs to be sufficient to allow you to finish strong on the back 50. 2. Breath EVERY stroke! Yes I said every stroke. Most of the elite swimmers breath every stroke as they know they will need the oxygen and lactate removal on the back 50 (don't breath last 5-10 yards if possible). 3. For kicking, if it is weak or drains your energy too much, then go easier on the kicking for the first 50. Also, legs need to be trained "aerobically" as well so try some 500yrd flutter kick sets to augment your sprint kicking. This will help your legs finish stronger on the last 25. 4. For turns, if your dolphins are not propulsive, then don't do them and just go direct from your glide to flutter kick and break-out (like Dara Torres). 5. Stroke-Rate/Stroke-Length are difficult for me personally to get correct in the 100yrd free as it is such a different race compared to long course meters. If it is difficult for you as well, and you feel your stroke gets too "frantic" and "short" after your break-out, then use the first 3 strokes off the blocks as a very fast "build" keeping your stroke longer and in-the-groove" while quickly increasing stroke rate (this one really helped me because there is a point where the frantic sprint mind-set of the 100yrd short course race will sometimes jack-up your stroke-rate to stroke-length ratio and you will see dinishing returns). 6. Finally, you will need to do some specific race training which is difficult to come by at your local masters workout which will be mostly focused on threshold-type workouts. My suggestion is to get in some "sprint" training which is faster than race pace (12.5 yards to 25yrds off a dive from the deck if blocks not available, and with full rest recovery) and some lactate or "goal sets" of 50's and 100's with full recovery at near race pace. Note: If you train too much threshold (fast aerobic pace with less than full recovery (like 10 x 100yrd on the 1:30 or 10 x 200yrd on the 3:00, you will likely lose that 100 sprint feeling, sprint stroke, and sprint ability. Good luck! Kurt

I started swimming at 45.5 yrs of age (now I am 49.5 yrs) with zero swimming background. Could not swim one legth of the pool without stopping and could not side breath or flip turn. But I took this sport ULTRA seriously and read and watched everything I could swimming related. In 2006 at World Master at Stanford I did a 108.7 100m free which converts to a 59 high in short course yards. Prior to that, my best 100 yard free was 60.30 (I'm just 5'10" / 155 lbs). Here is are some of my thoughts, at least the ones which helped me: 1. Must have a VERY fast first 50 to go under 60 seconds so your first 50 should only be about 1 to 1.5 seconds slower than your fastest 50 race. Then your lactate/threshold training needs to be sufficient to allow you to finish strong on the back 50. 2. Breath EVERY stroke! Yes I said every stroke. Most of the elite swimmers breath every stroke as they know they will need the oxygen and lactate removal on the back 50 (don't breath last 5-10 yards if possible). 3. For kicking, if it is weak or drains your energy too much, then go easier on the kicking for the first 50. Also, legs need to be trained "aerobically" as well so try some 500yrd flutter kick sets to augment your sprint kicking. This will help your legs finish stronger on the last 25. 4. For turns, if your dolphins are not propulsive, then don't do them and just go direct from your glide to flutter kick and break-out (like Dara Torres). 5. Stroke-Rate/Stroke-Length are difficult for me personally to get correct in the 100yrd free as it is such a different race compared to long course meters. If it is difficult for you as well, and you feel your stroke gets too "frantic" and "short" after your break-out, then use the first 3 strokes off the blocks as a very fast "build" keeping your stroke longer and in-the-groove" while quickly increasing stroke rate (this one really helped me because there is a point where the frantic sprint mind-set of the 100yrd short course race will sometimes jack-up your stroke-rate to stroke-length ratio and you will see dinishing returns). 6. Finally, you will need to do some specific race training which is difficult to come by at your local masters workout which will be mostly focused on threshold-type workouts. My suggestion is to get in some "sprint" training which is faster than race pace (12.5 yards to 25yrds off a dive from the deck if blocks not available, and with full rest recovery) and some lactate or "goal sets" of 50's and 100's with full recovery at near race pace. Note: If you train too much threshold (fast aerobic pace with less than full recovery (like 10 x 100yrd on the 1:30 or 10 x 200yrd on the 3:00, you will likely lose that 100 sprint feeling, sprint stroke, and sprint ability. Good luck! Kurt