Hello all,
I'm new here and I have a question that I hope maybe someone could help me with. I've been finding it difficult to improve my swim splits over the longer distances. I've been trying for about 3 years now with minimal improvement. I can swim a sub 30 sec.-50 yards and a sub 1 minute in a 100 yards but cannot hold a fast pace over the longer distances. My best distance splits are:
500yds. = 6:18 (=1:15.7 per 100 yds.) - (pool swim)
1.5K = 22:10 (=1:21 per 100 yds.) - (open water w/wetsuit)
2.4 mile = 1:03:50 (=1:30 per 100 yds.) - (open water w/wetsuit)
I've been swimming 3-4x per week about 3,000-4,000 yards per day. Mostly sets like 20x100's w/10-15 sec rest and 10x200's w/20 sec rest and 5x400's w/30 sec rest. My 20x100's are average about 1:17-1:18 per 100 yards, and that's the fastest I can go and still do 20 of them.
I swim alone at the pool mostly and I don't lift weights much. I have good form in water and a 2 beat kick. Could it be a strength issue? I use paddles and the pull bouy occasionally. My main goal is to go sub 20 in 1.5K swim in open water, with a wetsuit. What workouts or things should I be doing to do this?
Thanks much for your feedback,
Terry
Parents
Former Member
I can swim a sub 30 sec.-50 yards and a sub 1 minute in a 100 yards but cannot hold a fast pace over the longer distances. My best distance splits are:
500yds. = 6:18 (=1:15.7 per 100 yds.) - (pool swim)
1.5K = 22:10 (=1:21 per 100 yds.) - (open water w/wetsuit)
I don't think those times are all that inconsistent. 30 secs for 50 yards is pretty slow to hope to do a sub 20 minutes 1500m IMO. If I use the FINA pts calculator, 33 secs for 50m free translates to 22:34 for 1500m free, for example.
I've done 1500m free sub 18 minutes (SCM pool), but I'm afraid I don't have any advice on how I became able to do it other than the more I train the faster I get. I was doing 30km a week leading up to my sub 18 min swim at age 35.
When I started Masters swimming, it took me 1:06 to do SCM 100 free, so not much different to your speed, but I couldn't break 20 mins for SCM 1500, it took me over 22 mins back then. My SCM 100 had come down to more like 1:02-1:03 when I raced my first SCM 1500 and did 19:32.
I've always found doing max effort 1500m swims in training to be helpful for getting used to how to pace them, you can't afford to swim a 1500 too comfortably, you should be swimming a 1500 significantly faster than the pace you could hold for 3km, say.
I can swim a sub 30 sec.-50 yards and a sub 1 minute in a 100 yards but cannot hold a fast pace over the longer distances. My best distance splits are:
500yds. = 6:18 (=1:15.7 per 100 yds.) - (pool swim)
1.5K = 22:10 (=1:21 per 100 yds.) - (open water w/wetsuit)
I don't think those times are all that inconsistent. 30 secs for 50 yards is pretty slow to hope to do a sub 20 minutes 1500m IMO. If I use the FINA pts calculator, 33 secs for 50m free translates to 22:34 for 1500m free, for example.
I've done 1500m free sub 18 minutes (SCM pool), but I'm afraid I don't have any advice on how I became able to do it other than the more I train the faster I get. I was doing 30km a week leading up to my sub 18 min swim at age 35.
When I started Masters swimming, it took me 1:06 to do SCM 100 free, so not much different to your speed, but I couldn't break 20 mins for SCM 1500, it took me over 22 mins back then. My SCM 100 had come down to more like 1:02-1:03 when I raced my first SCM 1500 and did 19:32.
I've always found doing max effort 1500m swims in training to be helpful for getting used to how to pace them, you can't afford to swim a 1500 too comfortably, you should be swimming a 1500 significantly faster than the pace you could hold for 3km, say.
