Hey everyone!
I'm doing a little statistical poll that compares one's average running mile time to their average swimming mile time. (I realize that is harder...because when we swim a mile straight--generally for us as competitive swimmers we are swimming it in a race and going for pbs...but what I am looking for is more like if you were to swim consecutively for an hour...how many miles would you get in swimming at a nice constant pace that you could withhold for a longer period of time.)
And then I would like to compare the level of fitness for your age that those respective would put you at...mostly I am interested in simply seeing the correlation between the two sports, because almost anyone would agree that cross-training is a positive aspect of your swimming regime.
My Data:
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Background: Swimming: competitive swimmer since 4th grade (swam in college all 4 years) Running: no competitive history really (just a few seasons of high school track) like to run...as a 7th grader ran a 6:23.04 mile in the presidential fitness challenge...haven't hit that mark again haha.
Swimming: 19:30minutes at a leisurely pace...I've never swam the mile in a meet.
Running: 7:40ish at the moment (hoping to bring that down to at least 6:50 over the summer)
Former Member
Male: 45
Competitive runner in to college.
PB at 20 years old 4:11
Began swimming October 2005
Record 1650 scy is right at 33 mins done 2007.
Probably data outside your parameters.
Ok, Ok, George made his point, can we get back to answering Morgan's question? We all know what she is talking about.
Me, 27y/o male,
swimming since 5 y/o, no USS/NCAA experience :oldman:
Best 1650y: 18:57.99, 2006
best lc 1500: 19:35.66 2007 (USMS AA)
best 1mi OW: 22.17 2007
running, in a 1.4 mi run as part of a tri, ran a 6:35pace mile.
Kids in Canada do not know how many feet or yards there are in a mile.
In the USA if a kid wrote a test and said a mile is 1650 yards he would surely fail the test.
Most kids in America don't know how many feet or yards are in a mile either! :shakeshead:
But why did track choose the 1,500 meter as a standard event distance rather than 1,600?
This is not known with certainty. There are 2 theories:
1) Some tracks in France were 500 m and 3X500=1500. This theory is largely discounted, the reason being that track started as an English event (where tracks were more likely to be 440 yards or so) and spread to the U.S. before it caught on in continental Europe, so it's unlikely that the size of French tracks played much of a role. Note that races like the 500m or 1000m never developed much in popularity (although they do exist to this day, esp the 1000), which might have been expected if the tracks were 500 m.
2) The current best theory is that it was chosen by continental European track federations as a way of maintaining the same skills as the mile, but not bowing to the English, which 1600 meters would have been perceived as doing. Politics in sport is not a new thing.
-LBJ
And as a little thread-jack, how many people back in the day complained when track spikes were invented about how all the old records would be broken? I've been thinking about that while reading all the hullabaloo about the LZR.
Actually, the use of spikes goes back to the 1800's and I doubt there was much outcry. However, I do remember all the debate about synthetic tracks vs the old cinder tracks that occured from about 1964 (after the Tokyo Olympics, which was the first Olympics on a synthetic track) to the early 70's, when they became fairly common. Fast cinder tracks, like the one Rutgers University had, were known as "Gunpowder tracks."
-LBJ
Ok, Ok, George made his point, can we get back to answering Morgan's question? We all know what she is talking about.
haha, thanks for trying to steer the thread back...
It really is time to get back on track and not that 500m French track.
Ok, Ok, George made his point, can we get back to answering Morgan's question? We all know what she is talking about.
Me, 27y/o male,
swimming since 5 y/o, no USS/NCAA experience :oldman:
Best 1650y: 18:57.99, 2006
best lc 1500: 19:35.66 2007 (USMS AA)
best 1mi OW: 22.17 2007
running, in a 1.4 mi run as part of a tri, ran a 6:35pace mile.
George, I think you may have provided a hint there. 1650 and 1760 could both be swum in a 55 yard pool (I never knew such a thing existed). 1650 is the largest distance less than one mile that could be swum in both 25 and 55 yard pools. I mean where the distance is evenly divisible.
Now the mystery is why the track event is 1500 and not 1600 meters.
Age 56.
Male
The last time I ran a timed mile I was in my mid 30's. It was a road race, straight course and I went about 4:35. I went faster on the track when I was in college but that was too long ago to remember. I didn't start swimming until 8 years ago and my best mile was while doing the postal 3000 a little more than a year ago. Based on my splits I went by the mile at about 25:15.
That's probably the reason, it sounds completely plausible to me.
Apologies for hijacking yet again (NEVER get me started on track and field), but here is a different and very interesting view of this question. (4+ MB download)
www.lhs.fuhsd.org/.../500moval.pdf
-LBJ
