If you are going ALL OUT, i.e. "race pace", how will your 200 LCM time compare to your 225 SCY time?
200 m is about 218.72 yds, so 225 yds is about 6.28 yds longer than 200 m. How much time this converts to depends on how fast you are, of course, the faster you are, the less extra time the extra 6.28 yds will take.
BUT.
A 225 SCY has 8 turns whereas 200 LCM has only 3. For example, for my backstroke, I estimate that each turn cuts about 1s off my total time, so the extra 5 turns save about 5 seconds. If you have better turns, you'll save more time.
It looks like the two factors approximately cancel for me in backstroke. I haven't done the analysis for other strokes yet. I'd be interested to see results (and/or speculation) for other swimmers.
Had an interesting take on this last week. Our indoor pool was closed for work so we got to swim outside for the week in the 20 yard pool. Now why, in the 21st century, anyone built a 20 yard pool is something we all wonder about here, but anyway, here is what we noticed.
Anyway, doing this set last week in the 20 yard pool we noticed our 100s (with 4 turns now instead of 3) were about a second or so faster (both for freestyle and fly. I didn't do any backstroke as there are no flags outside).
The 200s we did were slower by at least 1 to 2 seconds (2:06 or so vs the 2:04 we could normally do). With the extra turns we could really feel the oxygen debt later in the swim by spending all of that extra time underwater off of the extra turns. (9 turns vs 7).
That's really interesting. Your observation of 1s/turn gain is consistent with my calculation based on comparing 50s in short course pools to 50 LCM.
I had not considered the oxygen depravation factor, but it reminds me of a similar experience. More than 10 years ago I swam at a fitness club where they had a 55-foot pool. 11 lengths in a 55-foot pool is 201.7 yds. I would often do the set 10x(201.7 free/3:00). When I first swam there, I really noticed the oxygen depravation from the extra 3 turns, but after some time I got used to it. My impression is that I could hold quicker times for the 10x201.7 set then than I can now for 10x200 SCY despite the fact that I had a lower level of overall fitness at that time and was not doing any racing. This suggests that the turns were aiding me in going faster, but then again I was 12 years younger, and that probably was helping me go faster too.
I wonder if your 200's in the 20-yd pool would be faster than in a standard SCY pool if you practiced there for 3 months, or a year.
Thanks for posting.
Had an interesting take on this last week. Our indoor pool was closed for work so we got to swim outside for the week in the 20 yard pool. Now why, in the 21st century, anyone built a 20 yard pool is something we all wonder about here, but anyway, here is what we noticed.
Anyway, doing this set last week in the 20 yard pool we noticed our 100s (with 4 turns now instead of 3) were about a second or so faster (both for freestyle and fly. I didn't do any backstroke as there are no flags outside).
The 200s we did were slower by at least 1 to 2 seconds (2:06 or so vs the 2:04 we could normally do). With the extra turns we could really feel the oxygen debt later in the swim by spending all of that extra time underwater off of the extra turns. (9 turns vs 7).
That's really interesting. Your observation of 1s/turn gain is consistent with my calculation based on comparing 50s in short course pools to 50 LCM.
I had not considered the oxygen depravation factor, but it reminds me of a similar experience. More than 10 years ago I swam at a fitness club where they had a 55-foot pool. 11 lengths in a 55-foot pool is 201.7 yds. I would often do the set 10x(201.7 free/3:00). When I first swam there, I really noticed the oxygen depravation from the extra 3 turns, but after some time I got used to it. My impression is that I could hold quicker times for the 10x201.7 set then than I can now for 10x200 SCY despite the fact that I had a lower level of overall fitness at that time and was not doing any racing. This suggests that the turns were aiding me in going faster, but then again I was 12 years younger, and that probably was helping me go faster too.
I wonder if your 200's in the 20-yd pool would be faster than in a standard SCY pool if you practiced there for 3 months, or a year.
Thanks for posting.
