I was hoping someone could help me out here. I started swimming about 4 months ago. I try to swim 1600 meters 3-4 times a week freestyle. My fastest time so far is 27.5 min's to finish and I just can't seem to do it any faster. I guess my first question is "is that even a good time??"
2nd question - To help speed up my time should I continue to do the mile a day and keep working on my time, or should I do more laps to build up my endurance? I really want to get to 25 min's but I'm getting a little discouraged because I'm not improving on my time
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my $.02:
is 27:30 a good time for 1600? Depends on your age, gender and experience level... For someone swimming for only 4 months that is very respectable.
You want to go a 25min for 1600 (btw, the "mile" in meters is only 1500)? I recommend interval training mixed with long pace swims. Swimming straight distance without changing up the speed just aclimates your body to swim at that same speed. If you change it up by swimming at least some of your training as intervals you should see an increase of speed. (Aside: my distance swimmers keep telling me they don't have to swim "fast" to swim distance events, I remind them that for Janet Evans to swim the 400m in 4:03, she had to average :59+ for all four 100m, and Grant Hackett needs to go around :58 for 15 (!) 100s to get 14:30 -- may not be world record pace for the 100, but fast, nonetheless.
So, to do 25 mins/1600 you need to average 1:33.+ for 16 100s, right now you appear to be maintaining about a 143 pace--work some of your training to bring down this pace. Can you swim 2 x 100 @ 1:40 (as your interval)? When you can, you are on your way. Swim 3X100 @ 1:55, each one should be around 1:38, 2X100 @ 1:45, then 1X100 on 1:35. As you become stronger, work on increasing the number of repeat 100 swims, adding one to each on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.
You can also do some fartleks, or locomotives, where you go fast/ez/fast/ez throughout the course of your long swim (25F/25EZ, 50F/25EZ, 75F/25EZ, etc to 1600 or 25/25, 50/50, 75/75, etc -- the point is to actually swim fast on the fast parts but not slow down too much on the recovery swims in between.
I'm sure you'll end up with a lot of suggestions -- good luck!
my $.02:
is 27:30 a good time for 1600? Depends on your age, gender and experience level... For someone swimming for only 4 months that is very respectable.
You want to go a 25min for 1600 (btw, the "mile" in meters is only 1500)? I recommend interval training mixed with long pace swims. Swimming straight distance without changing up the speed just aclimates your body to swim at that same speed. If you change it up by swimming at least some of your training as intervals you should see an increase of speed. (Aside: my distance swimmers keep telling me they don't have to swim "fast" to swim distance events, I remind them that for Janet Evans to swim the 400m in 4:03, she had to average :59+ for all four 100m, and Grant Hackett needs to go around :58 for 15 (!) 100s to get 14:30 -- may not be world record pace for the 100, but fast, nonetheless.
So, to do 25 mins/1600 you need to average 1:33.+ for 16 100s, right now you appear to be maintaining about a 143 pace--work some of your training to bring down this pace. Can you swim 2 x 100 @ 1:40 (as your interval)? When you can, you are on your way. Swim 3X100 @ 1:55, each one should be around 1:38, 2X100 @ 1:45, then 1X100 on 1:35. As you become stronger, work on increasing the number of repeat 100 swims, adding one to each on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.
You can also do some fartleks, or locomotives, where you go fast/ez/fast/ez throughout the course of your long swim (25F/25EZ, 50F/25EZ, 75F/25EZ, etc to 1600 or 25/25, 50/50, 75/75, etc -- the point is to actually swim fast on the fast parts but not slow down too much on the recovery swims in between.
I'm sure you'll end up with a lot of suggestions -- good luck!
