time for a one mile lap swim/workout structure

I have no idea where I would fit with all the expereinced swimmers on this site. I do a one mile
swim, no stopping, no flip turns, in the 48-51minute time frame. No idea whether this is good,
great, bad, average, slightly above average for a middle aged male? Comments please.

I do not stop between sets, although not doing a flip turn, I do recognize a get a3- 5 second
break or so.

Also, recommendations from the group. I do 3-4 swims per week. From a workout, stroke
betterment/practice am I better off to move the work out to say one and a half miles, keeping it at
the 3-4 sessions/swims per week, or should I increase the swims to 5-6 days per week keeping the
work out at one mile. My only objective other than fitness is to be able to accomplish/enhance my
open water swimming this summer. Please note, that if I do not switch strokes during the mile I find
my free style getting sloppy. I generally do one breast, 9 freestyle, one breast,...etc. Problem is
doing breast in open water wearing a tri wet suit. Thx in advance for the groups comments/critiques.

In <20040220141839.29604.00000083@mb-m21.aol.com> Skipthomp48 wrote:
> I have no idea where I would fit with all the expereinced swimmers on this site. I do a one mile
> swim, no stopping, no flip turns, in the 48-51minute time frame. No idea whether this is good,
> great, bad, average, slightly above average for a middle aged male? Comments please.

It's a bit slow compared to the dedicated swimmers in this group, but nothing to be ashamed of.

We have a wide range of skills represented here. Just for comparison, I'm a 47 year old male. I
seldom swim my miles continuously (I usually swim sets of 100s and 200s), but wouldn't have any
trouble doing your workout in about 27 minutes. Larry (our beloved 56 year old doctor) might clock
something closer to your time. Terry (similar age) on the other hand could easily beat me.

> Also, recommendations from the group. I do 3-4 swims per week. From a workout, stroke
> betterment/practice am I better off to move the work out to say one and a half miles, keeping it
> at the 3-4 sessions/swims per week, or should I increase the swims to 5-6 days per week keeping
> the work out at one mile.

You can't do both?

I'd probably increase yardage, and also mix in a few sets of relatively hard interval work.
Something to get the heart pounding.

> My only objective other than fitness is to be able to accomplish/enhance my open water swimming
> this summer.

You should practice some open water style then. Every 4th or 6th stroke should be heads-up, so you
can sight against landmarks on the shore.

Ross

Thankyou for comments. Yes, I can probably do both, just wondered which of the two might be more
beneficial. Further, as weather warms I try to get 15-20 miles in a week running (5 miles per run),
thus there is only so much time in a day. Obviously I have a long way to go to catch you!!!

My first objective this winter was to consistantly complete a mile at each workout. New objective is
to lower time. What would you suggest is the best approach to lowering my time to say forty minutes?

What would you consider "hard interval"? Thx, JPT

In <20040220170308.22733.00000072@mb-m10.aol.com> Skipthomp48 wrote:
>
> My first objective this winter was to consistantly complete a mile at each workout. New objective
> is to lower time. What would you suggest is the best approach to lowering my time to say forty
> minutes?

Interval training builds speed. You're interested in long distances, so I'd look at some long
interval work in addition to your daily mile.

Whether you can do 3 workouts a week or 6 depends on your schedule. Obviously more would be better.
I don't do the running you do (I can hardly run a couple blocks), so I swim more.

> What would you consider "hard interval"?

That's a personal thing. Basically it's whatever it takes to get your heart rate up to "high" (say,
160+), followed by the minimal rest to get your pulse back down to merely "pounding" (say, below
140), and repeat.

For me, that might be a set of 5x200yd (8 pool lengths) crawl. I can do each 200 in 2:30 - 2:40, so
I'd start a new interval every 3:00 and rest the remaining 20-30 seconds.

> Thx, JPT
>

Ross

On 20 Feb 2004 22:03:08 GMT, skipthomp48@aol.com (Skipthomp48) wrote:

>Thankyou for comments. Yes, I can probably do both, just wondered which of the two might be more
>beneficial. Further, as weather warms I try to get 15-20 miles in a week running (5 miles per run),
>thus there is only so much time in a day. Obviously I have a long way to go to catch you!!!
>
>My first objective this winter was to consistantly complete a mile at each workout. New
>objective is to lower time. What would you suggest is the best approach to lowering my time to
>say forty minutes?
>
>What would you consider "hard interval"? Thx, JPT

Just my two cents but at 48-51 minutes a mile I'm guessing there's a bit of room for
improvement on the technique end of things too. You may make some serious gains doing some
drill work. 48-51 is roughly 2:45 a hundred, about where I was at when I started, I was even
a bit slower. I dropped quite a bit 30+ secs on the 100 over 2-3 months working on technique
alone. Combining the two would probably work wonders.

~Matt

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 20:33:01 +0000 (UTC), Ross
Bogue <rbogue@phy.ilstu.edu> wrote:

>Larry (our beloved 56 year old doctor) might clock something closer to your time.

Seems to me that Larry's talked about doing his 2000s in 32 minutes, or thereabouts, so he might
keep up with you, Ross.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

I am not here to get into a pissing contest on who is fast or whatever. I suggest you read the book
"Total Immersion". It should help your times without increasing effort. I suspect your form is in
need of improvement.

Curt

"Skipthomp48" <skipthomp48@aol.com> wrote in message news:20040220170308.22733.00000072@mb-
m10.aol.com...
> Thankyou for comments. Yes, I can probably do both, just wondered which
of the
> two might be more beneficial. Further, as weather warms I try to get
15-20
> miles in a week running (5 miles per run), thus there is only so much time
in a
> day. Obviously I have a long way to go to catch you!!!
>
> My first objective this winter was to consistantly complete a mile at each workout. New objective
> is to lower time. What would you suggest is the best approach to lowering my time to say
forty
> minutes?
>
> What would you consider "hard interval"? Thx, JPT

"Skipthomp48" <skipthomp48@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040220141839.29604.00000083@mb-m21.aol.com...
> I have no idea where I would fit with all the expereinced swimmers on this site. I do a one mile
> swim, no stopping, no flip turns, in the
48-51minute
> time frame. No idea whether this is good, great, bad, average, slightly
above
> average for a middle aged male? Comments please.

Continuous one-mile swim, flip turns, non-stop -- 32-33 minutes -- 35y.o. male

(started swimming at 18 w/ beginning swimmers class in college (got a C), taught myself the rest,
learned flip turns in grad school, learned bilateral breathing just a few years ago)

It's easy to get in a rut when doing endurance swimming. I suggest you do breakout sets (like 10x100
w/ 30-second intervals, swimming at max speed) every other week to help build up your speed.

On 20 Feb 2004 19:18:39 GMT, skipthomp48@aol.com (Skipthomp48) wrote:

>I have no idea where I would fit with all the expereinced swimmers on this site. I do a one mile
>swim, no stopping, no flip turns, in the 48-51minute time frame. No idea whether this is good,
>great, bad, average, slightly above average for a middle aged male? Comments please.

What, exactly, do you mean by a "mile"? 1650 yds (66 laps in a 25 yd pool) is considered a mile by
competive swimmers. An actual mile in a 25 yd pool would be 70.4 laps. If you're in a 50 meter pool,
32 laps will get you very close to an actual mile.

The average 1500 M open water swim split for most triathlons is usually somewhere between 25 and 35
minutes, depending on weather conditions, legality of wetsuits, whether or not the local community
has a serious swimming program, etc. If you made that same bunch swim a full mile, it would take
them about 2 minutes longer.

>
>I do not stop between sets, although not doing a flip turn, I do recognize a get a3- 5 second
>break or so.
>
>Also, recommendations from the group. I do 3-4 swims per week. From a workout, stroke
>betterment/practice am I better off to move the work out to say one and a half miles, keeping it at
>the 3-4 sessions/swims per week, or should I increase the swims to 5-6 days per week keeping the
>work out at one mile. My only objective other than fitness is to be able to accomplish/enhance my
>open water swimming this summer. Please note, that if I do not switch strokes during the mile I
>find my free style getting sloppy. I generally do one breast, 9 freestyle, one breast,...etc.
>Problem is doing breast in open water wearing a tri wet suit. Thx in advance for the groups
>comments/critiques.
>

At the pace you're swimming, you could probably improve a great deal by working on both technique
and power and also by doing better turns (since about 20% of the distance in a 25 yd pool can be
covered by the push off alone). Get a coach, read an instructional book, join a master's program,
etc. and also start working in some intervals to improve power.

Swim in a 25 yd and 25 meter pool. The 25 yd is the high school, and 72 laps is a mile. I am told at
the health club that 66 laps is a mile in the meter pool. I am just taking their word for it.

Did try some of the suggestions from this site today. timing not exact but 4 laps in the meter pool
were approx 2 minutes. 33 laps (half mile) at 23minutes. I know recognize after talking with people
on this site that my turns need to be quicker. It was definityly a harder work out today..JP

"Radioactive Man" <rm@rm.rm> wrote in message
> 1650 yds (66 laps in a 25 yd pool) is considered a mile by competive swimmers.

why?

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 13:01:51 -0500, "oscargrouch"
<leeYOURjackVIRGINITYmo@hotmail.com> wrote:

>
>"Radioactive Man" <rm@rm.rm> wrote in message
>> 1650 yds (66 laps in a 25 yd pool) is considered a mile by competive swimmers.
>
>why?

I'm not sure exactly why. I don't believe there's any technical reason. The 1650 yd just happens to
be one of the official distances of U.S. Masters swimming (http://www.usms.org/) and it is often
referred to as a "mile". You'd have to do some research to find the history on it.

On 22 Feb,
Radioactive Man <rm@rm.rm> wrote:

> On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 13:01:51 -0500, "oscargrouch" <leeYOURjackVIRGINITYmo@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >"Radioactive Man" <rm@rm.rm> wrote in message
> >> 1650 yds (66 laps in a 25 yd pool) is considered a mile by competive swimmers.
> >
> >why?
>
> I'm not sure exactly why. I don't believe there's any technical reason. The 1650 yd just happens
> to be one of the official distances of U.S. Masters swimming (http://www.usms.org/) and it is
> often referred to as a "mile". You'd have to do some research to find the history on it.
>
>
Equivalent to 1500m
--
BD add 1 to from address to reply [13435]

"Skipthomp48" <skipthomp48@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040220141839.29604.00000083@mb-m21.aol.com...
> I have no idea where I would fit with all the expereinced swimmers on this site. I do a one mile
> swim, no stopping, no flip turns, in the
48-51minute
> time frame. No idea whether this is good, great, bad, average, slightly
above
> average for a middle aged male? Comments please.
>

I've read the whole thread and it's fascinating to see how people are performing with regards to
time because with me especially, I just get in the pool and swim without really figuring out how I'm
doing against other people. Can I canvass opinion on what times people are doing for breaststroke
alone, any distance? For reference, 25m I can do in 20 seconds whereas endurance (up to 6km) I'm
running at 1300m per 30 minutes (sorry for the mix of units!).

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 13:01:51 -0500, oscargrouch
<leeYOURjackVIRGINITYmo@hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> "Radioactive Man" <rm@rm.rm> wrote in message
>> 1650 yds (66 laps in a 25 yd pool) is considered a mile by competive swimmers.
>
> why?

I never considered it to be a mile. I always considered it to be as close as you can get to 1500
meters in a pool measured in yards.

In Norway, 10 kilometers is 1 mile. Norway takes the metric system very seriously.

martin

--
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