How bad at swimming am I?

Mungo · Joined: 29 Sep 2016 Posts: 416 Location: Preston

Stennard
Your a good swimmer.

The fact that you ran the first 10 k in a tough hot 70.3 faster than the 10 k in a standard tells you all you need to know. Your tired, comparing swim times in a different environment when you weren't is pretty pointless.

The vast majority of athletes are faster in a suit. That said the points you gave there's something not right.

I'm slow and steady in the swim, 35 min 1.9k the plus side is I've swam the full IM distance in 1:10 which seemed quite easy.

How new is the new suit?
Have you ever has a OW swim that matched your pool times?
Your HR seems very high in the water, is this the same in the pool?
Do you get the panic thing?
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TriSam · Joined: 26 Aug 2011 Posts: 1300 Location: Tunbridge Wells

It could be something as simple as your turns in the pool masking your true "swim speed". I have something very similar, in that I am noticeably faster in the pool than OW.

I realised this when I swum long course rather than short course for the first time, and struggled to keep anywhere near my swim partner. It turns out that they're a much faster swimmer than me, but I gain quite a lot at each turn.

This could be due to the strength of the kick off the wall, streamlining, turn speed etc.

stenard · Joined: 04 Sep 2013 Posts: 2063

hammerer · Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 10:46 am Post subject:

tin pot · Joined: 08 Jul 2013 Posts: 2592 Location: Bromley

Hmm.

I recently started swimming again in a 33m pool, and despite a couple of months off seem to be faster than in my old 25m pool.

What’s LCM/SCM stand for? Long course...?
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Iron ‘17 16h11, '16 14h30
Half Iron ‘18 DNF, '17 7h39, 6h28 '16 5h53
Olympic '16 3h18 '15 3h33, '13 3h36
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twhat · Joined: 28 Oct 2011 Posts: 1271 Location: London

hammerer · Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 1:50 pm Post subject:

tin pot · Joined: 08 Jul 2013 Posts: 2592 Location: Bromley

Jgav · Joined: 06 Dec 2016 Posts: 281

Swimming is finally starting to progress, worked on head position whilst breathing and getting my buoyancy and core working better.

200m time has dropped from 4+ mins to 3.40. Managed to hold that pace over 4 x 200m. Swam a flat out 100m in 1.42. Still don't get how people how much faster pace for long swims!

stenard · Joined: 04 Sep 2013 Posts: 2063

Coming back to my "being $hite in OW" post, I have made some progress at least.

I think the turns are definitely an element. So I'm making an effort to get to a lake at least once a week for some extended swims. I think that's already making a bit of a difference.

The other big thing I realised, on some self analysis, was that the mass start effect was seriously damaging my performance. I was overcooking myself in the first 100m and that was causing a rather dramatic decline in pace over the second half of swims. I did Deva Olympic a couple of weekends ago, and deliberately positioned myself away from the bunch and made no effort to find anyone to draft.

On the face of it, my time was even slower than Southport, but that swim is more than 50% against the current of the river. Comparing times against everyone in my AG who did both Southport and Deva, and I had the smallest increase in swim time of anyone. I even beat someone who put 3mins into me at Southport. I go into more in-depth analysis in my race report (about 2/3 of the way down), but I thought I'd at least feedback that pacing would appear to be a massive factor.
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twhat · Joined: 28 Oct 2011 Posts: 1271 Location: London

Made a return to swimming myself yesterday. Have a bad back and i cant run Sad

Pretty much 4 years off and i was surprised how much i 'remembered'. Peak swim for me back in the day i was holding 1.40/100 over 1500m and yesterday 300m warm up, 300m drills 200m build and then 1k at 1.45/100 without too much trouble. I felt pretty conscious of where technique was letting me down too so if i can get 3 visits a week in for a while it would be interesting to see if i could get my times back down to anywhere near my modest pbs.
I swam at 08.30 on sunday morning... was lucky enough to have a lane to myself at my local David lloyd, despite them comandeering first the fast and then the medium lane for swimming lessons. #getupearlier

With regards converting times to OW... well personally this was never a problem, i always seemed to be faster in a wetsuit which i guess says something about my own limitations. I certainly struggled when converting a 25m to 50m pool but jump in a lake or the sea and i always seemed to outperform. Conversely i am one of the few people i ever found who is slower with a pullbouy than without.
Hoping to keep up with this new swim thing but tbh, if my back heals, i'll probably be out running again, its just soooo much easier to fit into life.

Jorgan · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:11 am Post subject:

On the SCM/LCM and OW swimming thing. Yes, if your turns are good, you're hopefully swimming <20m a length in SCM, hence the fast times!
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twhat · Joined: 28 Oct 2011 Posts: 1271 Location: London

Jorgan · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2018 9:08 am Post subject:

^^ the only thing with tumble-turns is that you are more oxygen deprived during the process; unlike a grab turn where you take a big gulp!
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twhat · Joined: 28 Oct 2011 Posts: 1271 Location: London