UKC

Hello

So I went swimming tonight for the third time ever in a 50m pool, probably the third time I have been swimming in about 2 years.
It took me 37 minutes to do 32 lengthss (approx a mile) mostly breast stroke and about 10 lengths crawl

I then timed a length of crawl and it was 45 seconds. I was pretty proud of this until I had a bit of a google for average times, and all I could find were people saying 23 seconds was average. surely that's not possible for the average person?

so my question, what is a decent time to swim 50m? My new target is a mile in under 30mins.

Holly

In reply to holly:


Was the length of the length stated? If they're on about a 25m length, you're as average as you think you are!

In reply to wayno265:

Yeah, it said for 50m

In reply to holly:

Not bad going at all, Holly. In fact I'm slightly impressed if that was mostly breast stroke.

Define "decent", though. Think you'll find 23 seconds is average for 25m, not 50m.

Your mile target is achievable with crawl, but you'll have to be going like the clappers to do it with any breast stroke involved.

I've been swimming in a 75m pool lately - trying to get that down to under a minute for a length flat out!

In reply to holly:
Would be impressed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_50_metres_freestyle
The world record is 20 seconds. If you are within 5 seconds of the world record you are not average

In reply to holly:

That can't be average! The World Record is the best part of 21 seconds. I reckon the average sprinting time of people who could swim well would be between 30-35 seconds, maybe a bit more.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Phiew.. It definatley said 50m, but then, it was an american website

75m pool sounds pretty horrific, where can I find one of those? I can't imagine ever being able to do 32 lengths of crawl. 4 leaves me feeling like death and the next length of breast stroke is spent trying to regain feeling in my arms and shoulders.

I'm a little happier again now. Thanks

In reply to holly:

The first time I ever tried to swim a mile, in a 25m pool, it took just over 40 minutes. Mostly crawl but slow crawl and no tumble turns. My breast stroke is slower than it could be as I am not able to do a proper frog kick (really tried hard to do it the other night but it aggravates my left knee due to an old injury)

A mile in 30 minutes is a good and achievable goal to aim for but it might become a bit of an obsession!

In reply to holly:

I'm sure that 50m is a typo on that site - or Americans would be winning a lot more swimming medals!

Keep practicing - you'll easily build up your crawl endurance.

There is a 75m open air pool at Newbury sports centre - it's conveniently round the corner from where I work, so have been swimming there a lot recently, as I've got a triathlon starting in it next weekend.

After that I've got a 750m lake swim kicking off an off-road triathlon.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I struggle to do breast stroke as I wear swimming shorts and most of them restrict my leg movement for the frog kick. I do do a few lengths of it, as it uses different muscles to my normal crawl.

The only time I don't swim in shorts is because I'm in a wetsuit or tri suit for a race.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

I can't really do a kick for crawl, its more a leg spasm that I have no control over. Breast stroke kick is much more useful but it hurts the muscle on the top of my foot/front of ankle. more practice needed.

In reply to Blue Straggler:


Should keep me occupied at uni. I think it would be pretty managable especialy in a 25m pool with all the extra push offs.

Only managed 2/3 underwater again, and went a bit dizzy which is not so good.

In reply to holly:

My legs contribute no forward propulsion to my crawl, they just do a token kick to keep themselves level! I have tested this on numerous occasions with pull buoys - if I don't use my legs, it makes no difference to my "speed" (actually "crawl" is the right description )

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Interesting. Sounds like I swim very similarly to you, using mainly my arms.

Using my legs does give me some extra power and speed when I'm going for it, though.

In reply to holly: the American times could have been for 50 yards rather than metres

Front crawl should be mainly arms, and breast stroke should be mainly legs. I can power up and down the pool front crawl arms only, but struggle to do one length breast stroke arms only.

In reply to ebygomm:


A yard is 90% of a metre though so that's still a pretty bloody fast average! Holly what the website? Was it the site of a swimming club? That would probably give a fast average

Just looked at the progression of WR times for 50m

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_50_metres_freestyle

In reply to Blue Straggler: yes, still 90% but the difference between a 23 second 50m and a 25 second 50m is huge. I think average in a swimming club could be 25 seconds. My club has 11 year olds swimming it in less than 30 seconds

In reply to ebygomm:

Aye I figure the club thing (and the 2 sec difference) while writing the first half of my post, hence bringing "swimming club" into it (albeit vaguely) in the second half

In reply to ebygomm:

That would be a good swimming club to average that time, when I was 18 I was top 3 In Essex and my time was 26.1 so an average of 25 would take some going, I'm going for a club average of 50 yards!

30 miuntes is a good goal for a mile swim, just make sure you mix up your training and don't just get in and swim a mile every time you swim.

In reply to AnthonyB: agree that it wouldn't be typical, just trying to find explanations for the average Holly found

In reply to holly:

When I was swimming every day after a month or so I got the mile down to 25mins, but that was crawl all the way.

Back in the day when I was swimming competitively (county level) then I was swimming a 25m length in about 13 seconds, 50m in about 28s. That was, however, a long, long time ago.

In reply to holly:

I don't know what your swimming background is, but my experience is that you need to work on technique as well as just swimming. There is a lot of useful information on this site:

http://www.swimsmooth.com/