UKC

I am hopefully taking part in a short triathlon next week and need to enter an estimated time for the swim leg. I have not been swimming in quite a few years so have no idea how long it takes to swim 400m. I used to swim a lot so am confident I can make the distance, I just don't have a clue how long it will take. No doubt I will go off far too fast and burn out! Its in a 25m pool, does 20 seconds a length sound about right, giving a 400m time of about 5/6 mins.

Cheers for any info.
Matt

In reply to sharpie530:

I think that would be very good going!! If you've not swum in a while maybe nearer 30 seconds a length which would include the turn (8mins total).

I think triathlons are often run so that people are grouped in order of similar times for the swim. If someone wants to overtake you they tap your ankle and you let them past at the end of the length....

Would be quite a lot of stopping to let folk past if you've greatly over-estimated your swim time.

Can you get a swim in before the race??

In reply to sharpie530: Ive only done 500m pool swims at ilkley tri, but your 20s a length over 500m would put you just behind Jonny Brownlee when he last did it. I think if you're a decent swimmer who's out of practice 25s a length would be more like it. I'm not a great swimmer (although I can do proper crawl with bilateral breathing etc) and I did 10mins so 30s a lap.

In reply to Paul035:

Ah good, after thinking about it I realise 20secs might be a little optimistic. I think I might struggle to get a swim in unfortunately, though it would probably do me a lot of good! 8-10mins sounds a little more realistic

In reply to sharpie530: 3 mins 32 seconds is the world record. That's 13.2 seconds a length so 7 minutes is 26.2 seconds and you just don't get lapped every length. Something you may feel quite proud of?

In reply to Paul035:


Do you mean "underestimated"?

In reply to sharpie530:

I think ten to twelve minutes is fairly standard/average for open water (swimming crawl), so you should be looking at a bit quicker for a pool.

Depends how good a swimmer you are!!! I'd say ten minutes to be on the safe side.

In reply to sharpie530: your time will be used to determine your wave so be aware if you get it wildly wrong you'll be holding up other people or being held up. It's really annoying to lap someone twice in what's supposed to be a seeded lane, can you really not fit in one practice swim? Or err on the side of caution so you're the one being held up rather than holding up

In reply to sharpie530: I made this mistake - on my first tri I put in 15 mins for the 500m swim in a pool and ended up trapped behind breast strokers (!) and overtaking probably 30/40 people. I did it in 9 mins with lots of slow downs.

In reply to sharpie530:

I got pursuaded into a Sprint Tri earlier this year which had a 750m swim. I don't swim regularly and hadn't swum that distance doing crawl for years. After only a couple of sessions I could get to 20minutes for 30 lengths pretty reliably so you should certainly be able to better that. As a point of reference, the event winners were doing 750m in about 11 or 12 minutes.

In reply to sharpie530:

Would that be the Ulverston Tri? Was thinking about doing that, in which case I'd put 10m as my swim time: I'm a competent but not especially fast swimmer.

Peter

In reply to sharpie530:


Providing you have the stamina to keep at that pace, that's good going. Maybe a time of about 7 mins would be appropriate. Trying to think back to my swimming days, if you want to judge my times so you get a rough idea to what you may be able to do, here you go.

50m: 26.8s
100m: 58.2s
200m 2 min 11 secs
400m 4 min 25 secs

Time yourself for 50m, 100m freestyle and maybe adjust your 400m time to what i've done to make it realistic.

Hope this may be of help.

In reply to Ian Paterson: These were all pool times, in a 25m pool.

In reply to Ian Paterson:

Pity you're not a girl, you'd be close to some world records there...

In reply to Peter Metcalfe:

Yes, its the Ulverston tri. I'm hoping I haven't left it too late to enter, unfortunately I won't know if I'm around on Sunday till tomorrow.

Cheers for all the info!

In reply to sharpie530:

When I used to train regularly (6 times a week for 7 years), the top we used to work on 16 sec a length (25m) being what you should be at for competition (freestyle) but you couldn't sustain it.

I know I got ASA Gold freestyle awards their max times are:
25 m: 16 secs 70 ms
50 m: 37 secs 20 ms
100m: 1 min 22 secs 80 ms
200m: 3 min 02 secs 40 ms
400m: 6 min 24 secs 70 ms

There is a platinum catorgory too but I just couldn't flail my arms fast enough.

The bronze level is:
25m: 21secs
400m: 8 mins 04 secs 70 ms

Silver:
25m: 18 secs 30 ms
400m: 7 mins 03 secs 50 ms

Allow for the fact you will slow down, 500m....

In reply to sharpie530: good - average would be 8-10 Minutes.

Cheers
LD

In reply to sharpie530:

As it happens, I just did, for a change, a bit of distance swimming tonight.
Did about 10 sporadic lengths as a warm up and then suddenly decided to swim a mile, only the second time I've ever done that (I rarely swim more than 20 consecutive lengths!)

Anyway with this thread in mind, I timed (roughly off the pool's analogue clock) my first 400, in a 25m pool, freestyle but paced in consideration that I would have another 48 lengths to do afterward. It took 8.5 minutes in a shared lane with just a couple of bits where I had to slow down a bit due to slow swimmers in front.

I say I paced it, but I doubt that my "sprint" would have shaved that much off my time. My freestyle technique is woefully lacking, legs are hardly used. Did a few tumble turns but they were hardly "race style". I wonder if open water would affect this time that much.

In reply to Katie86: I swam a lot when I was younger and never heard of asa gold free style award.

But I recon about 25-30 seconds a lap is a fair pace if you haven't swam for a few years, you don't want to burn yourself out

In reply to sharpie530:
Been tonight and did 6.5mins for the 400, that is in a 20m pool though.
Got down to about 5 or so, but some fecking cold is stuffing me up at the moment

In reply to Jiduvah:

We did the ASA speed awards at my first swimming club, they're just part of the awards same as a 5m badge is and aimed at children (not sure what age up to). Never did any of those sorts of awards at a competitive club.

In reply to ebygomm: ah right, I might have actually done them then.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I do