Swimming to running equivalent

1:49.99 200m freestyle is roughly equivalent to 1:49.99 800m run; 1:44.99 200m freestyle swim is roughly equivalent to 1:44.99 800m run. No one can do both because no one can part-time train for either.

That's about equivalent to running a 10K in an hour.

Pusha p gotta know

Good triathletes swim 1500 in around 18:00/19:00 minutes (world record is 14:20 approx), these same triathletes run 5km in around 15:00-16:00.

I think it is fair to say that my 8km run time and my 2000m swim time were pretty similar for a long time.

If I was able to swim repeat 200m on the 3 minute send-off, I was running my 800 repeats in about the same time (though I needed more rest and could run them somewhat faster).

That means the 4:1 ratio is true for me. That is pretty much what I went off of.

I don't think swimming 3400m in an hour is terrible. But 10km in an hour is terrible. That is why I would push back on your comparison a bit.

3400m x 4 = 13.6km. So your swim is worth running 8.5M in one hour... for me. I don't know if you are a better swimmer or a better runner. That is a big part of it.

In an elite Olympic-distance triathlon, an 18-minute 1.5km swim is equivalent to a 30-minutes 10km run. An average age-grouper would probably do a 30-minute swim and a 50 minute run which scales to about 60% for both disciplines relative to the elites.

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This isn’t about what is better, it’s a cross training question.

It's now turned into "what is better?" Good luck trying to get it to switch back :)

Seriously, though, the 4:1 comparison is a good one. For your 3400m swim in an hour, think of it as a roughly 13.6km run in an hour. That's a pretty decent pace, a good quality aerobic effort (unless you're very good).

For swimming, I'd do the 4:1 to compare paces, but a further factor of 1.5 in training time, since it's easier on your body to swim than to run. So you could consider your hour of swimming to be "equivalent" to 40 minutes of running at 13.6 km/h. If you want the equivalent of an hour run, swim for 1.5 hours, etc.

Of course, this is all very rough, but since you seem to be both a trained swimmer and runner, it shouldn't lead you too far astray.

Great thread as I just started swimming as some cross training after knee injury. Apparently I’m terrible at swimming because I can only manage 1200yd in about 30 minutes and am totally exhausted at the end.

With swimming being so form intensive, this is almost impossible to answer. You can work incredibly hard to swim 2:00/100 if your form sucks (or breaks down through fatigue) or easily cruise through 100 in half the time if you're a lifelong swimmer.

The "best" thing to do would be find your threshold pace in the pool and calculate relative effort off that. You can go by zone, tss, whatever you want from there, but I can't see any use in trying to equate this to miles run.

No!!!

I'm an ex-runner turned swimmer. I consider myself to be a decent swimmer. My 3000m PR is 52:25.

I think 3400m in 1hr is about my 3000m pace.

I believe this is around 45min 10k run level. If you do WR comparisons/math, you will see that this is around "55% level".

Swimming is hard. If you are not a swimmer, it won't really translate at all.

I remember doing a swim workout one day and an NBA player (rehabbing?) came to the pool. It was painful to watch a super fit, young, athlete just getting destroyed by every lap. He had to rest after every 25y and was sucking wind. It was weird because I know he had the fitness to run the court at an NBA level.

Fitness doesn't always translate, so the 4:1 conversion (for distance) and the 1.5:1 conversion (for time spent working out) only apply if you are close in ability in both sports.

Yes, agreed.

Some clarification for those of you who aren't swimmers: by swimming 3400m in an hour, the OP is clearly a capable, experienced swimmer, so my post above and those of Ruxton Towers XC should be taken in that context. If you're a much better runner than swimmer, the 4:1 ratio probably won't work for you, so go by effort. The 1.5:1 ratio of training time is still good, but only once you've built up your technique/fitness so that you can swim back and forth without too much more effort than your easy runs.

Also, swimmers do many more intervals than runners, even at easier speeds. Instead of a straight 3000m, try mixing it up with 5 x 200, 5 x 100, 5 x 200, 5 x 100, with 15-second breaks between each.

The conversion is roughly 1:4. 1 mile swim = 4 miles running. The fitness to comfortably in a 32 min 4 mile roughly equals the 30-34 min mile swim given you have basic technique and can comfortably breath on both sides.

Yeah this is a common # used by triathletes. I'll burn maybe 500-600 calories in an hour of swimming but more for an hour run. Maybe something like 10:00 swimming = 1 mile running. It's not 1hr of swimming = 1hr 10k. But there isn't a real equivalent. Swimming will get you better at swimming & running will get you better at running. If you're supplementing your running with some swimming you'll likely get a little aerobically stronger &, with time, you'll find it easier to swim. Swimming is low impact & can help add a small amount of fitness for pure runners. But you're not adding 6 miles to your weekly mileage every time you swim for an hour. Just be smart with it. If you're going to swim hard then think about if you need recovery time & how much quality you're doing in a week.

I just checked the thread again, and I was rather ungenerous on my half-baked estimate of run equivalency. I was a mediocre small college distance runner and life long surfer before I got into triathlon training. I was a decent age group triathlete, and with a reasonable amount of swim training and good stroke coaching, I could do about 4,250M in a one hour swim, and I was able to eke out a little over 16k (10 miles) in a one hour run. So, that's about a 3.76:1 ratio.

I just use duration to equate them. I have never been a competitive swimmer (other than swimming the mile in masters swim meets), but I have used swimming to get through periods of recovery from running injuries without losing fitness. For example, I would swim (front crawl) for 40 minutes every day during the week and then bump that up to 60 minutes on the weekend. This approach worked very well for me, other than I never developed an enjoyment of swimming laps.