For anyone with a swimming background....

While you're no speed demon, I wouldn't call that slow for someone who has no swim background.

The local master's clubs here will take anyone who can swim a couple of laps without stopping. The talent level tends to span the spectrum....guys who swam at a collegiate level, decent triathletes, and people who just like to swim. I think you would fit in fine.

swimgirly? wrote:

I was recently diagnosed with a femoral stress fracture, so I'd like to take up swimming. I'm considering joining a masters swimming team, but don't want to embarass myself. I have absolutely no background in swimming, so I'm not really familiar with what's good and what's not. I timed myself in a 1600 meter swim (64 laps) last night, and finished in 26:30 (i'm a girl). For all of you with a swimming background, how slow is that? Is it like the equivalent of a 10 minute mile? I'd just like to know if joining a swim team would be a worthwhile endevor, or would I be completely out of my league?

Serious replies only please!

First of all, for someone with no swimming background and who presumably does not swim at all for fitness, just being able to jump in a pool and swim 1600 meters continuously is an accomplishment. I would say 26:30 for a mile is more the equivalent to someone who is aerobically fit but never runs jumping aout and running 5-7 miles at an 8:00 pace.

So, no...you're not even close to being too slow for a Masters team. On my Masters team there are folks who swim 3-4 days a week religiously and couldn't swim 1600m even close to that fast. For a woman masters swimmer, 19-21 min for 1600m would be fast. 21-24 min would be average. 24-28 min would be below average but respectable. There are very few female Masters swimmers who can swim 1600m in 18 min or better...maybe your odd post-collegiate distance star, but that's about it.

So join a Masters team. Swimming is much more fun with a team than logging laps alone. The hardest part won't be finding a pace you can handle, but learning the other strokes.

I think that 26:30 is very impressive for a non-swimmer. If you look at the freestyle swimming world records, they are roughly 4x the running world record (100m free is close to 400m run record, 400m free is roughly the mile wr, etc...). So, I'd say swimming 26:30 for 1600m (not yards) would be similar to a swimmer who doesn't run going out and running 4 miles in 26:30 (if you swam 1600yd, that would be like running 4 miles in low 29's). Darn good in my opinion.

What is a decent time for breastroke?

I am a former 14:42/3 mile (indoor) and 2:30 (marathon) who now swims 2000m in an average of 48 minutes 4 times a week, using only breastroke style. I rest for 3 minutes after 1000 (in 24:00), then repeat, for around the same time. So this is a continuous swim. My time may seem slow, but I notice that most people in the pool doing breastroke are slower than me, except the kids in the club teams.

I am 51 years old, with no real swimming background. Have always swum for fun.

Ghost in Korea

Ghost, can you provide proof of this? Can you provide verifiable split times?

It must be just so damned impressive to do the 2000 meter breaststroke faster than elderly Koreans.

Why don't you fill your cavernous rectum with kimchee. I bet you'll go 47 minutes instead of 48.

Yeah...I realized that I was doing yards, not meters. I guess I'm even slower than i thought! The good news is that I have several months to improve =)

Thanks for the replies!

ghost wrote:

I rest for 3 minutes after 1000 (in 24:00), then repeat, for around the same time. So this is a continuous swim.

How is this a continuous swim?

Just to boost your confidence...

I started swimming about 3 months ago. I swim 2000-2400 yeards 3 times/wk.

My best 1600y time is 38:55 (I'm male).

i'm really glad i took up swimming several years ago because of tris. i'm past my prime in running but it's been great going to masters workouts and learning all the strokes. most masters workouts are done like track intervals where there is minimal recovery. i can hammer myself to into oblivion in the pool i actually forget that i suck at running!

if i hammer running these days, i'd been done for a week. but in the pool, you can just come back and do it again the next day.

go to masters and suffer through the workouts for the first few weeks. after a while, you'll find a lane of people of similar speeds. don't think of it as something you will do while you are injured. take it seriously, learn to flip turn, do fly, and suffer though the sets. it'll give you something to do with your competitive juices while recovering.

As others said, you'll be fine! I do masters' swimming as well as running, and there is a wide spectrum of speeds. You definitely won't be the slowest by any stretch of the imagination!

One suggestion: try a few different groups to see which feels as if it would be a good fit. You might find that going to a couple different groups per week works better than staying with a single one. I swim with a couple groups that fill different needs for me (one a fairly small group that I enjoy because there's more individual attention and the other a larger group that does longer workouts but the coach is less "hands-on"--but each has its benefit).

The swimming has really been great in helping me stay healthy and avoid injury--can recover from runs a lot faster than I used to!

Good luck and hope your injury heals soon, but as suggested, you might want to stick w/ masters' swimming even after you recover fr/ the injury.

Ghost,

Figure breaststroke is roughly 25% slower than free (if your technique is good). So 48 min for 2000m breaststroke is similar to 40 min (VERY roughly) for 2000m free. That is definitely better than most recreational swimmers that you'll see in the pool. It is pretty similar to my easy swimming (I too am a runner who swims just for fun), but isn't a competitive time (although maybe it is for 50+, I'm not really sure).

swimgirly?,

You are definitely NOT slow for a total beginner. Think about it, you did the equivalent of someone with ZERO running background going out and running 22 flat for 5k. Not many women can do that. I figured you might have confused the yards and meters. As runners, we are always thinking in terms of meters. In swimming, they mix it up (most pools are 25yd, although many are 50m and a few are 25m).

Assuming you are a decent runner, you could probably be quite a good triathlete if you wanted to. Swimming is usually the toughest for runners to pick up on.

I hate to be the cinic here - but are you sure you didn't mis-measure the distance? 1600 METERS?!? That works out to about 1:35 per 100m pace which is REALLY good....10,000 as good is you have zero background. I would say this is faster than 75% of my Master's swim team (my team isn't great or terrible - middle of the rd).

Anyway, as someone else suggested - you may want to give triathlon a try b/c if you're in the upper tier of running, w/ some work that 26:30 could be a 21:30 and have you fairly close to a pro female swim split.

I already admitted that i realized my pool was yards, not meters. Read before you post.

swimgirl,

best thing you can do is join a masters squad and swim with other people, you will be on a steep learning curve for awhile (as is the way with new things)and have a good chance of carving off several minutes fairly quickly. So your 1600 yard swim was about two lengths short of 1500m, it still represents a very good starting point, swimming is very technique and is hard to learn as a adult but you are already at a pace people coming late to the sport often never reach.