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Determining
Your Aerobic Swimming Pace
Determining Your Swim
Pace is crucial to real swimming improvement
Hazen Kent -
Tri-Newbies Online
Regardless
of your swimming experience, developing a solid swimming
pace for your triathlon competition(s) is essential for
a balanced and effective triathlon performance. And the
faster your pace, the better the overall results.
However,
don’t get a "faster swimming pace" confused with
simply "swimming fast." For when we talk of
pace, we are referring to your aerobic pace,
specifically a pace based on your aerobic training
level. Furthermore, the faster you are able to swim at
your aerobic pace and the longer you are able to
maintain that pace, the better your overall triathlon
performance. And in a triathlon, this means a faster
swim leg without jeopardizing your upcoming bike and
run.
In
this article, we will show you the necessary components
to develop and fine tune your open water swim pace based
on your current level of swimming. This will also
include learning how to design your own swim program
based your specific swimming goals.
In
swimming, your aerobic swim pace will be a result of
your average 50 yard or meter freestyle pace or your 100
yard or meter freestyle pace over a given distance. And
the given distance will be determined by the particular
triathlon for which you will be training.
First,
what is the distance of the triathlon for which you will
be training? Sprint, Olympic, Half Iron, or Iron
Distance? Knowing this is necessary to determine the
swim distance you must perform in order to find your
aerobic swim pace. (see chart
below for a break down of Triathlon distances and test
swims.)
Race
Distance |
Swim
Distance |
Test
Swim
Distance |
Pace |
Divide
Your Total
Time by ... |
|
Sprint
Tri |
500-800
yds |
500
yds |
50
yd pace |
10 |
| Olympic
Tri |
1500
yds |
1000
yds |
50
yd pace |
20 |
| Half
Iron Tri |
2000
yds |
1500
yds |
100
yd pace |
10 |
| Iron
Dist Tri |
4000
yds |
2000
yds |
100
yd pace |
20 |
For
example, let us say you are training for a Sprint
Distance Triathlon. The swim portion of the race usually
covers a distance of approximately ¼ to ½ mile. In
yards, this transfers to about 500-800 yards (or
meters). Therefore, your training or test swim should
cover at least 500 yards (or meters). The key is to swim
this distance relaxed. Not slow, not fast, but at a nice
pace with which you feel comfortable. And you want
record your time for this swim. After a good warm-up,
begin the swim. At the end of the swim, record your
total time. Then divide that total time by 10 (a 500 yd
swim is made up of 10 x 50’s) and the result will be
your 50 yd swim pace. Therefore, if you swam your 500
freestyle in 7 minutes and 30 seconds, your aerobic 50
yd swim pace would be .45 seconds (7.5 minutes divided
by 10).
In order
to mark your improvement, once, every three weeks you
want to perform this test
to assess your improvement.
Once you have
determined your aerobic pace, you then have a base-time
to use during your swim training and specific swim sets.
However, your goal is to improve this aerobic
pace.
Therefore,
challenge yourself!
Looking
at the results from the example above, if you are given
a set of 10 x 50’s freestyle on an interval of one
minute, you should be able to hold a pace of 45 seconds
per 50 with relative ease. This would also allow you 15
seconds rest between each swim. However, we want to make
this a challenge so try and hold 42 seconds for each 50
yd. freestyle you perform. You will be surprised how
easy it is to swim just three seconds faster per 50. And
you will be even more delighted when you realized
you’ve just improved your overall 500 yd. swim time by
15 seconds!
Finally,
during these specific aerobic swim sets, take note of
your heart rate. Your goal is to try and keep your heart
rate within it’s aerobic range during these type of
sets.
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