Swim Speed Per 100 tracking (novice swimmer)

Dont want to hijack just asking same question as you.  Swam 4 times before my triatholons this summer.

2nd day back swimming, after 3 months since last time in pool.  I swam 1250 yds at 2:04 per 100 pace. Is that any good?

I'm new to swimming too, but started to swim "seriously" (for me, a runner) after a foot injury over the past 14 weeks.

No real swim background to speak of short of at least knowing how to swim. Studied the heck out of Total Immersion, and did 100% focus on form and not speed (as the book said), and built up to 60 minutes of near-continuous swim times.

My progress roughly:

- First week of swimming: 2:10-2:20/100m, 400-500m at a time before needing rest. 18 strokes/100m after reading Total immersion.

- Yesterday's swim:

Freestyle right side breathing: 1:47/100m for nearly 45 minutes continuous, 11-12 strokes/100m

Freestyle left side breathing: 1:55/100m for nearly 45 minutes continouous, 11-12 strokes/100m

Being a beginner improving on the swim is great fun. I really do believe that the technique is super-critical, and I'm still horrified with the gross inefficiencies that I have learned to easily spot even as a beginner, that some of the "fast" people in the pool (faster than me, that is) still cling to.

I found it very interesting that my freestyle left is 10sec/slower than my freestyle right breathing, despite very similar roll technique and obviously the same arm strength. I practice each side near equally, but am a natural "right" person. For me, the main difference I notice is that my arm scull on the right side breathing is far more effective - I feel like I'm really gripping a lot of water, whereas rightnow, when I'm left breathing like it's ineffectively dragging through the water despite focusing mentally on the same exact motion. I think the details of the technique make a huge difference, although I'll also say that the swim-specific fitness is equally huge at my stage in the game, and it took 3 months of 4-6x/wk of steady swimming to build up enough endurance to go the distance. I suspect most of my time gains from here will be endurance-related and less technique.

Am I correct in reading that you are doing about 3 strokes/25m?  I am a novice as well, but either this is incorrect or I am misunderstand how to count strokes.

brad

Thanks for the complements everyone.   I will keep it up.

Oh crap - I totally misposted.

I went from 18 strokes per 25 (not 100!) meters and now am at 11-12. BIG difference! Sorry!

 Also didn't mean to hijack the OPs thread. I thought the title meant this would be a "post your novice improvement times so we can all compare" kind of thread. Regardless, great improvements to the OP!

Cool, thanks for the reply.  If feel better already.

Hi Mark,  

Don't worry about 100 speed at your current ability level.  Your #1 goal is to become relaxed in the water.  #2 is being able to swim your desired race distance, three stroke breathing, without stopping.  

In order to swim fast (right now) you will be using poor technique and that will hold back your ultimate swim speed.

At your level, frequent, relaxed, shorter swims is the way to go.  As you are noticing, you will likely improve each month -- this is an exciting time -- I learned to swim freestyle in 1999 and can remember the enjoyment from moving up the learning curve.

Hope this helps,

g

Not trying to hijack this,

But also in the same boat at the OP and would like to continue the conversation about beginner swimming and improving times or improving distance, etc ...

When I started swimming about Aug 1st 2008, I could do maybe 30-40m freestyle ... had a lifeguard teach me that survival "sidestroke" method ... I just wanted to be able to swim 300-400m so I could at least finish my first sprint tri coming up in Sept 14th (6 weeks out).

When I could finally get about 400 yards with the sidestroke, my 100 yard time was around 2:45 to 3 mins.

Then improved to 750 yards sidestroke and about 2:30 min per 100 yards.

Then worked on freestyle, and had just completed my first 400 yard freestyle training before my first sprint tri.  My 100 yard avg was about 2:30 ... my swim time at the race was 7:19 for 300 yards ... so about 2:25 per 100 yds or so ...

That was 6 weeks improvement from 30 yards to 400 yards and 2:45 to 2:25 per 100 yds.

Then trained more for 2nd race on Oct 18th ... got up to 750 and 800 yard training swims, avg 100 yds was around 1:55 to 2:00 ... my race of 250 yards was 5:43 ... a little over 2:00 per 100 yds...

I rested a couple of weeks and now only get about 2:05 per 100 yards, but just went 30 mins for 1000 yards Friday.

So, I was kind happy with my improvement, but I think the OP has an even better improvement and think they have came a long way.

Way to Go!

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