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Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this...
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 2005-03-24 10:57 AM |
 974.926 |  Subject: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this...And I wouldn't be, except I saw a thread on USMS' board about land miles vs. pool miles and it confused the heck out of me. A girl started off the post say she swims the 500, "which is considered a mile." A follow up post was this: "1500 meters long course or a 1650 short course yard swim is generally considered the swimming "mile." Swimming 400 yards generally equates to the same amount of time that it would take to run a mile, if you make swimming vs. track comparisons. 50 swim sprint = 220 track event; 100 swim sprint equals quarter mile track event; etc." The bunch over at USMS got down-right critical after that, making me afraid to post this question ANYWHERE, but I'm going to do it anyway...since my fear of under-training or wildly overtraining is greater than my fear of criticism (barely) and you all seem very encouraging in the posts here. If I'm swimming in a sprint tri that has a 1/4 mile POOL swim, how many meters/laps am I swimming? I assume 20 laps/500m but by the formula above it seems like only a 125m or so?!?!? That can't be right.... I can do a 500m straight if I psyc myself out by saying it's "only" 5x100m. It's a little sloppy & slow (which I'm working hard to fix), but I get it done. Is that the distance I should expect? I'm doing the Central Park Tri, Aug 21. I just registered for it today (my first tri EVER) so if anyone has any personal experience with that particular race, I would love to hear it! OK, I'm done rambling. Thanks everyone! Ellie |
| 2005-03-24 11:01 AM in reply to: #133618 |
Pro  3870     Virginia Beach, VA | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... I'm guess she means that swimming 500m is about the same amount of work as running a mile. But a mile is a mile and 500m is 500m no matter how you cover it. So your 1/4 mile pool swim IS STILL 1/4 mile (400m) which depending on the size of the pool (20m, 25m, 20yds, 25yds) will be about 8 laps or 16 lengths. |
| 2005-03-24 11:15 AM in reply to: #133621 |
Expert 1274 Jackson, Mississippi | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... TH3_FRB - 2005-03-24 10:01 AM But a mile is a mile and 500m is 500m no matter how you cover it. My thoughts exactly.. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1+mile+in+yards&btnG=Google+Se... That shows the conversion 1 mile = 1760yards. To me.. if I want to swim a mile.. i swim that far.. but I usually drop off the last 10 yards since I really don't want to stop 10 yards off the wall and raise my arms in victory. 1760*.25 = 440 yards.. to me that is a quarter of a mile. I don't see much sense in comparing swimming events to track events.. If the girl posted that she swam the 500.. either yards or meters.. that doesn't equal a mile to me. I'm not expert.. thats just my opinion... and it may be that the true swimmers are a little picky about it but from what I can gather us Tri folks are more interested in getting to T1 with gas left in the tank. From what I can remember it is generaly accepted that 64 lengths (or 32 laps) is a mile in a standard 25 yard pool. that is a total of 1600 yards. 1760yds/25yds = 70.4 lengths. Ok I just confused myself.. anyway.. Don't stress about it too much. I imagine you'll be swimming 400 of whatever your pool is measured in. good luck with your Tri! will |
| 2005-03-24 11:18 AM in reply to: #133618 |
Lethbridge, Alberta Bronze member | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... I've seen comparisons like this before. They are saying that the time, or perhaps the effort, is equivalent, not the distances. So a 400 or 500 yard swim takes about as long, or as much effort, as running a mile "if you make swimming vs. track comparisons". They are extending that to other distances too. Swimming a mile is sometimes approximated to 1500 meters or 1650 yards. The actual length of a mile is 1609 meters or 1760 yards. So a 1/4 mile pool swim should be about 400 meters or 16 lengths of a 25m pool, but the actual event distance is up to the organizers. Edited by Micawber 2005-03-24 11:22 AM |
| 2005-03-24 11:28 AM in reply to: #133618 |
Expert 1836 Lafayette, CO | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... Swimming 400 yards generally equates to the same amount of time that it would take to run a mile, if you make swimming vs. track comparisons. 50 swim sprint = 220 track event; 100 swim sprint equals quarter mile track event; etc." Reading this, I'm suddenly hearing those arguments about whether bowlers, golfers, and NASCAR drivers are 'athletes'. And since ESPN carries poker, are THEY athletes then? So, maybe energy/time-wise swimming 400 yards is the same as running 1 mile. I guess 1) the original poster at USMS wasn't very clear to start off with and 2) she should try running 10k after swimming 1.5k... |
| 2005-03-24 11:39 AM in reply to: #133642 |
Expert 615 Littleton, CO | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... joeinco - 2005-03-24 9:28 AM Reading this, I'm suddenly hearing those arguments about whether bowlers, golfers, and NASCAR drivers are 'athletes'. And since ESPN carries poker, are THEY athletes then Don't give ESPN any ideas - that could be the new triathlon if they think more idiots will watch it on TV!  Bowl-golf-race a thon |
| 2005-03-24 2:51 PM in reply to: #133618 |
| Master 1384 Brooklyn, NY | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... Ellie, They were talking about comparison efforts vs. time, vs. distance (blah, blah, blah). Forget all that and stick with the basics you are looking for. Go to this site and create your own to find out how much you need to practice for your event. http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_common.htm Hope this helps. Eddie Edited by cobannero 2005-03-24 2:55 PM |
| 2005-03-24 5:55 PM in reply to: #133642 |
Member 26 enroute to Spokane, WA! | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... joeinco - 2005-03-24 11:28 AM And since ESPN carries poker, are THEY athletes then? man, i am sick to death of all the texas hold 'em garbage. its as if everyone just heard of playing cards or something. i hate it. everyone is having poker parties now, and they all want to play texas hold 'em, "just like the big boys do" what happened to 5 card draw? as if playing cards isn't boring enough, THEY PUT IT ON TV??? I can't wait for the Lawn-Mowing TV channel to air. ALL MOWING ALL THE TIME! "Wow Bob, look at that nice diamond pattern!" "Yeah Jim, but you do have to deduct 5 style points because he's using a riding mower." (heavy sigh) Edited by jaschneider72 2005-03-24 5:56 PM |
| 2005-03-26 8:18 PM in reply to: #133630 |
| 974.926 | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... "... but I usually drop off the last 10 yards since I really don't want to stop 10 yards off the wall and raise my arms in victory..." waskelton, what a great image!!! Thanks everyone! Ellie |
| 2005-03-27 3:01 AM in reply to: #133621 |
| Member 8 | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... I completed my 1 st Ironman last weekend the 20th March - the Spec Savers Ironman in South Africa. I could not swimn properlyso I joined a squad in Dec 2003. I trained 3 x week for 1 hour My swim time was 1hr30min. My total time was 12hr52min. I was so anxious about tjhe swim, it turned out to be the easiest section, do not worry you will be fine. |
| 2005-03-28 10:58 AM in reply to: #134506 |
| 974.926 | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... Congrats on the Ironman! That's great... I'm training using one of the programs posted here on BT. It seems to be suiting me pretty well. I have a tendency to overthink things, so I know I'm thinking to hard about the swim. A large part of it is that I keep thinking like the sprint swimmer I used to be (50m Fly) and the idea swimming consistantly for that distance is a little scary. But then I start thinking about how when I used to train to swim sprint, I would swim much more than a 1/4 mile.... I just need to stop thinking and do it. Thanks for all the support y'all. Ellie |
| 2005-03-28 11:31 AM in reply to: #133618 |
Master 1927 Chicago | Subject: RE: Swim distance: feel a little dumb asking this... Ellie, I think this is the logic the swimmer was trying to use. It is useful to compare sports when you're injured. So a runner might put in extra time in the pool to make up for the lost fitness during running. Here's an excerpt from a B.T. article on cross training while injured: "Say you’re an injured runner. Usually you run eight miles a day. Now you can’t. On Makenzie’s program you would replace that running with swimming adding a mile swim to your training regiment to make up for the loss of running. How much of the other sport you do is based on time. The average track runner runs 400 meters in one minute. It takes about one minute to swim 50 meters. So one mile in the pool equals about the same cardio energy of eight miles on the pavement. You, of course, can adjust for your speed but the point is to cross train with a purpose. Check out his program. " |
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