Home› General Training Discussions

Pool math question

thaimaithaimai
in General Training Discussions

Hi everyone,

First post!  Obviously very new to EN.  Just finished swim camp and surprised myself being able to swim the 1000yds TT (adult onset swimmer just 2 years ago).

The olympic pool that I go to had the lanes set to 25yds (SCY) when I did the TT.  It's SCY usually in the winter and LCM in the summer but they once in a while set the lanes to LCM in the winter when there's a swim meet.  

I took a look at my beginner IM plan in the coming weeks/months and saw that some swim workouts are based on my T-Pace (+/- seconds from T-Pace).  

So in the situation of when I'm swimming in LCM lanes, should I stick with my SCY T-Pace for all situation or is there a pace conversion going from SCY to LCM?

Thanks!

Comments

  • cgres123cgres123
    Welcome Thai,

    Try this site http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/results/conversions.asp
  • thaimaithaimai

    NICE!

    Thank you David!!

  • MattAaronsonMattAaronson
    Awesome converter. I was doing the conversions in excel...this is much better!!!
  • William JenksWilliam Jenks
    Unfortunately, there are many different conversion formulas. It all depends on what you assume for the turns.

    You can convert the distance exactly. (1 m = 1.094 y). However, as long as you don't basically miss the wall, the fastest you are ever going is right after you push off...you get slower and slower as you go across the pool. So if you have any kind of decent turn at all (including a decent touch/open turn), you lose time from SCY to LCM. If you turn better, you lose more. There is no officially recognized conversion, in general...and all the calculators are approximate.

    For a reasonable rule of thumb, for freestyle, to go from SCY to LCM, add 10% (for the distance) and add 1 second for each missed turn. So for 100 SCY to 100 LCM, take your SCY time, multiply by 1.10 and then add 2 seconds (3 turns in SCY and 1 turn in LCM). If your turns suck or are great, adjust. :-)
  • Al TruscottAl Truscott

    That converter looks suspiciously slow to me.

    As others have noted, there are a lot of variables - quickness of turn, strength of push off, amount of time spent gliding before starting to swim, flip vs open turn, etc.

    I would think that, just like as we often do separate tests when using a treadmill vs track vs on the road for running, or cycling on  trainer vs road, and/or TT vs road bike, that simply doing another 1000 meter TT would be the wisest choice to determine one's "T-Pace' for training in the new environment, which speaks to the original question.

  • thaimaithaimai

    Thank you WSMs for chiming in and raising some very valid points.

    I'll touch base with coach P in the micro forum to see what he recommends for modifying a swim workout when the pool is set to LCM to get in a 1000m TT.

     

  • cgres123cgres123
    Thai,

    These WSM are probably smarter than Coach P re your posted question and I would take what they suggest as an answer to your question. Coach R is more so the swim guy, Coach P is more the run guy. So if you still want their opinion by all means feel free to ask.

    What makes this place awesome is the advice you collect from the team, something to think about as you search the forums and Wiki.
  • thaimaithaimai

    Thanks for the heads up David!

    So I'm wondering how I should handle the day when the pool is set to LCM and I have a workout planned for that day.  

    Should I just drop that day's swim workout and do the 1000m TT (after a warmup) so that I now have my T-pace for both SCY and LCM for future workouts?

    Thanks again for your inputs everyone!

    T

  • William JenksWilliam Jenks
    When you have the pool set up for LCM, the first thing you should do is be grateful...it's a very good experience to have the longer swim before the turns. It's still not open water, but it's great to be able to do.

    Honestly, if it were me and it wasn't going to be that frequently, I would just swim the workout by RPE...you already know what it should "feel like" to swim at certain paces, and I'd just go with the flow. Most pools have some landmarks that are pretty close to half way if you are doing anything involving 25s...you can sprint half way and then cruise the rest, for example...that's the one thing you're not allowed to do: just stop in the middle. :-)

    If it's going to be fairly regularly in LCM...sure, go ahead and to a 1000 TT. Just don't feel horrible when it's more than 10% more than the SCY time...remember the part about the turns speeding you up!

Sign In or Register to comment.