Sub :20 MIle Swim (Page 3)

First off....it's 1:15/100m pace....that's what we are talking about....NOT 1:20/100m

The OP said 1 mile in 20 minutes....NOT 1500m

1:15/100m is Men's ITU level in open water. That is world class in triathlon. If you think that is ho-hum...awesome.

The OP made references to swimming in a triathlon....not standalone. That means triathlon pacing. Not standalone pacing.

The pacing part is... Andy and the majority of the top athletes in the water are trying to WIN the whole race, not just the swim.  If your goal isn't to win the race, but to just be high out of the water... you can AFFORD to waste energy to go faster on the swim...

I don't know of a 1 mile swim distance triathlon... but I sure know a bunch that are 1500m, which in competition swimming = 1 mile for some stupid reason.

BTW, I'm faster in KM too... and your Avatar always makes me laugh...

Santa Barbara Tri this weekend....swim = 1 mile

Cool... now i know of one...

However, for the OP and anyone else... distance in a race is a moot point.  The distance will never be exact, the currents never the same... ect ect...  doing a 20 minute "mile" in one race might equat to a 25 minute "mile" in another.  Your finish time should be equated to your % AG finish.  If you want to see if you're getting faster swimming, go to a pool and swim a set distnce and use it as reference to judge by the next time you swim that distance at that pool...

That should buy you a few minutes at least. but I agree, the only times I've done a sub 20 minute swim were when I was swimming 6x a week in college. I assure you the sub-20 mark is not that exciting, it just means an extra few minutes before the cyclepaths pass you.

i've always enjoyed those few minutes   It's a good feeling to be top 3 out of the water and on your bike...  What I hate is a wave start... you bust your butt on the swim and no one knows you were top out of the water.  I much prefer the IM mass start and even better when they make the pro's start with you at the same time.  TALK about cool...

Oh I see...now we aren't talking about a mile....we're talking about 1500M....LOL....

Just an FYI people....the pace the OP is talking about for 1 MILE would have gotten him out of the water squarely in the middle of the pack at the last Men's ITU race in London. Mid pack was ~18:40 for 1500m (1:14/100M)

Andy Potts swam a 1:15/100m pace exactly in the last Kona....and a 1:11/100m pace at Oceanside this year

So in Tri world, the OP is asking how to get to the absolute worlds best while being allergic to chlorine....good luck.

Well, there's one thing we agree on.

oh... on a side note, Potts did the Philadelphia Insurance Olympic Tri 1.5km swim in 15:10...in case you were wondering how fast he does an olympic.... And no, not even in my best college swimming days could I have even drafted off that pace, let alone biked and run after it.

http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?posted_p=t&rsID=112221&lastName=potts&queryType=arbitrary&page=1&numPerPage=25&showCustom=true

Really?  I watch ITU whenever its on and i almost never see them in wetsuit, they seem to mostly wear the skinsuits but they are much less bouyant. 

Thank God... cause that's moving it.... I might want to enter that one... do you get to bike and run downhill the whole way too?  I need a down current swim, down hill bike, down hill run point to point tri!

He seems to be low 18 minutes in St. Anthony's, which is a pretty hard swim course.  At least when I've done it the water is always strong current and waves crashing..

Really?  I watch ITU whenever its on and i almost never see them in wetsuit, they seem to mostly wear the skinsuits but they are much less bouyant. 

Thank God... cause that's moving it.... I might want to enter that one... do you get to bike and run downhill the whole way too?  I need a down current swim, down hill bike, down hill run point to point tri!

He seems to be low 18 minutes in St. Anthony's, which is a pretty hard swim course.  At least when I've done it the water is always strong current and waves crashing..