Swimming Times

You can take a look at past race results to see the range of swim times and give you a general idea.  You do have to take race times with a grain of salt though as race distances are rarely accurate and water conditions can have an impact also.

You are probably towards the back of the middle of the pack.  Still ahead of quite a few people but room for improvement.  What type of workouts do you do?  Have you ever had lessons?  A few good lessons can make a huge difference.

Assuming you are talking about triathlete swim paces as they are considerably slower than swimmers swim paces.

To put it into perspective, Jan Frodeno and Andy Potts were first out of the water at Kona last year in 50:56 - that works out to roughly 1:12/100 yards over 2.4 mies.  Elite triathletes at a Sprint (in yards because that is what you asked) will generally be <1:05/100, at an Olympic <1:10/100.  In general, age-group front of the pack would be around 1:30/100 yards, middle of the pack around 2:00/100 yards..  Those are all rough estimates and are going to vary from race to race depending upon who shows up and how close to accurate the swim distance is.

Another thing you might think about if the lessons get pushed out is to have someone video your swim.  Above and below the water if you can.  I found it to be the most helpful feedback because things I thought in my mind I was doing right according to the youtube videos and other self help instruction I really wasn't.  Lessons with video analysis was a real eye opener for me and tranformed some things pretty rapidly for me.

^^^ this x2.

More often than not, there is a VAST difference between what you THINK you are doing and what you ACTUALLY are doing.  Seeing a video of yourself swimming will often lead to an epiphany and ultimately help you to swim better.

Yes, pool times are much different.  You asked about Elite times so I can tell you that to be in the front pack at a Jr. Elite race (16-19 year olds) you need a sub :50 100, a 1:45-1:50 200, a 4:45-4:55 500, and a sub 17 minute mile (1650 yards)......minimum.  All short course yards. (25 yard pool).  Those times will hold up pretty well at the base pro level (continental cups), and you would need to be a bit faster as you move up the Elite levels.

Its becoming more common for video to be part of instruction.  The person I used had an ipad and was showing me stuff throughout the session.  Ask around.  Shouldn't be too hard to find what you are looking for.  And Masters would be a good idea.

I guess this is what we get for not doing flip turns.

I hear you.  The middle school age kids practice at the same pool during my son's swim lessons.  I think just watching them makes me a better swimmer.  Awesome indeed.

It's crazy how fast the times fall off.  In a lot of sports you are in your athletic prime at 30 years old........but just looking at the AAAA masters time in the 500....that would barely be an A time for 15-16 year old boys.  That's astonishing to me.

Here's the deal with triathlon from where I sit.  When I did my first triathlon in 1985 there were NO kids involved.  The standard "knowledge" was that it was too much for them.  Now, swim kids have found triathlon, and they may change the landscape.  It used to be that "you couldn't win a triathlon with the swim"...now it's "you can't win a triathlon without a good swim".  That's a big change.

I help find kids who may be interested in triathlon for a High Performance team.  I start by going over the state XC meets in our region.  I look for kids who can run sub 17 for boys and sub 20 for girls for 5K.  I then search the USA swimming database for some of the same kids.....who can already swim  a 5:00 - 5:30 500 for boys and 6:00 - 6:30 for girls.  When they find out the only thing they need to add is a bike ride......they're in......and they will win the overall at most any local sprint race.  It's pretty cool to see.  They might not be able to compete in the state XC meet or make the national meet in swimming, but they can kick some serious arse in triathlon.  In one of our biggest are triathlons 2 years ago a 14 year old won the overall and a 13 year old was 2nd overall in the sprint.  A 15 year old was 2nd overall in the Oly race.  Times have changed!

We are seeing the first generation of kids who were raised on triathlon like we were on baseball, football, or soccer......and they are monsters.  It's the best part of the sport IMO.

Since you brought it up.....I'm curious as to what you mean, as an age grouper, when you say that being good "opens doors".  If you are talking about being competitive in your AG, then fine. Past that, what do you perceive is out there for you? The problem I have with the sport right now, and the part I'd like to see worked on, is that winning triathlons for teenagers, and they win A LOT,  really doesn't open any doors.  There will be a very few girls who go to college in the next few years for triathlon, but for boys they basically have to give the sport up to run track and XC or swim in college.  I think that's where we lag behind other countries on the international stage......we have no development of really fast triathletes in the 18-22 year old range.....and that's a shame.

flip turns will open the doors to what you seek