Testing & Benchmarking

There is no single way to benchmark your swim ability and measure progress. There are lots of different options out there. We are going to look at a few of them here.

Time Trials

This seems the simplest doesn’t it? Swim a specific distance as fast as you can and note down your time. The next time you do it, you check your time and see if you have improved. Simple.

The typical distances for these types of efforts are 400m or 1,000m or 1500m.

It could be a lap of the lake when you switch to open water.

However, things to watch out for here include:

Poor pacing. Your swim ability may have improved since your last test, but because you paced the swim poorly (probably going out too fast and fading), your time was slower. The more you do these time trials, the better your pacing will become, and the less likely you are to fade.

Pressure. Some athletes hate time trials and testing in this way. They put enormous pressure on themselves to perform, creating anxiety and stress.

Performance In A Set

Another way to test swim ability and progress is through a specific set of work.

One of the sets we do is 10 x 100m, where we ask swimmers to swim the best average pace they can over the whole set. This takes the pressure off the athlete to perform in a single rep, and asks the swimmer to swim strong (but controlled) for the whole set.

Here is a session where we do 4 x 100m best average (twice through).

The ‘CSS’ Test

This Critical Swim Speed (CSS) test is used by a lot of triathletes and coaches.

CSS is the pace you should be able to maintain for a very strong 1500m. A strong, but sustainable pace.

Within a swim session, you swim a 400m at your best pace, followed by a few minutes of easy swimming, and then a 200m at your best pace.

There are calculators out there to work out your CSS pace.

In simple terms, you subtract the time it takes to swim the 200m from the time it takes to swim the 400m. Then divide the result by two to get the pace per 100m. 

For example, a swimmer swims a 400m in 6.00. A few minutes later, the swimmer swims 2.50 for the 200m. We subtract 2.50 from 6.00, resulting in 3.10. Divide 3.10 by two – 1.35. 1.35 is the swimmers’ CSS pace.

Other Methods

Not everybody likes to ‘test’ – for some of the reasons listed above.

Some of our swimmers use ‘softer’ methods to judge their swim progress.

Average Pace

They might look at their Garmin or Strava data after a session, and look at their average pace. If average pace over similar sessions is getting quicker, it is safe to say that improvements are being made.

Best Pace

Knowing what your best times are for various distances is useful. Many swimmers know they are improving their overall swim ability when they start beating their best times in their 50m or 100m efforts. These aren’t tests, but part of the swim session.

Maintaining Pace

The ability to still be swimming strong at the end of a swim session is a good indicator of your swim fitness and you can definitely measure progress here. Usually, you are starting to tire after 30 minutes of a swim session, but today you felt good for 45 minutes. That’s progress.