#10, i don't know what you are talking about, I do triathlon training and most people consider me a bad to average swimming in the sport...and even i swim a 500 no problem. I feel like some one who actually competes in the single sport wouldn't say that about a 500. Also, 44 is actually a really good age for something like swimming. Look at any Ironman time sheet; the 30-45 year olds are normally whipping the pants off of the 18-24 kids.

i feel ur pain: i row crew and we had an ergometer test to see how well we trained in the winter. i worked out almost everyday and lifted 3-4 times a week all winter. i had an off day that day and came in dead last. sometimes it just happens, you probably just lost focus. just put it behind you and keep working on whatever you messed up on, in this case swimming endurance.

So, because she's 44 years old, she isn't fit? Get over yourself. 44 is actually a great age... I'm 21 and I consider myself fit too, but I KNOW there are many people who are older than me that are in "better" shape who would beat me in something like that. Get over yourself.

SWIMMING IS WAY HARDER GTHAN IT LOOKS! People don't understand that. So I love hearing about it when the star football player can't do shit in a pool but they think swimmers have it so much easier than them. NOT TRUE!

#9 .. If you can't do a 500 without feeling like you're going to pass out, then something's wrong. Maybe a 1000 or the mile but the 500 is easy peezy. And I'm a sprinter.

Well, she's probably a woman who's been swimming regularly her whole life. That's why many older people can beat people who are much younger in many cases, like #21 said. I swim four times a week and I'm nowhere near a fit person, but I've been at it for so long that I've just built up the endurance to keep going. Ask me to do any other sport and I'm dead after three minutes. :P It's always funny when the jock boys come into the pool expecting to beat everyone and us chubby kids and older people are passing them multiple times in the pool and rolling our eyes, lol

What number 12 said was certainly true, but either way...you may have had a bad day. I know it might not have felt that way, but it probably was. You cannot perform really well every time you do a physical activity (or any other, for that matter). Take your bruised ego and look to the future. You know what you have to improve in now, so work at it. Good luck!

#16 Exactly. #2 No. Lactic acid only builds up during anaerobic exercise. I doubt the OP was working out/exercising BEFORE the fitness test. Football, working out, and construction all focus on building muscle mass for strength, not endurance. For swimming the extra muscle mass, without the circulatory and oxygen uptake to match, is just dead weight and can actually slow you down. Work some aerobic exercise into your routine if you want to be fit in a well rounded way.

i agree with # 24. most of the varsity swimmers on my girls' high school team could get through varsity football practice, but how many varsity football players could swim the 7,000 yards we average in our 2 hour long practices? the 500 is my event, and im not very fast, but i swim it in about 6 and 1/2 minutes. my teammate went to state in the 500 and swam a 5:14.

DUDE!!!!! I went to a 5k run-swim-run on the beach, and I was beaten by a old woman too. Maybe it's the same woman? But she had a 1 piece swimsuit, and she was running like crazy and swimming like a dolphin. I felt really horrible afterwards lol. It took me like 50 some minutes to complete, but it took her like 20 minutes. lol.