There are a ton of triathletes in the same boat, struggling to get the times they want, they work hard on their bike and run, but have plateaued yet continue to give the swim little attention. The only triathletes that I know that are reasonably successful, despite being shit swimmers are elite runners/cyclists ex-Olympians etc. if you want to go anywhere with your triathlon, you have to at some point address your swimming. As m--n says easy 5mins to lose on the swim, going to take you a lot longer to lose that on the run. Also something else to consider with the swim, something that I only realised this season, is how much the swim can affect a poor swimmer. I have a swimming background and hit T1 feeling fresh, it has little effect on my bike or run. But I regularly bike faster than guys who are much quicker than me in training - they can't swim... I had one bloke telling me he had a shit run because he overcooked it on the swim....