Hey Slowtwitchers,
Just swam a 3.8km in 1:03.41 and was wondering how this would translate to open water swim times in a wetsuit and all.
Watch says I did 1:39/100m, is this good?
Thanks
It’s super hard to tell in my experience. Most everyone here wills say pool swimming is faster. If have found if you don’t have to rely on good sighting and draft off people who do it for you and do it **well **you can be faster in OW. Especially if you have lackluster turns/breakouts in a short course pool as I do. I can draft in a pack of swimmers that routinely destroy me in a short course pool when in the Gulf for OW swims, but once back in the pool I have zero chance of swimming with them in a workout. Occasionally I will stray out of the draft and try to swim on my own a bit and it becomes clear real quick…get back in the pack or get dropped. If I were to be forced to do all my own sighting I’m sure my times would probably flip flop and I’d be the same or slower. These swims are sans wetsuit.
Best way to find out is go do that swim in open water really.
My pool times in short course meters are about the same as my wetsuit OWS times with good navigation and little chop.
I would be slightly faster with a wetsuit than long course meter pool.
I have decent flip turns. For me the wetsuit gains = (flip turns gains + perfect line/no chop) of the pool.
Same experiances as marcag here. I consistently find my OW splits per 100 is close to my cruise speed in the pool. Best 1500m OW is 20:50, went very hard on this one and it was with a wetsuit, but no drafting and low chop. When I went equally hard for sets of 400’s in LCM i did them in 5:40-5:45. For 3000 I did 44:15 and for an equal effort I would go about 5:55-6:05 in LCM. This was wetsuit+draft.
The easy answer is: it depends.
I seem to be a “better” pool swimmer than OWS swimmer (I am an adult-onset swimmer). For a 2000scy TT I did 24:00 early last year. My “average” non-wetsuit half IM time is between 26 and 29 minutes (it has varied that much in races). Oly distance between 19-24 minutes. The only IM’s have done have been ~37 minutes (Cozumel 2013), ~49 minutes (b2b 2009) and ~1:01 (Louisville 2010).
So…it depends.
I am/was a swimmer and I am a terrible OWS. My OWS times are about :10/100 slower than the pool. I am anxiety ridden in a wetsuit and don’t fare much better in a speedsuit. Next race that is above temp for a wetsuit I will forgo the speedsuit and swim in my speedo. I am hoping that this will take care of some of my issues.
As everyone says…depends. I do open turns and have no kick. In a wetsuit and open water I am faster. Hell, in open water I seem to faster, never quite understood that. If I swim a 1:05 for 3.8 in a pool, in good conditions and NO draft I will hit 1 flat in OW and wetsuit
OWS can be so variable due to conditions that comparison is nearly impossible.
For example, a two mile course I’ve done a hundred or so times I’ve done from about 25 minutes to about 1:15.
I do it beach start and finish, so tide matters - as well as temp, swell height and direction, wind speed and direction and more.
Pace wise, I’d normally be faster in the pool, better conditions, walls (which I’m pretty good at) and I don’t use a wetsuit for OWS.
Saltwater is more buoyant, as well as the wetsuit. That will make more people faster, but all the other stuff will make most people slower.
Short answer?
Depends.
Hey Slowtwitchers,
Just swam a 3.8km in 1:03.41 and was wondering how this would translate to open water swim times in a wetsuit and all.
Watch says I did 1:39/100m, is this good?
Thanks
Hugely variable as others have pointed out, but assuming you swam in bathers in a 50m pool and your OWS is flat, salt water and wetsuit legal, I’d guesstimate you’d go 57, 58mins. Quicker if you draft effectively.
No way to compare and ultimately it’s not important. I think the best you can do is use 70.3 OWS swim times in similar conditions. I think you can roughly double them… as they include the start, swim exit, and you get either 1) a larger draft in IM fields or 2) less contact after the start so a more relaxed, evenly paced swim.
I think you can’t simulate race conditions in a pool. In a IM your tapered. You have sighting skills or whether or not you make swim pack. and you don’t have walls. I find that overall I swim better and faster in open water than I do in a pool, unless it’s poor conditions.
Lastly, I almost never swim over 1000-1200 continous in a pool. It’s not time effective to improve swim fitness. Since you can’t realistically fit in 40-50k yards a week, you have to really focus on quality and get in a good main is every workout.
Is this is you 1st IM. Don’t sweat it. I’d say you fast enough that you should line up on the front line in a mass start, but wide, go out hard, get clear, then for faster swimmers to come around and find a good group don’t have to sight as much and can get a good draft. It goes by fast, and because your tapered, the excitement, etc. it’s really a very easy relaxed swim if you a strong swimmer.
I think you will go somewhere around 58-1:02. I wouldn’t try to go much faster, you’ll impact and run. Best way n your day is to swim at a zone 3-4 intensity the 1st hour…when you should be at a relaxed zone 2. Just swim long and relaxed and the swim “is what it is”.
Actually I think that’s the best motto for having a good day. Hit your target intensity and take what you body gives you. The rest… “is what it is”.