Pool vs Open Water Pace Difference

Hard to say because 99% of the open water courses are mis-measured.

In the pool I am between 5 - 10 seconds faster in a wetsuit.  But add the OWS discrepencies and I am often the same pace in the OW with a wetsuit as I am in the pool without.

My wetsuit assisted freshwater IMAZ pace was exactly the same as my pool long swim pace.  Would have been faster if I ever found a draft :^

Every other race is a question mark because (1) they are rarely properly marked (2) here in California swim times usually include the run up the beach

Lots of variable:

1.  Currents in the rivers and the ocea - additive or subtractive

2.  Buoyancy - fresh water pool vs salt water ocean; wetsuit vs no wetsuit

3.  No lane buoys to keep you from zig-zagging

4.  No having to stop every 25 yds to change direction

5. Drafting

6.  Race day adrenaline

Some of these are pluses and some are negatives.....for me, it's about a wash and my pool time pretty much equal my OWS time.

~Mike

That is the biggest bunch of BS I have ever seen here.

Everyone knows it is 5.6789765389477 %.  Sheesh. 

Lots of variables, but I think the biggest one is the swimmer in question.

For me, I'm WAY slower in the open water, because it's big and open and scary - and if I go slow, I am calmer, and calm is good.

I tend to be faster in every event, than in training.  I can never approach the speed I do in a race, when there is no competition going on.  I can barely do a 7:30 pace for a 5k run if I really pushed it, yet in a real race I can be around 7.  Same goes for swimming.  Just something about race conditions. 

If you're not faster in a wetsuit, then something is wrong. How can you not speet up when you've increased your buoyancy? If you swim in a crooked line or if there are currents, those are different issues.

Matt Cazalas
Technical Writer

Network Cables

i am faster OWS than the pool, i attribute it to the wetsuit, having pacing partners, drafting, adrenaline and not having to turn around every 25 meters so i can keep my momentum going. I also like to OWS much more than the pool.

I've done tests to compare my swim times with and without my wetsuit in the same poolm. For sure y wetsuit makes me faster. Hard thing to compare ows times to pool times as like other folks have said most all tris swim distances are measured wrong.

I can't even seem to come CLOSE to my pool times once I hit open water even with a wetsuit. This disturbs me since MOST swim courses tend to be short.

I just think my wetsuit throws off my balance.

But, FWIW, my IM swim was about 1:53 per 100m and I think in a METERS pool that would be reasonable for that length a swim.

I just somehow feel I should be faster than that....hmph.

Odd.  Most of my recent races have all been longer than advertised (according to people that are a lot faster than me and were comparing them).

Faster swimmers will only be marginally faster in a wetsuit.  there is no way to compare wetsuit/non wetsuit swim times except on the exact same course, whether that is in the pool or in OW.  You cannot reliably swim an Olympic distance ocean or lake race and then swim 1500 meters in the pool and compare the times.  Apples and oranges.

My IM effort pace was usually around 1:25 /100 in pool training for IM. I swam 1:25/100 at IMAZ.  But you can't compare one to the other

I try not to go off of what the AGers say.  Most of them want to justify their slow race performance.

I look at the pro times.

Me too.

At Eagelman last year everyone was saying the course was short, and times refleceted that.  This year they changed the course (for the 3rd time since I've done the race - the course has never been the same), and everyone's times were significantly slower.

At the oly. I did in August, the swim times were 5 - 10 minutes slower than the year before with no current or waves.  Same race, same conditions, slightly different course.  EVERYONE was complaining about being slower, not just people trying to justify their times.  I know I'm slow in the water, but I had an atrocious 38 minute swim (all freestyle) while in another oly. with less swimming under my belt and some brief breast stroke I was out of the water in 32.

Doesn't really matter though, everyone swims the same course, so if it is short then everyone benefits.  If it is long, everyone suffers (except the fishies who like that part of the race).

 It is not slower.