Estimating swim time in open water
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jefflambert86 posted 3 years ago.
i will be in galveston this weekend too, although i will be competing in the my first tri instead of a half im!! i have the same question as well.
[FONT=Times New Roman]"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift" -Steve Prefontaine
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Tribro posted 3 years ago.
I'm not sure if there have been any studies or formulas for pool to open water/wetsuit comparisons. I'm sure many have done, just not familiar with a formula per se to plug your 34 into. You're correct with the 1.2 for an estimate. But yes, take into consideration wetsuit bouyancy for gaining time, but also they'll be some traffic and possible water/current conditions to consider which could effect your time either way. As well, there are no lane lines to keep you swimming straight. So, if you're like me, you'll swim an extra couple hundred yards :D
So, basically it's hard to say. :) Much depends on condition of your swim. But I believe you should have a faster time if the conditions are neutral and you swim straight.
Good read for some tips:
http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/swim/open-water-swim-tips-000702.php
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catwood posted 3 years ago.
Also consider how fast you can turn in the pool. Getting the push off after a flip turn is so much faster than swimming. I don't have a wetsuit, but I usually go slower in open water swims because of this. Also, its difficult to measure distances in open water and sometimes the buoys blow around a bit... So maybe expect a similar time to the pool time (+ wetsuit, - push offs)... I dono, just my guess...
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dax posted 3 years ago.
There are a lot of factors that determine the time difference in a pool compared to open water. I have heard that for a poor to average swimmer, there can be up to a 10% improvement in time when swimming in the open water, but for an advanced swimmer, the time difference isn't as great. I find that I am faster in the open water because I get into more of a rhythm and my heart rate stays more constant than when I am doing laps at the lap pool (this is probably because I'm no good at flip turns). Good luck at the half.
Dax
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SBstockybitch posted 3 years ago.
I think tribro is right on- 1.2 is a good estimate but it also depends on the course and how crowded the start is. Some easy ways to shave off time:
*Practice, practice, practice swimming with your wetsuit. In similiar water temps if you can. Get used to the rhythm, the decreased need to kick, your turnover rate and how it feels to be covered in material- some people get really hot and claustrophobic, especially for longer swims like the 1/2 IM.
*at the race, check out the course- do you go in a straight line, or do you weave along the shore, or make a T shape, or a big rectangle, or what. If it's an out and back course, I like to count buoys before the race starts- so I know exactly how much I have left when I'm swimming. Everything is more confusing in the water, with goggles and everyone around you.
* Get a good starting position. Be aggressive. If you know anyone in the race faster than you, get behind them and follow their line.
* Give it a hard effort, more than you're comfortable with, for the first 100-200m to establish a good position in the pack- you can practice this in the pool by doing a 200 hard and then a 500 at your 33 mi pace. See what it feels like to have to haul ass and THEN swim at your lactate threshold.
* Wear goggles that if kicked in the face it doesn't hurt as badly- ones with rubber suctions around the eyes work okay.
* Practice, practice, practice taking your wetsuit off, remember it's a whole lot harder when you're tired, disoriented from being horizontal for 40 minutes and then suddenly standing up vertical. You can shave seconds this way with no extra training!
good luck you're going to do awesome!!
Happy Training!
-SB
"The world breaks everyone and, afterward, many are strong at the broken places." -Ernest Hemingway
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pace_john posted 3 years ago.
The Trifuel community is the best. Thanks for all the great advice. I will let you know how it goes.
Thanks,
John
“A man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.”
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kona_expat posted 3 years ago.
I use a little home-grown spreadsheet to extrapolate my pool time in yards to the common race distances in open water. When I swim in a pool, I do open turns, so I'm not gaining the advantage of the long push-offs. From experience, people who do flip turns will go more slowly in an open water swim than those of us who do open turns.
A wetsuit should speed anyone up a little bit--it's said that the better the swimmer, the less of an advantage you gain from a wetsuit, as your body position is already really good. Poor swimmers will gain more through the use of a wetsuit because their legs are automatically kept up without much effort.
In terms of a draft in open water, yes, drafting will help you go faster easier, but you can't estimate how much nor should you.
The other factor is the "mayhem" factor. If you are brave and seed yourself in the front, you may or may not have an advantage by being in the fray. If you find you are working hard just to avoid getting beat up, or are doing the beating up of others, you may or may not lose time in the water, but you could expend more energy than you need to.
I personally don't like getting pummeled, so I typically start a little to the oustide, and then once I'm back with the pack, I find I have to get around the poorer swimmers who are now too tired to keep up their pace because they went out too fast.
So, extrapolating your pool times to the same distance is a good place to begin. You can also do a test pool swim in your wetsuit to see what sort of advantage you'll gain by that. And then just learn from race experience.
Do make sure you seed yourself properly as this can have a tremendous effect on not just your speed, but your composure and ease of swimming.....to the extent you can get out of the water with little to no waste effort, the faster you will go on the bike.
For your very first IM, I would use the swim portion of the race to be conservative. You can easily make up 1-2 minutes during the bike and run. You want to get out of the water feeling almost like you didn't do anything.
A technique I use to keep my composure (and know about how far I've gone, in addition to sighting) is counting my strokes. This also helps to keep you focused on swimming well instead of thrashing.
Good luck!
This weekend I do my first half IM, the Gulfman in Galveston, TX. I have been swimming like crazy and have gotten my mile in the pool down to between 33 and 34 minutes consistently. It is a 25 yard pool and I am wearing Speedos when I swim. My question is this: How do I estimate what an open water, ocean swim, wearing a full wetsuit (long sleeves and legs) will take? Do I just multiply my 34 minutes times 1.2? I've heard the wetsuit and bouyancy of the saltwater make you faster. Is this true? If so, by how much?
This is really not that big of a deal, but I am just curious. I have times in my head that I want to beat for the bike and run legs because I know what they will probably take, but the open water swim in a wetsuit is new terrritory.
Thanks,
John
“A man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.”