Pool time vs OW time

If you're good at sighting, maybe a 25:30. If you're good at drafting and sighting, you could get a PB. If neither, who knows. You could end up swimming an extra 500 meters.

PWB is right no formula. If your turns stink you could be faster in open water. I have done miles in OW where you do not have to sight a lane marker for half a mile and return. Water conditions are important, I have swum twenty miles in 2 hours with a river current.

Thanks guys - I don't need to enter a time, just interested in what I could realistically excpect to finish in. I'd got maybe 25 mins in mind, which after reading you replies looks like it is entirely possible. (That 23.50 was after 2 weeks out of the water, just me on my own plodding up & down, not race conditions.) However I do realise that OW is a completely different animal than the pool, so we'll see. I think the biggest challenge is going to be getting over the "eww its a lake" fear. But it is a small sheltered lake and hopefully a small race. Heck - I'll just be chuffed to have swum my first OW!

Let's say each turn in a pool saves you about one second. There are 59 turns in a 1500 and a dive from the block, so basically the open water race (assuming the course is marked exactly correct) will be one minute slower. If you have great turns maybe more, lousy turns less. I do agree there are other factors and this is just a rough estimate, but it's better than nothing!

I have to agree with PWB. I have yet to see any real similar times between OW events of the same distances. One event I'll get out and think I killed it. Then, the next I'll be 2-3 minutes slower but know I swam harder. There are so many variables. As a general rule if you have to put a time I'd say an OW mile is about 2 minutes slower than a 1650, but who really knows.

I agree with Lefty, many "measured" courses are a good guess !

I've seen no apparent formula to help me figure this out, primarily because, even in lake swims, marking of the course can be off, currents (wind & water) and sun can play havoc with your pacing and other race conditions / racers can impact your swim. I also find that some people are just better in OW than in the pool; there are people I can lap multiple times in a pool mile who will beat me in an OW swim. I generally pay little attention to my race times in OW events.

To me the biggest variable is the distance of the race. From my experience it is highly unlikely that any distance over 1500M is measured accurately with the typical error being the course is too short.

I only have experience in two OW events, one a mile long (Reston, VA Lake Audobon) and one a 2K (Copenhagen in the canals). I'm steady at between 1100-1200 for 20 minutes in the pool. As it stands, my 2K in the canals of Denmark took me 40:46. I can't sight to save my life and many times caught myself way off to the "long" side of the circle (it was a 2K circle around the Danish Parliament) and had to fix back to the left. In essence, I swam zig-zag while the racers who were good at sighting (and bilateral breathing) swam a straighter course. As for the mile, it was not a perfect loop, but mostly a squashed oval, and, being my first, I couldn't sight to save my life. My mile time is normally not as slow as it was in that race. I typically 'test' at a 1:31 100 (I know, slow), but in the mile swim I was nearer 1:46 with a final time of 31:15. Again, I swam zig-zag. Bottom line: work on sighting and navigation. That's what I'm working on now. Straighter courses = faster times, and I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to improve.

In essence, I swam zig-zag while the racers who were good at sighting (and bilateral breathing) swam a straighter course. Better at sighting or better at swimming straight. I think the latter is more important especially on courses where current is not a factor.