I finally found the stat that made me stop dreading the swim

I've been avoiding open water swims for months because I thought I was way slower than everyone else. Then last Tuesday I read a study that said most first time triathletes swim the 1.2 miles in over 45 minutes, not the 30 minute pace the training plans assume. That blew my mind because I was doing 48 minutes in the pool and feeling like a failure. It came from a race report breakdown on Slowtwitch where they pulled finisher data from 2023. Suddenly my 'slow' swim was totally normal for someone who started from zero. Anyone else get hung up on fake averages they found online before realizing the real numbers are way friendlier?

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robert_craig11d ago

That 48 minute pool swim would have put you right in the middle of the pack at the race I did last year in Lake Michigan. I remember the finisher results showed the median swim time was 47:20 for the half distance. Question for you though: now that you know the real numbers, are you going to change how you train, or is the mental shift going to be enough to get you in the water? Because I found that knowing the truth helped me get to the start line, but I still had to do the actual work of getting comfortable in open water, which is a totally different beast than the pool.