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Open Water Swim Pace Calculator

Estimate your open water pace and finish time from your pool pace.

Result

104.50 s
1,568 s

How it is calculated

The tool scales your pool pace by a multiplier you choose and then multiplies by the number of 100 m blocks. open-water pace = pool pace × factor and total time = open-water pace × distance / 100. Pool pace is in seconds per 100 m, distance is in metres, and the factor is a plain multiplier (1.10 means 10% slower than the pool). Results are printed in seconds only: pace to two decimals and total time to the nearest second, so divide by 60 for minutes. The multiplier is your own judgement of the conditions; the tool does not look up chop, current or wetsuit effects. All three values must be above zero.

Worked example

Your pool pace is 95 s per 100 m, the swim is 1500 m, and you expect to be 10% slower in open water, so the factor is 1.1. Open-water pace = 95 × 1.1 = 104.50 s per 100 m. Total time = 104.50 × 1500 / 100 = 1,567.5, shown as 1,568 s, about 26 minutes 8 seconds. Result: 104.50 s per 100 m and 1,568 s in total.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering the pool pace as minutes (such as 1.35) or as min:sec. The field wants seconds per 100 m, so 1:35 is 95.
  • Using a pace per 100 yards while entering a distance in metres. The result then mixes units and is off by about 9%.
  • Entering the factor as a percentage (10) instead of a multiplier (1.1). A factor of 10 predicts a ten times slower swim.
  • Using a factor below 1 because of a wetsuit and treating it as a given. Buoyancy can help, but sighting and chop usually still cost time, so check the result against a real open-water session.
  • Basing the pool pace on a short, fresh 100 m repeat rather than a steady pace you can hold for the full race distance.

About this calculator

Open water swimming is consistently slower than the same effort in a pool, because swimmers lose the push-off and glide from wall turns every 25 or 50 metres, must sight periodically to navigate without lane lines, and contend with currents, chop and lack of a black line on the bottom to follow — factors that typically add a meaningful percentage to per-100 pace even for strong pool swimmers. Estimating open water pace by simply reusing a pool-pace number tends to produce an overly optimistic finish-time prediction for a triathlon or open water race.

Triathletes and open water racers use this adjustment to convert a known pool pace into a realistic open water pace and total swim leg time, applying a multiplier you choose to reflect the conditions of the swim (calm lake versus choppy ocean, wetsuit or not) rather than assuming pool-identical performance on race day.

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