4/26/2011 - Swim

Alright. I did it. I wore a wetsuit into a swimming pool. I felt really awkward doing it, but I have owned this thing for 3 months now and it has not touched the water. I felt like I was neglecting it.

I can see how wetsuits can be addictive to triathletes. It caused my legs to float quite a bit more, which in the long run made things much easier.


I swam 1 mile in 28 minutes. That is a 5+ minute improvement on my swim time...and I had to switch lanes and fix my goggles. When I first started, I was looking at 40 second 50m laps.

My arms were struggling by the end of the swim. I was so excited about how I could paddleboat my way through the water that I burned out my real energy about 2/3 the way through the swim.

I think I will use the wetsuit on open-water swims for safety, and swim in my tri-bottoms in the pool for training.

The real benefit to a swimsuit is that I don't think it is possible to drown. At one point during my swim, I had to re-do my goggles. My body just sort of floated and I didn't really have to worry. It was really odd. My body doesn't have any natual bouyancy, so it was a really intersting thing to me.

The wetsuit is great, however I am not going to use it as a crutch. Safety mechanism, yes...crutch, no.

Comments