All Hail the Triathlete's Wetsuit

Not really. I don't like swimming in a wetsuit even if it makes me :07/100m faster. This year of racing has actually worked out pretty well in favor of my distaste. Kind of ironic, but the only two races that I wore a wetsuit in were both in Arizona...yeah the state where it is over 100 degrees right now as we talk.

Why the fuss? Well, Xterra Nationals at Lake Tahoe is next weekend and it is requires a wetsuit. For today's swim and for pretty much every swim between now and Tahoe, I will for some % of each workout be in my wetsuit. Don't get me wrong, my Zoot Zenith is very nice and was the best one for me when I spent hours trying tons of them on months ago at Trisports' endless pool.

I wore my Zenith for about 2000m today. At first, I felt like I could barely move. Once through some basic warm up sets and drills, the suit started to feel better/I started getting more use to it. The only saving grace for the wetsuit today was that it helped me post my fastest 100m splits ever. Yes, I know a wetsuit inherently is faster, but I am not sure I have actually swam enough in a suit to really take advantage of it. Whatever the "speed" case is, come Tahoe, I will not be surprised by how the suit feels or by how the suit impacts my stroke.

One thing I will look forward to over the next number of days in the pool will be the wonderful sensation of taking the suit off and hopping back into the pool for some more laps. Wow. Talk about turbo arm speed and unreal range of motion! You know the feeling of wearing those ankle weights for a while and then taking them off? Same deal here. The great liberating feeling aside, I swam significantly slower (:07 sec/100m) without the suit on. However, I did set new, non-wetsuit PRs on some 50s later in the set. Yee-haw.

I will take the suit out to Saguaro Lake this weekend for some 1500m TT action. Basically, I will swim the AZ Xtreme Xterra course.

Off for a mellow trail run.