first wetsuit trial - questions

The only thing I notices was I was baking! lol.

The wetsuit will bring your legs closer to the surface creating less drag....next time see if your wife notice a change in form.

Multiply those few seconds by 16 and you may have knocked a minute or more off your mile time.

Then subtract the time needed to remove wetsuite in transition... Some can do in seconds, others find it a challenge and can negate any gain (except for saved energy etc)... Comes down to personal choice, water temp etc.

yeah...it was little toasty in the suit. But my #1 reason for getting it was so I don't freeze this year at the Chicago Tri (so freakin' cold last year). Speed was second...but a very welcome bonus.

I have been practicing taking the suit off. All is good until the feet...they slow me down a bit. But that has been trying it dry...I'm hoping a little body glide, etc. will help with on and off.
The good (and bad) thing about the Chicago Tri is that the run from the water to the transition is about a 1/4 mile...plenty of time to get the suit to my waist.

That's quite a journey, I figured anything over 100m is a long way to T1 from the water, quess I was wrong.

Buoyancy-wise...it should have felt a lot different. And you should basically not have to kick your legs to keep your legs afloat. Did that feel different?

I think the main noticeable difference in a wetsuit is the buoyance. 2nd is probably warmth and third is the "ease" of speed.

I definately noticed the bouyancy, then number two was the "glide time".  Take a couple strokes then glide.  Then compare that to no wetsuit.  With a wetsuit you are much more hydrodynamic.

I did notice that I didn't have to kick as much to keep my legs high....so that will be great since I've been working on kicking less anyway.

The swim is my strongest of the 3 legs...I was on swim team for 4 years in H.S. Granted that was ~20 years ago, but maybe my good technique has stayed with me.

I'm optimistically hoping to shave 8 minutes off last year's time so I'll take any advantage I can get. I'm hoping the wetsuit will fix the 2-3 minutes I spent in shock and panicking from the cold water. Add a faster swim time with less kicking = stronger legs for the bike (shooting for 20+mph (19.2mph last year)). Faster transitions. And I know I'm a faster runner this year. 8 minutes will be a challenge but I'm going to do my best.

Just realize that your face and neck will still be exposed and cold...so you may get a little of that cold water effect. But having been through it once before, you will "get over" it much faster. Good luck!

1:15 for 100 meters (1:05 for 100 yards)  is fast with or without a wetsuit :-)

x2

My understanding is that the better swimmers (the OP) do not benefit as much as the slower swimmers (me).

CC

Thanks! It just feels slow to me...I used to do between 0:59-1:01 for the 100 back in my swim team days. But my freshman year I was in the 1:14 range...so I'm thrill that I'm pulling the numbers I am 20 years later. And I'm only getting faster.
I'm one of those weird ones that loves to do laps.