Regarding time penalty for "long hair w/ no cap", depending on how long you hair is, this could be from 0.05 to 1.0 sec per 100 m. For not shaving, prob less unless you're talking a Duck Dynasty beard. If you're talking not "shaving down" your whole body as swimmers do for big meets, maybe 0.05 to 0.5 sec per 100. All of these are just guesses though as i've never seen any solid research on these issues.

Regarding swim pace, actually a 60 min iron swim ==> 60 min/3800 m ==> 1:34.7 per 100 m, or 1:35 in round numbers. IME, the majority of those swimmers who can hold 1:35 per 100 lcm for 3800 m in the pool are "pretty good for triathlon" swimmers and have decent technique, although there some guys with big engines who can swim 1:35, 1:30/100 lcm (57:00 IM swim), or even 1:25 (54-ish) with fairly bad technique. So i think the real answer is "it depends". Also, clearly it depends on who you ask as former D1 swimmers like dirtymangos, snappingT, govols, etc, have a vastly diff view of "swim skill" than your average tri guy.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Re fitness vs technique, it all depends how bad or good your technique is to start with. There isn't a real answer, in terms of pace. It's like asking why do I ride a bike at the speed I do, is it the engine or is it aerodynamics?

If you've been putting in a solid swim effort for a few years and are still slow, then fitness is likely not the main issue.

For shaving, a shave and taper was worth about 3 secs over 100m, about 5 in the 200, for me.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Water is 800 times more dense than air, and it does not forgive. If you're going to shave your legs and arms (following Mark Cote and Chris Yu's research), then you might as well shave the feet, hands and facial hair.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Speedo claims its race cap lowers overall body drag by 5%. I'm assuming the baseline is a full head of hair with no cap (to get the biggest number possible).

That translates to about a 1.7% time savings.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
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