I raced with a snorkel. I call it my Cygnus X-1 swim. X-1 because I was inhaling so hard on that tube, I was sucking in light as well. I am surprised there was air left in the immediate area for anyone else.

It was a cool swim tho. Mutiny on the beach, held up the race start. Race director had to intervene ( I got prior approval). Underwater observation of the race (why is that women in a bathing suit so much faster than me in my B70 Helix?). I came out of the water about mid-pack, albeit delirious.

I had to use a snorkel, I simply couldn't swim otherwise, and my swimming was "behind schedule". However by August that summer I was all good & swam the ocean race mile and yep hit the podium, still delirious. Good thing I didn't have heart rate monitor, hate to see what abuse I put it through.

Anyway - you are slower with a snorkel because it does create a lot of drag. And you can't really rotate and move you shoulders correctly imo. A snorkel is OK for isolation and for specific things, but I don't use it much these days.

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Same experience here. I just could not get in enough air, but water was abundant. I now have a nearly new, twice used (less then 200 yds) freestlye snorkel cluttering up my pain cave.

I have been using a snorkel to work on my stroke timing. I am a lot slower using it, this may be because I tend swim more heads up to keep the water out of it.

I doubt that the increased drag is all that significant. There may also be a slight increase in resistance to breathing through the tube, but again, it shouldn't be all that significant. The main problem with the snorkel is rebreathing of exhaled CO2 that is not fully cleared with each breath because of the dead space of the long tube, so you end up having to breath harder to normalize your CO2. This could be fixed if they made a one-way valve next to the mouth piece to exhale CO2 without it having to travel the full length of the tube.

You prob used the snork pretty sparingly though, right??? Like for maybe 10% of any given workout??? Or maybe 20% some days and zero on others???

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

Clearly you have hit the nail here. My only quibble would be that you and most fish seem to over-emphasize the "hard work" aspect of swimming fast whereas, for me, on days when I'm feeling really good and can actually swim fast, rather than just medium fast-ish, I frigging love it. Swimming fast is absolutely the best frigging feeling in the world, and I crave it like a hard drug. I guess it is "hard work" in a certain sense but the feeling of going fast negates all the other sensations big-time. But, this is prob b/c i've done so much swimming that it is simply second nature to me, as it is to you, AJ, Jason, Bo, etc:)

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

I use the snorkel almost exactly like you've mentioned. I'm a semi adult onset swimmer. Been doing triathlons since 1985 but was mostly a runner/cyclist. I've found doing 3-4x400 sets with the snorkel has really helped my technique and fitness. I've also noticed my 400 times are about 3-5 sec slower per 100 with the snorkel. Mostly due to slower open turns with the snorkel. I only do open turns either way because of vertigo resulting from a concussion.

With regards to other swim aids I'll occasionally use fins and paddles too. Mostly to keep things interesting as I don't enjoy swimming as much as B/R. My times are getting faster so I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

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Formerly DrD