Competitive swimmer since I was 8 (with a huge gap from after high school to some 15 years ago... my fragile ego would never allow me to start a pool race in the water or from the deck, and open turns, as well. Nope. Not gonna happen! LOL! Guess I’ll be skipping some masters swim meets for some time.

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

9.3 mi run Wednesday
15 mi bike + 1.5 mi brick run yesterday
9.5 mi run w/ 4.5 mi @ 8:41 pace , then 675 yd swim (swim/kick mix)

85/91 on 100/100, still need to add up the swims

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Yeah, if you can make 20 of those consecutively, or even high teens, that's an indicator that you should average in the 42's on the back three 50's of a 200 (41's+1 for the missing turn at the 50s). I'd guess a 2:48ish race effort, off the blocks? //

So I got a hair up my ass and am thinking about another meet this Sunday, only it is 200's and a 400IM. I'm not in any shape for these swims yet, but I guess swimming them as much as possible in a race situation is the best training. So maybe I will get to see what 10x50 breast on my mini usrpt will net in an actual race, then can go from there on doing more of them..(so if I could have done 20+ of them, then maybe a 2;48, but since it was just 10, maybe mid 2;50's?)


Yesterday I did another pretty hard day, skipped the run again for more swimming:


6x100, 3s@1;40(1;17/16/16)3 IM kick@2;00(1;52/52/50)
500P@7;00(6;13)
9x50fly@1;00 every third kick kick pull(39/39/46/39/39/47/39/39/48) 50 easy
200 dolphin(4;05)
5x100@2;00 odds pull, evens IM(pulls-1;12/12/10) IM's(1;19/1;17)
100IM kick(1;53)
200p(2;32) 100 easy
200buoy(2;47)
2900SCY


And the past couple workouts without a run first, I get in the hot tub and get warm for about 15 minutes, anyone else do this? It really seems to work, can get right to swimming pretty hard without any delays..

Last workout before 1000 free in meet tomorrow. (took yesterday off completely)

300S/200K/300P
4x50 on 45 (35-36)
5x100 on 10 (1:14-1:17)
200 cool down.

1700S

5 starts off blocks. Wow they seem high.

5 starts off blocks. Wow they seem high. //

They sure do!! good luck tomorrow, give us a race recap afterwards. IF I stay healthy for the next two days, I will go myself on Sunday and swim a few races. And this is for all the fishes, what tech suit do you recommend for an old man these days? I just realized I will have to buy a new suit soon, but have no idea what state of the art is, where to get it, and the cheapest as possible..

A lot depends on how long you’re gonna be in the suit at a meet. I wouldn’t go for a super compressive suit like an Arena Carbon unless you know that’s what you want. Definitely look for taped seams rather than stitched. Depending on budget you may even want to get 2 suits, reg and high waist, to see what works best for you. And pay very close attention to sizing, if it doesn’t take you at least 10 minutes to put on the first time you wear it, it’s too big.

I really like my Speedo LZR Elite 2’s (I have 2 of them that I picked up on sale fir $50 each) but a standard waist would probably fit better than the high waist I have now.

Shortlist for masters for me, current suits and recently discontinued

LZR racer x(might be getting discontinued, speedo has 2 new high end suits out now)
LZR elite 2 - great suit, medium compression but still fast.
Arena R-evo
Funky trunks apex stealth or predator (very likely my next suit)
If you can find a TYR avictor (being replaced by the Venzo) for a good price, those are very fast. They have some of the best material out of anyone.

That’s not exhaustive, there are a lot of decent suits, but those are the ones I’d start with.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

Thanks for all the info Jason, and f*&k me!! I just went on eBay and saw the discounted prices, youzza. Here is one I found that will take an offer, thinking I will offer $145 or so. But my only question is do you buy your actual size? If I'm a 32 waist(or 31+) do I go with the 32 in this suit? IS this a decent price, as it looks like the replacement is 350 or so?

https://www.ebay.com/...4826ab2049f839eb15a5

They are fucking expensive and have only gotten worse in the last couple of years.

You don’t buy your training suit size. Consult the size charts, but for reference I wear a 34 training suit and a 27 LZR elite 2. But I’d probably be in a 30 Arena Carbon pro or flex.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

http://www.triboutique.ca/...speedo_7050711-s.htm

99 Canadian for a later elite 2 if you don't mind getting it shipped from canuckistan.

Definitely a smaller size than normal, I think the size guides are good.

Ok, looks like I should get a 28 then, just made an offer on this one. Looks like this guy got the wrong size himself, his loss my gain!!

https://www.ebay.com/...amp;autorefresh=true

That’s a good price if he hasn’t worn it before. Just be aware that tech suits are best the first time you wear them, then they lose a tiny bit with every wearing. Resist the temptation to train in it or “try it out”.

I only wear my good suits at nationals when I’m shaved . All other meets I wear an older suit (I think I have 5 or 6 suits in my closet)

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

Let me know what your reaction is when you go to wear it the first time.

Mine is usually along the lines of “how can I possibly get “this” into “that”?”

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

Curious as to what type of gains you see with these tech suits, in terms of seconds /100m.
I know it is difficult to measure apples to apples as for a meet you are tapered, usually swimming a lot less volume, etc.
Provided this season for triathlon goes well, I'll start competing in my Masters swim meets next winter. Kind of regretting not going this year.

Yesterday was 100s race pace practice.

WU:
400 Easy
300 Kick/Pull/Swim

Prep:
16x50 Reverse IM order @ 1:00

Main:
2x{
8x25 1-4 DPS (so building speed each 25 by trying to reduce the number of strokes taken) @ :35
50 Easy
4x50 Build/Easy/Fast/DPS @ 1:10
100 Easy
2x100 @ 1:40
100 Easy
}

Warm Down:
4x50

Tough workout for me. It felt like fatigue in my legs (maybe all over) was preventing me from being smooth. Generally the back halfs of my 100s were kinda sloppy. Times were a few seconds off my usual pace, but something didn't feel right. As soon as I was going easy (pulling with the buoy), things would even themselves out. Hope it sorts itself out by next practice.

It’s really hard to say, as I always race with a tech suit, even if it’s one of my crappy old ones it’s still faster than a speedo. And I don’t always swim the same events at meets.

But if I had to guess, I’d ballpark about 1s per 100 for a good tech suit over a speedo.

As a reference point, Caeleb Dressel swam heats of the 100 free at the Arena PSS in Des Moines in a brief in 50.4 or so, then went 48 high in the B Final in a tech suit. Evening swims are usually a little quicker than morning swims anyway, so a 1s advantage to the tech suit seems about right.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

I agree with Jason, tough to say with certainty but I can absolutely *feel* the difference in speed. Warming up in regular jammers and then switching to a race suit and doing another short warmup just before a race, the feeling in the water of the suit is remarkable.

8.2 mi run (70 min!)
825 yd swim

500 w/u
50 kick
100 IM
50 kick
100 swim
25 kick

86/92 on 100/100, will try to re-count my swims later today

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

700 swim @ 1:55/100
700 pull @ 1:42/100
700 pb+pads @1:38/100
50ez swim

Swam the 1000 in 13:09, better than the 13:50 I did last year. Won the 60 to 65 age group because the really fast guys swam the 1650. Was aiming to go 13:00 to 13:20, so right in the middle.

Thanks for the ideas and advice on this thread. I only swim with a Masters group one day/week, so value the input I get on this thread.

Next weekend 400IM, 500FR, 200IM. I wish I had top end speed so I could do 50s, but I’m a true “slowtwitch” . That 100 fly start to IM will be an adventure. Please no piano.

Putting the tech suit issue aside, why do you say evening swims are faster than morning swims. I am not a morning person, so I chalk it up to that. I always hated early morning tris....In a half IM, I barely got going till the second half of the bike.....pretty well every one of my 7 am tri swim starts always suck. Since I started swim racing meets mid day or meets spanning the entire day, the afternoon events are great. Next weekend at provincials I have the 400IM and 1500 free Friday afternoon. Saturday AM is 200 fly. I am going to take a touch of my closing 200m on the 1500 free and not go into a massive hole so that the 200 fly the next morning does not feel like death. Last year, I buried myself closing the 1500 free and paid at the 200 fly next morning....I don't think my final time was more than 3-5 seconds faster killing myself in the 1500 free.

Oh, and I am the provincial record holder in the 800IM. I was the first and only one to do it since MSO is recognizing it. At the Nepean Winterlude Long course meet, the 800 free was the final event and I asked the meet manager if they would ref it and could register it as an 800IM which they ended up doing as I wanted to try it before the provincials. Provincials should be better....at that Wnterlude meet, I had doing a 200 IM, 200 fly, 100 free, 100 fly, 100 free relay all in the 1.5 hrs before the 800. It was good to see how my body reacts when everything is packed in tight. At provincials, I'll only have 2 events per day so it will feel a ton better.

But hey, ST converted a triathlete who hated doing everything other than minimal swimming in a wetsuit to get to T1 so I could get Messick's checkmark done into a mometary SWIMMING provincial record holder (all ages).....so you guys can take credit for this silliness. It's going to be obliterated next weekend, but hey, you take whatever wins you can get.

I say they are because they usually were, for me.

Now, that’s not necessarily true for a masters meet which are “timed finals”. I’m talking about meets with prelims in the morning, finals in the evening, and you haven’t been running aroubd all day with job, kids, chores, etc. In those meets you get a dry run to work out any kinks in prelims, you’re a little more awake in the evening, a little more food in you, a little bit shorter session (fewer races) and a little more amped because it’s finals rather than heats. I was always faster in finals sessions than heats.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

Sunday swim, last workout before travelling tomorrow.

400 SKPS
8x50 kick @ 1:10
100 ez
16x50 d 1-4, (IM order in groups of 4)
100 easy
16x25 (IM order, 4 easy on 45, 4 fast on 30). Second time through added up the 25’s , 1:11 total time (16, 18, 21, 16)
100 easy

There’s something else in there that I’m forgetting. Total 3000m in 1 hour.

Edit, I remember now. About 600 m of technique work and drills with various bits of gear. Yeah, I was “that guy” today with pullbuoy, paddles, board, fins, and snorkel all cluttering up the end of my lane.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

6 mi bike, 5 mi run (41:14), 1125 yd swim

swim was 10 x 100 on 1:30, then 125 kick c/d

87/93/55

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Swam the 1000 in 13:09, better than the 13:50 I did last year. Won the 60 to 65 age group because the really fast guys swam the 1650. //

That's really a solid swim there dude, you are in national scoring territory! Are you going this year to Mesa? I jumped into a meet today after not sleeping very well last night, and it showed. I ended up just swimming two events, 200 breast and 50 fly, meet was dragging on and I was dreading the Sunday traffic going home. So I scratched the 200IM and called it a day. I did get my NQT for the 200 breast though, 2;48, out in 1;22+ back in 1;26, and won my division(your division) Don't have the exact splits, but a friend said I was 39.5/43 mid/43mid/42 low. It sure did not feel like those splits, 200's really hurt, and it felt like I just died the last 75.


I did pick up a super on sale tech suit for $50, and I can tell you they absolutely work. Even though I wasn't feeling it, I was taking one less stroke per lap. I can see on a shave and taper how much these things can make a difference. And I didn't get the full on one, I can actually put this one on in 45 seconds, so a couple sizes too big I guess..(-;


And a guy in our AG went 18;40 I believe in the 1650, so yes, there are still some grinders over 60 out there...

That’s a nice 2breast time. What about the 50 fly?

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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