Today I tested my Desoto ITU suit in a 450 yard time trial. I routinely swim 450 yard TTs in my regular
“Speedo” style training suit. I was pretty shocked at the difference, around 40 seconds. I swim in a 25 meter pool
if that matters.
What are your findings if you’ve done a similar comparison between a regular swim suit and your fastest tri suit/swim skin?
Dunno, but how did you do a 450 yard TT in a 25m pool?
edit - I’d be really shocked if it is that much (is there any flotation in it?) I know that going from a drag suit to a tech suit (jammers) plus shave and taper was worth about 15 seconds in a 400 SCM for me.
Dunno, but how did you do a 450 yard TT in a 25m pool?
edit - I’d be really shocked if it is that much (is there any flotation in it?) I know that going from a drag suit to a tech suit (jammers) plus shave and taper was worth about 15 seconds in a 400 SCM for me.
sorry, It’s a 25 METER pool but with a bulkhead making it 25 yards. I meant to say 25 YARD pool which it is now.
yes, the Desoto ITU suit has a “float pad” but it’s not a lot of help, maybe a little.
I’ve not done a test, but Monty and Ken lehner did a pseudo scientific test and saw ~2s/100m. I’d search for that thread.
I “tested” my Roka swimskin…swam 3800m, laps and timing by my Fenix 2, 50m pool, open turns (not flip) same goggles and cap, 3 swims total, 2 days off between each swim, same perceived effort with caveat noted below.
62:10 without swimskin
58:02 with swimskin and felt easier
61:40 without swimskin, felt easer than initial swim
These times were 4 weeks out from my A race second weekend of October. Swam 52minutes with a wetsuit in April. Swimskin is freespeed for sure…but not to the same magnitude as a wetsuit.
In a separate swim, I swam 28 minutes for 1900M with the swim skin versus my normal training pace of 30:30-31.
None of these efforts were all out, so that may mean more or less variability in the actual effort I put into the swims and the resulting times.Bottom line for me is that the times support that a swimskin is significantly faster AND (perhaps more important) at lower perceived effort).
Got a Tyr Elite Swimskin and did some A/B testing in a 25yd pool last month (lap times automatically from my garmin. Would obviously need a lot more yards to draw better conclusions but I was worried I might rip the suit doing flip turns, since it doesn’t stretch much vertically… And who knows how much placebo effect I got, since it wasn’t blinded testing, obviously.
100s #1-3 (1:06, 1:09, 1:11), 7-9 (1:10, 1:11, 1:11) in Swimskin over DeSoto Tri shorts: Avg pace 1:09.67/100yd.
100s #4-6 (1:13, 1:17, 1:15), 10 (1:14) in DeSoto Tri shorts : Avg pace 1:14.75/100yd.
500 #1 in DeSoto Tri shorts (6:38) : Avg pace 1:20/100yd.
500 #2 in Swimskin (6:15) : Avg pace 1:15/100yd.
Also notable were lower SWOLF /lap when in Swimskin.
Conclusion: good for a max of ~5s/100yd for me, 42x5s = 210s or 3.5 minutes (compared to shorts alone, at Ironman distance when race isn’t wetsuit legal.
Today I tested my Desoto ITU suit in a 450 yard time trial. I routinely swim 450 yard TTs in my regular
“Speedo” style training suit. I was pretty shocked at the difference, around 40 seconds. I swim in a 25 meter pool
if that matters.
What are your findings if you’ve done a similar comparison between a regular swim suit and your fastest tri suit/swim skin?
PI octane. Just a ballpark, but 3-5s/100. So not at all insignificant, and maybe not too surprising given the good wind tunnel results. But hard to be more accurate, given one was a race (pool, in the suit) and the other are just training time trials (in regular suit, different pool). -J
Well I did another 450 yard TT yesterday in my Desoto ITU tri suit to double check my findings. Again it was in the 40 second
overall improvement range for 450 yards over my normal swim suit.
I know this makes no sense. My only reckoning for it is that the placebo effect for a very poor swimmer is
much greater than with an average or fast swimmer.
I’m wondering if there is something going on with your core strength and/or alignment, and the compression of the trisuit is improving that? Just a thought.
What is your pace? Do you have a tendency to fishtail at all?
I’m wondering if there is something going on with your core strength and/or alignment, and the compression of the trisuit is improving that? Just a thought.
What is your pace? Do you have a tendency to fishtail at all?
I’m thinking you have hit the nail on the head. I’m very slow, like just barely 2 minutes per hundred yards the last two tt efforts with
the Desoto tri suit. I have noticed when using my tri suit that my legs don’t flail around as much. So I believe you are right about the
trisuit helping that.