Ok, as most of you know Im new to this. I have heard people talk about 1/2 IM and IM where when the wetsuit are not allowed people dont race. Ok I really dont get that but ok its more than I will take on even with a wet suit.
But am I reading this right that people wont do a sprint (0.5 mile swim) with out a wetsuit? Boy if this is true I hope they are not allowed when I do mine it sounds like it will help thin the crowds.
I cant believe people cant do 0.5 mile without a suit? I hope I am missing something here.
My first tri, I was thirteen, no bodyfat, and had no swimming background.
Water temp 63, 650 yard swim.
The next year, still no wetsuit. 61 degrees (give or take a degree), the swim was long. Probably 8-900 yards. Apperently I didn’t die, and I don’t think I shrunk anything permanently, either.
I still do tri’s. I like the cold water. (though, for the record, I do now have a toasty Orca Predator.)
Wetsuits are allowed, according to USAT rules, if the water temp is below 78 F. If legal, most triathletes opt for a wetsuit, regardless of the swim distance. The buoyancy is a big bonus and makes most people faster swimmers. For me, the added speed will more than offset the 10 seconds or so it takes me to strip off my wetsuit.
Also, I get cold easily. My muscles don’t perform well when cold. Cold air & water temperature is a double whammy…if you come out of the water cold, you’ll never warm up on the bike.
Well, the reason I say that is becasue I am a recreational triathlete. I don’t really enjoy the swim portion much if I don’t have a suit to make me warmer and faster.
If I just go for a swim in the Caribbean or Andaman or whatever, then I don’t want the suit on- I like to feel the water on my skin. But if I am doing a traithlon I just don’t want to be cold, wet and have this feeling like I am one of the worst swimmers in my wave.
For me, the wetsuit is a bit of an “equalizer”. Whimpy? certainly. Cheating? possibly. More fun for me? definately.
The swim can be the most psychologically difficult part of the race. It often involves many, many people swimming at close proximity in a body of water that usually provides for absolutely no underwater visibility. Add to that the cold and the adrenelin, it’s not completely crazy for some people to want to depend on wetsuits.
That said, I’ve done sprints with and without wetsuits. The times I didn’t wear one, I was usually just not feeling up to putting the damn thing on (sometimes it’s really hard to reconcile my desire to race with my obvious innate laziness:).
Make sure you post a race report (you’re doing Ann Arbor, right?); I can’t wait to hear how it went.
That’s exactly where I am at even after about 200-240 triathlons. When I first started i this sport, Dan had not invented the wetsuit. So when they came out, I was like, “Cool… I’m all over that.”
The wetsuit makes the sport more fun for me, and fun is about the biggest part of it for me.
For me the wetsuit is not about warmth. I grew up water skiing in extremely cold water, it doesn’t bother me.
Rather, a wetsuit makes me almost 8 seconds faster per 100 yards at race pace - measured in the pool. That equates to about a minute of time for a 1/2 mile swim. (I’m not a great swimmer so wetsuits help me greatly). Factoring in wetsuit removal time of 30 seconds, I’m still 30 seconds ahead with the wetsuit, even in a sprint.
I’m usually competitive in my age group, so that 30 seconds makes a big diff.
For me the wet suit is about safety. When the water gets rough, I have had panic attacks in the water. So, this has allowed me to just float until I calm down and keep going. I remember going out too fast at Donner last year and after a very short amount of time, I could not breathe anymore. The altitude and cold did not help. And having Dan in my swim wave also put the pressure on. :o) So, I just floated around until I calmed down. Terrible swim time last year. My goal this year is to down the swim SLOWLY and actually get a faster time. :o)
I seem to be about 10% faster which I need all the help I can get since I get my butt kicked on the bike. I love my aquaman suit since with the legs cut high, I get the thing off in no time at all!!
Fact in the matter is that wetsuits advantage people who aren’t stronger swimmers, and in turn enables them to swim much easier, almost as if their on a surfboard for example. This is where non-wetsuit triathlons are key to people who are stronger swimmers especially Half IM and IM distance.
I know “real” swimmers complain about wet suit since they say it loses their advantage. I wonder why real “bikers” do not complain about aero bars since it makes poor bikers like me faster. :o) I guess real “runners” should complain that we are not all running naked and in bare feet?
8 seconds per 100 does sound like a big improvement. how long does it take you to do the swim leg of a sprint?
I have no idea what kind of a swimmer I am. but I do know I can float with out a wetsuit with no problem (Maybe this makes me better than a poor swimmer).
I do understand the swimmers complaints, cause from what I have been able to read a wetsuit helps you get into the right position, if you already swim in the right position it does nothing for you. Really not comparable to anything on a bike or with running. Well maybe if I could hook elecrodes to my leg muscles such that as my crank was headed up the electrode would fire and cause me to lift and pull the pedal up. use of such a device would help those who only put force in on the down side, those who already pull on the up would get no additional aid from such device.
So I guess I’ll hope the lake in august is so warm wetsuits are not allowed, since i wont have one it will put us all on equal footing and I’ll see what kind of swimmer I am. (Or am I really a rock ???)
That wouldn’t really be a good way to judge how one swims. Too many other factors - distance calc errors, currents, crowds, beach start through crashing waves, etc…
My lane at Masters’ does 100 yard intervals on 1:30. Out of 5 lanes of swimmers, I’m in lane 2, sometimes 3. I’m not a fast swimmer, obviously. I’ve done a couple of 1:10-1:15 Ironman swims.
My legs ARE the problem. They sink. A wetsuit brings them right up in line behind the rest of my body - as they should be. No fuss, no muss!
Call me a wuss if you want but I wouldn’t enter any tri of any length with water temp under 78F without a wetsuit. This is from a guy that was used to scuba diving in 40-45 F water in the Great Lakes in only a 7mm wet sut and not a dry suit.
But I’ve noticed in the last few years that my body can’t tolerate the cold nearly the way it used to. I believe it’s two reasons - I’m getting older (over 50) and since doing tris I lost about ten lbs, which I assume was mostly thermal protection fat layer.
I live in Florida. You get one or two wetsuit legal races a year if your lucky. Lack of wetsuit legal races doesn’t seems to thin the crowds here at all.
To me, the possibility that a tri will be non-wetsuit is all the more reason to put in the time in the pool, and to devote that time to technique, and getting used to cooler water temps, especially for a shortish-length swim like a half-mile.
Naturally, there’s a physiological point where trying to swim in too-cold water is detrimental to one’s health, but I can remember plenty of people doing the Escape From Alcatraz free-skinned (looney-tunes that they were).
I get the feeling that I’m one of the few people where water temp is ever 55 degrees…you guys must race in warmer waters. I went to an open water swim clinic in preparation for my first tri last weekend and EVERYONE who didn’t have a wetsuit couldn’t last more than 10-15 minutes. Yeah, if you were fast you could definitely do the half mile in that amount of time but it’s definitely a good thing for a newbie in cold water to have, I think.
Are you saying that some people will sign up for the race, travel to the race site, and then decide at the last minute not to race because the water is too warm for wetsuits? That seems very bizarre to me. I love swimming in my wetsuit, because it’s faster and saves energy. But I would do the race no matter what. I’m going to sign up for the races I want to do that fit into my schedule, and do them. Hopefully they will be wetsuit legal. I’m doing a half next month. Last year the temp was 77 degrees, and this year the race is a month later in the summer, so there is almost no way it will be a wetsuit swim. But I’m still going to be there.
I couldn’t imagine looking at a race calendar in February, finding a race in the summer that was of the right distance, on the right date, in the right place, etc, and then saying, “no wait, can’t do that, no wetsuits.”