Ok, so in my last tri I had some problems with my wetsuit. I am currently sporting a QR Superfull, for maxium flexability in the shoulders. However, it didn’t live up to what I wanted.
I felt like I was working WAY to hard to get my arms over, felt like I was swinging wide on my recovery, and my stroke rate was WAY down.
So, could this be caused by not getting the suit on correctly? I was rushed (bad planning) to get into the water and start the race, perhaps I didn’t pull the suit on/up in the shoulders enough? Or, am I too particular and its time to look at sleeveless options, saving the superfull for the colder swims?
…“perhaps I didn’t pull the suit on/up in the shoulders enough?”
that would be my first guess. even with my Bionik, which has superflexible shoulders, i need to make sure i have a little bunched on top to ensure smooth range of motion.
I used to think that a full suit restricted my shoulder movement. Then I got a full suit that fits correctly and there is a world of difference. Pulling the sleeves up an inch past where you think they should be is my starting place.
I’m still not convinced that the full suit is faster than my sleeveless, actually I timed myself to be about the same speed in both, but it definitely isn’t slower and will be nice to use if we ever had cool water around here. There are going to be people that will argue it both ways but IMO I believe that if the full suit doesn’t restrict shoulder movement, it should be faster.
jaretj
btw, both of my suits are Aquaman Bionics, and the same size
I never felt “right” in my full suit until IMLP '03. The guys from Ironman wetsuits were on hand helping folks with their final preps. One of the guys, I wish I had gotten his name, spent maybe 5 minutes with me getting my suit in the right spot. I PR’ed that swim by about 7 minutes and felt like I was swimming in my own skin the whole way. I was amazed at the difference. Even more impressive was the fact that my wetsuit is an Orca and these guys were helping anyone that needed it regardless of brand.
We basically started over. First was to pull the suit as tightly as possible up into the crotch area (I have a long torso.) Then through the sleeves and zip up the back. Then bend over and pull all the slack from the waist up and over the shoulders. Last, inch the sleeves up (it helps to have an extra pair of hands) and pull all of the slack over the ball of your shoulder. Voila, freedom!!!
that process should be used by anyone with a full suit, or new to one.
i’m lucky to have Aquaman’s Emmanuel Millet close by. when i got my Bionik, he spent a fair amount of time with me explaining how to get it set up properly. Aquaman suits are cut quite a bit differently that most other full suits, but the basics still apply.
I was missing the section in the middle about bending over and removing the slack around my waist. Prior to that I always felt the suit was pulling down on my shoulders.
That’s how I feel too. I am going to have to try that for my next race. And probable get in the pool once or twice with the suit to get some practice. Thanks for the tips!
Sorry for the late reply, I’ve got to get work done sometime
Other than the feeling of cool water on my arms, my full suit and sleeveless feel the same. There is no restriction of arm movement with my newer suit. My older suit, an older Ironman suit, was too short in the body for me and made it hard to put my arm over my head. The Aquaman Bionic and Meta-Cell are longer in the body than the Ironman suit.
I’ve never had any chafing problems with any suit that I’ve had, I guess I’ve been lucky.
Getting water through the arm holes? that has happened a couple of times but not in any races. The only time that I got water through the arm holes is when I was swimming through the surf at the beginning of a swim that had some 2-4 foot waves crashing on the beach. The water seemed to go through the arm holes and exit at my ankles, kind of a weird feeling.
