Why would wearing a wetsuit make my non-wetsuit swim so much faster? I wore a wetsuit for about 1500 yards last week, just to practice with it before the weekend’s race, and my usual 100’s dropped from the mid-upper 130’s to the low 120’s. Not surprising to me. Then I took off the wetsuit, and STILL swam in the lower 120’s! The only way I can describe the feeling is that the water suddenly felt VERY heavy.
I did it again today, just to see if it was a fluke…same results. I then swam a smooth 250 in 3:44 with the wetsuit, and 3:50 without the wetsuit. I know this is still slow compared to good swimmers, but, it certainly was unexpected…10-15 seconds faster per hundred, just because I practiced with a wetsuit on? Does this make sense to you swim experts? Maybe I should practice with hand paddles and fins, too…