Wetsuit in the pool.

I got a swim in on Tuesday at lunch. I did another 1000 yard TT - this time I was 16:26 about 30 seconds slower. I am not sure what was up. Oh well.

With the lakes here still in the 50 degree range I decided that I needed to break the wetsuit out in the pool. I have heard horror stories about panic and what not so I have to ease those wetsuit fears.

I got dress at home and then drove to the pool Wednesday morning. The temperature was in the 30's so I was not overheating. I did get some looks walking into the gym. Chatted with Jen in the pool for a few and then did a quick warm up. The suit is so buoyant that you kind of just float. I did back to back 1000 yard TT's in the suit. My normal swimming TT best is 15:56 (1:35.6 / 100 yards). With the suit I clicked off a 14:23 (1:26.3 / 100 yards) and 14:48 (1:28.8 / 100 yards). I think that is pretty substantial. According to a swim calculator the 1:26 / 100 yards would equal a 28 minute half iron swim while my time without the wetsuit (the 1:36 time) would equal 31 minutes. It will be good to have the extra 3 minutes since I will probably be zig zagging all over the place - swimming any direction but straight. I realize that I am not a swimming speed freak compared to many of you but the improvement I have seen in the last couple of months (since Christmas) has been remarkable. The wetsuit fit perfect and I did not feel any since of claustrophobia. However, I did get very warm in the pool. My skin under the wetsuit was hot to the touch. I had a my one piece tri suit unitard on underneath so I took the wetsuit off in the pool and did some pool down laps. The water was very refreshing.

I am trying hard to embrace this TRAIN SMART NOT HARD mentality.