expected time drop with a wetsuit

Is that because it screws up your mechanics? That is what is seemed to do to me. I only wear it once or twice a year, so Maybe I never get adjusted to it.

i've heard that a wetsuit will give you a 10 percent drop. i imagine the advantage is greater for those with a lower percentage of body fat, but personally, i won't wear one so its just what i've heard.

I think it depends on how fast you are. When I was swimming at about 2:00/100yd a few years ago, the drop with a wetsuit was 8 sec/100yd. I tested in a pool. I think, the faster you are (less drag), the less a wetsuit helps you.

I'm thinking of doing an open water swim this Sunday. I did the same distance (the full ironman distance, about 2-1/2 miles) a few years ago, but in a different lake. However, due to cool water temps, wetsuits are recommended for this event, and I was able to borrow one from someone on my team (I tried it on after workout this morning, getting it on was a workout in itself). I'll try to post next week if I decide to go for it. No, I didn't have time to try it out in the pool, so who knows what will happen.

I'll do an 800yd pool time trial and see what happens and post the results.

Thanks for posting this rtodd... I'm curious also, trying to decide if I should invest in a wetsuit. I'm not anxious to b/c they're pretty expensive, and I've heard some say they're very constricting. But someone in one of my masters' groups told me I should get one. I've done a handful of o.w. swims and didn't feel the need for a wetsuit in any of them, including one where wetsuits were recommended due to the ocean temp (which didn't seem that cold to me). I don't have too many illusions about how fast a wetsuit could make me--but I am curious. It seems as if they'd be too warm in some situations and would thus slow me down?

There is a study out there that shows the main advantage of the wetsuit is body position (flat = low resistance). The point they made was that if your position is already good, putting on a wetsuit won't help you that much. "It is concluded that the wet suit effect improves performance more in inefficient swimmers with low buoyancy, swimming at low speeds." Google "Wet suit effect: a comparison between competitive swimmers and triathletes" for the original study in PubMed. Fortunately for my budget, I am pretty flat in the water already, so I would only want the suit for cold water (which I avoid).

8 seconds per 100 yds is substantial!!!!

Is that because it screws up your mechanics? That is what is seemed to do to me. QUOTE] i would imagine that a full body suit would restrict arm extension a bit (but the added buoyancy would still produce a net gain in speed) my decidedly anti-wetsuit position is based on my feeling that you should train in the situation that you are racing in. most ow races will allow participants to don rubber but will seperate them by catagory.....seems reasonable. triathlons allow much more liberal use of wetsuits, therefore one is almost required to wear one in order to be competitive. were i participating in tris, i would probably reconsider.

I don't know this for certain, but i feel like my swim times in a wet suit are comparable to those of using a pull bouy. It keeps my butt up. I do tri's and i actually think wetsuits should be banned if the water temp is over 75 or so. I don't like wearing one if the water is warm. They make you sweat...just what you need in 90 degree weather when you have 25m biking and 10k of running to do after the swim. The problem is that people i can beat in the pool swim right past me during the race if they are wearing a wetsuit and i am not. For cold water, I'm the first one to wear one. I just think they should be used for the purpose that they were designed for, not as a performance enhancer.