Yeah, yeah I know...being an oversized clydesdale and maxing out the sizing chart on a suit is setting myself up for problems....but blowing the inner thigh seam on my B70 after only about 6 swims pissed me off.
Even more disturbing is that at least a dozen other swimmers in Portland had major problems with the B70 as well...plus I've gotten some emails from people who saw my post complaining as well.
B70 has a problem...thankfully it does appear that they will honor a one year warranty but lets see how long that lasts if they get buried with returns.
Add to this discussion the fact that I know of at least 6 swimmers who have raced in LZR's and had failures as well....at $400-$550 a pop I'm more than a little concerned.
Other than a few annoying lose threads I had no problem. I used it for two meets, a total of 16 swims (one of the meets had trials/finals). It only took about 5 minutes to put it on and I would be pulling and stretching without any problem to the suit. I got the kneeskin model though partly because it would be easier and faster to put on (and partly because I have such short legs that simultaneously fitting my legs and torso is a problem).
Everyone is talking about the seams and that does seem a weak point. But my friend Bill Winters really hated how the suit filled up with water. He said it felt like he was wearing a parachute in starts and turns and felt so strongly about it that he started wearing his old (original) Speedo Fastskin. He allowed that it would probably be a great suit for open water swims because he definitely felt a lift from increased buoyancy.
I have thought a lot about how and how much the suit helps. Maybe slightly off-topic, but here goes; sorry for the long post.
When I was unrested/unshaved I used it at the VA Senior Champs and there is little doubt in my mind that the suit, combined with fast competition and championship environment, helped me swim significantly faster than a typical "in-season" masters meet. It reminded me of college seasons when you would shave in-season and take a few days rest in order to swim fast to make some NCAA cuts without unduly affecting the training cycle.
A rough guestimate FOR ME would be that the suit decreased times by 0.5-1.0 sec per hundred under those conditions (unrested, unshaved). I can see a real use for the suit to approach end-of-season times without fully tapering.
How much does it help compared to being fully tapered and shaved, however? That's the big question and I can't really answer it. My times improved but so did my training speed; I've only swum in 3 rested LCM meets in the past 20 years so I don't have a lot of data to look at trends; I can easily attribute ALL the improvement in times to improved training.
I was swimming fast in warmup at nationals with the suit on...I was cruising 25 yards no-breath SDKs in 11 seconds with the same effort that it takes to go 13 seconds during the season. And I felt really high in the water. But I ALWAYS get that same feeling when I taper and shave and I just can't tell if it is even better with the suit than without it.
In retrospect I'm kicking myself for not doing a little experiment at nationals...with relay leadoffs I swam the 50 back 3 times and my times were all fairly similar (27.95, 28.02, 28.08). I wish I had picked one of those swims and wore jammers only, but I didn't. Silly, but I was chasing Clay's 27.88 and thought I needed every advantage I could get, real or not, large or small.
That brings me to another point. Almost everyone at nationals wore SOMETHING -- I don't remember seeing any briefs or even any jammers, it was all legskins and body suits, though maybe I missed something. It is psychologically VERY difficult to concede a potential advantage to one's competition. And, let's face it, we can all say we're just swimming against the clock and our past performances, and that might even be largely true, but everyone likes to place high too.
Finally, at the Olympics, in the men's swimming I saw a mix of legskins and bodysuits in the non-freestyle events. I would think the bodysuits would provide more advantage but I did not see it. But that is based strictly on my recollection not on any actual data analysis. It does raise the point, though: why do some of the top competitors wear legskins only and not the whole thing?
Other than a few annoying lose threads I had no problem. I used it for two meets, a total of 16 swims (one of the meets had trials/finals). It only took about 5 minutes to put it on and I would be pulling and stretching without any problem to the suit. I got the kneeskin model though partly because it would be easier and faster to put on (and partly because I have such short legs that simultaneously fitting my legs and torso is a problem).
Everyone is talking about the seams and that does seem a weak point. But my friend Bill Winters really hated how the suit filled up with water. He said it felt like he was wearing a parachute in starts and turns and felt so strongly about it that he started wearing his old (original) Speedo Fastskin. He allowed that it would probably be a great suit for open water swims because he definitely felt a lift from increased buoyancy.
I have thought a lot about how and how much the suit helps. Maybe slightly off-topic, but here goes; sorry for the long post.
When I was unrested/unshaved I used it at the VA Senior Champs and there is little doubt in my mind that the suit, combined with fast competition and championship environment, helped me swim significantly faster than a typical "in-season" masters meet. It reminded me of college seasons when you would shave in-season and take a few days rest in order to swim fast to make some NCAA cuts without unduly affecting the training cycle.
A rough guestimate FOR ME would be that the suit decreased times by 0.5-1.0 sec per hundred under those conditions (unrested, unshaved). I can see a real use for the suit to approach end-of-season times without fully tapering.
How much does it help compared to being fully tapered and shaved, however? That's the big question and I can't really answer it. My times improved but so did my training speed; I've only swum in 3 rested LCM meets in the past 20 years so I don't have a lot of data to look at trends; I can easily attribute ALL the improvement in times to improved training.
I was swimming fast in warmup at nationals with the suit on...I was cruising 25 yards no-breath SDKs in 11 seconds with the same effort that it takes to go 13 seconds during the season. And I felt really high in the water. But I ALWAYS get that same feeling when I taper and shave and I just can't tell if it is even better with the suit than without it.
In retrospect I'm kicking myself for not doing a little experiment at nationals...with relay leadoffs I swam the 50 back 3 times and my times were all fairly similar (27.95, 28.02, 28.08). I wish I had picked one of those swims and wore jammers only, but I didn't. Silly, but I was chasing Clay's 27.88 and thought I needed every advantage I could get, real or not, large or small.
That brings me to another point. Almost everyone at nationals wore SOMETHING -- I don't remember seeing any briefs or even any jammers, it was all legskins and body suits, though maybe I missed something. It is psychologically VERY difficult to concede a potential advantage to one's competition. And, let's face it, we can all say we're just swimming against the clock and our past performances, and that might even be largely true, but everyone likes to place high too.
Finally, at the Olympics, in the men's swimming I saw a mix of legskins and bodysuits in the non-freestyle events. I would think the bodysuits would provide more advantage but I did not see it. But that is based strictly on my recollection not on any actual data analysis. It does raise the point, though: why do some of the top competitors wear legskins only and not the whole thing?
