Ban the tech suits?

Leslie, can you recall your first meet that you used a B70? Since you only swim USMS meets, there should be a list on your USMS member page of all your times in all events before and after B70 wearing. I would like to see the data. Consider posting to your blog the complete list of sanctioned times (and you can include the ones that you did that weren't sanctioned after the fact) in each event you have swum with and without a B70, indicating type of suit. Obviously, there are other factors involved--time in the season, how good your training that year was, injuries, etc. But it would still provide an interesting glimpse into the general trends with this particular suit. If, for instance, over the past 5 years, 80 percent of your best times were in a B70, and 20 percent were in another suit, that would indicate something different than if it was 50-50, say. Or if all your best times were in a B70, then something different still. Please do not get me wrong. You and everyone else, from CremePuff to Michael Ross, who have done extraordinary performances in B70s are extraordinary swimmers regardless of suit. But I suspect the suit does make a greater difference than most of us would like to think it does, because that would take just a little luster off the personal glory halo. When Jim Clemmons joked that getting into better shape and not the suit made the difference, adding "this is my story and I'm sticking to it," I think he was clearly winking and nodding at a certain disingenuousness. PS depending upon the degree of my bankruptcy post-audit, I had hoped to scrimp up for a B70 myself. I would love to try one out and see if it would let me drop a bit of time here and there. But if it's going to get outlawed, I don't want to waste the money to try to bank some good times between now and the day of official illegality, say 2010--then spend the rest of my dotage wondering why I suddenly got so much slower. Jimby, I don't disagree that the suit makes a difference. It does!! Definitely. I'm sure your times would improve with it. I don't think I can give you "general trends" of the type you seek though. I have been swimming a few months shy of 4 years as a master. In that time, I have improved each year in a fairly linear fashion. I think the linear improvement is due in part to my competing in all three courses, which makes it easier to achieve PBs, particularly if you only do a couple meets a year in X course. I have been competing in the B70 since it was available to the public. My first meet was the IGLA SCM meet in June 2008. Since then, I have worn the B70 for every race except 2. (BTW, I don't just swim in masters meets. I average about two USS meets per year. Just swam in one in January ...) I believe my times, as a general matter and especially in unrested meets, have improved because of the B70. My unrested/mini-taper B70 times seem fairly comparable to my rested/tapered Pro times, but it's hard to pinpoint because so much depends on type of training, weights, quality of pool, state of health, when the last time you swam the event was, etc. BUT, because I wear the B70 so often, I now have an initial baseline of B70s times in many events. I have subsequently improved beyond those times. I don't think the subsequent improvements can be attributed to B70 use. Do you? One of my competitors had some great times this year with her new B70. But she also lost a significant amount of weight and changed her training. Is all her time improvement due to her B70? I do think the B70 helps some swimmers more than others.

Leslie, can you recall your first meet that you used a B70? Since you only swim USMS meets, there should be a list on your USMS member page of all your times in all events before and after B70 wearing. I would like to see the data. Consider posting to your blog the complete list of sanctioned times (and you can include the ones that you did that weren't sanctioned after the fact) in each event you have swum with and without a B70, indicating type of suit. Obviously, there are other factors involved--time in the season, how good your training that year was, injuries, etc. But it would still provide an interesting glimpse into the general trends with this particular suit. If, for instance, over the past 5 years, 80 percent of your best times were in a B70, and 20 percent were in another suit, that would indicate something different than if it was 50-50, say. Or if all your best times were in a B70, then something different still. Please do not get me wrong. You and everyone else, from CremePuff to Michael Ross, who have done extraordinary performances in B70s are extraordinary swimmers regardless of suit. But I suspect the suit does make a greater difference than most of us would like to think it does, because that would take just a little luster off the personal glory halo. When Jim Clemmons joked that getting into better shape and not the suit made the difference, adding "this is my story and I'm sticking to it," I think he was clearly winking and nodding at a certain disingenuousness. PS depending upon the degree of my bankruptcy post-audit, I had hoped to scrimp up for a B70 myself. I would love to try one out and see if it would let me drop a bit of time here and there. But if it's going to get outlawed, I don't want to waste the money to try to bank some good times between now and the day of official illegality, say 2010--then spend the rest of my dotage wondering why I suddenly got so much slower. Jimby, I don't disagree that the suit makes a difference. It does!! Definitely. I'm sure your times would improve with it. I don't think I can give you "general trends" of the type you seek though. I have been swimming a few months shy of 4 years as a master. In that time, I have improved each year in a fairly linear fashion. I think the linear improvement is due in part to my competing in all three courses, which makes it easier to achieve PBs, particularly if you only do a couple meets a year in X course. I have been competing in the B70 since it was available to the public. My first meet was the IGLA SCM meet in June 2008. Since then, I have worn the B70 for every race except 2. (BTW, I don't just swim in masters meets. I average about two USS meets per year. Just swam in one in January ...) I believe my times, as a general matter and especially in unrested meets, have improved because of the B70. My unrested/mini-taper B70 times seem fairly comparable to my rested/tapered Pro times, but it's hard to pinpoint because so much depends on type of training, weights, quality of pool, state of health, when the last time you swam the event was, etc. BUT, because I wear the B70 so often, I now have an initial baseline of B70s times in many events. I have subsequently improved beyond those times. I don't think the subsequent improvements can be attributed to B70 use. Do you? One of my competitors had some great times this year with her new B70. But she also lost a significant amount of weight and changed her training. Is all her time improvement due to her B70? I do think the B70 helps some swimmers more than others.