Shaving

Most difficult areas for me to shave are the knees, elbows, and palms of hands. Ears and nose.

Ears and nose. I finally bought one of those "personal grooming trimmers":D I only use it on the ole nostrils though...not quite old enough for the ears yet!

Meet is over, back to my triathlon training. Well unfortunately once I got sweaty I broke out into itchy hives in various shaved areas. I felt like bugs were eating my skin. I hate shaving! A long hot shower helped, but this really sucks. I'm not sure this was worth it. Since I never swam any of the events before I have no baseline times and can't really say. How many seconds did I gain by shaving? Impossible to know for sure. Would I have out-touched that 75 year old guy in the 500 if I hadn't shaved? Probably not. Maybe that makes it worth it. For those contemplating shaving for the first time, let this be a cautionary tale :( Funny, I've known (male) triathletes who shave their legs regularly, at least in the summer. Shaving makes a significant difference in swimming performance. I've gotten used to the feeling so I don't really think much about it afterward (and unlike others who have commented, my wife actually likes the results... :)). But probably the most painful areas post-shave are the upper/inner thighs. And if you wear jammers, you don't really have to shave those areas.

Yours are dark? Mine are gray. OK, reading this thread was scary. Shaving takes me 5 minutes max. Good to know that Kirk is using pink razors though. Dark where you'd wish them to be light and, of course, light where you'd wish them dark. I can clip, then final shave, in roughly 10 minutes for a full suit allowed meet. Probably closer to an 45-60 minutes when we go backwards to jammers. Bummer.

Luckily, since I shave for two meets this yards season(one a few weeks ago and Zones in about 10-11 days), the second shave doesn't take 45 minutes. Yeah! The first one is always pain in the neck.

Yeah it was me. I figured you would either remember, or just wonder "who the hell is this guy acting like he knows me?" :D There's usually lots of friendly folks at masters meets, so it didn't even faze me! However I felt like I had some energy left in the tank at the end. Me too, actually. I'll take that to the alternative!

Was that you sitting next to me today? I thought I'd met you before but couldn't put my finger on it! How was your 1650? Yeah it was me. I figured you would either remember, or just wonder "who the hell is this guy acting like he knows me?" :D The 1650 was an ordeal. It took a looooonnnnnng time. I went out a little too fast, slowed down too much on the third 400, then successfully picked it up on the final 400. I waited until the last 400 to bring in a 6-beat kick, which worked well. However I felt like I had some energy left in the tank at the end. Not much, mind you.. I was on the verge of puking. But I didn't feel as spent as say, at the end of a 5K run. I think I could have kicked for longer, especially since I was forcing myself to breathe every 2. (I breathe every 3 in practice). One thing I noticed this year was that I seemed to recover a lot better than last year when I did all sprints (50s, 100s, 200s). I don't feel stiff or sore today. I even went for a fairly hard run this afternoon and felt fine. Last year I was pretty sore for a few days after the meet. I'm not sure what that means. I definitely did lots of warmdown swimming yesterday after the 500 and 100 fly. Maybe that worked. OR, maybe I just didn't go as hard as I normally do when I'm fully trained and ready to go fast.

OK back to the original topic.. I went for a nice hard 4 mile run today; a return to normal life, so to speak. Meet is over, back to my triathlon training. Well unfortunately once I got sweaty I broke out into itchy hives in various shaved areas. I felt like bugs were eating my skin. I hate shaving! A long hot shower helped, but this really sucks. I'm not sure this was worth it. Since I never swam any of the events before I have no baseline times and can't really say. How many seconds did I gain by shaving? Impossible to know for sure. Would I have out-touched that 75 year old guy in the 500 if I hadn't shaved? Probably not. Maybe that makes it worth it. For those contemplating shaving for the first time, let this be a cautionary tale :( By the way, Fort I'm glad I could do my part to induce a little shudder. I feel I owe the board that much. And please stop gloating with the 5 minutes.