This has been something I've wondered the last few years. I used to be a college swimmer, fit and trim, but the 10 years since then I've drank my fair share of beer and ate plenty of cheeseburgers. Just curious what peoples' take is on how much the extra baggage really effects swim races.
I don't really fit the swimmer mold anymore. I'm 31, 6'2", and 270lbs with a huge beer gut. I got some strange looks since the meet i was in recently was a USAS meet and I outweighed my competition by 100lbs in many cases. My first race in about 5 years i went 23.4 in the 50y free. I didn't expect to be that fast at this weight but at the same time I almost wonder if the added intertia is helping me more on the start and turns. Followed it up with a low 52 in the 100y free but I had a horrible reaction on the start and incorrect pacing. I think if i raced again today that'd be deep in the 51 range. For reference, typical non-taper times for me in college were in the low-mid 22 range at just a tick over 200lbs but I was obviously a lot stronger, younger, and doing a TON more yards at the time, that's why it makes me wonder just how much the weight is actually holding me back.
How much time do you think I stand to drop if i were 50lbs lighter? Could it be a measurable difference or something just slight? I guess I ask that to see if it'd be worth my while to drop that much weight quickly by dieting in addition to the swimming i'm doing. I don't really like dieting, and i generally eat what I want, when i want. Not gorging myself at every meal doesn't really seem to fit into my lifestyle :blush: Anyone have a similar story? "I dropped XX lbs and went XX seconds faster because of it."
Maybe it's an immeasurable, but I thought I'd ask for opinion anyway. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a "to diet or not to diet" discussion though.
Update:
This past weekend I was able to get a SCY 50 and 100 in.
In case you don't recall, back in May was the last I did a SCY race. From back then, at 270lbs My times were 23.4 in the 50free and 52.2 in the 100free. These were swam on seperate days.
After being a few ticks below 260lbs in august, the cheeseburgers won a little battle we had and I was about 262lbs for the meet this weekend. Newest results were 23.1 in the 50 free and 51.6 in the 100 free. The asterisks I would like to add here is that I was the last one off the blocks for the 50. Horrible reaction time on the start that you can clearly see in video (not uploaded yet). There's no doubt in my mind this would have been a high 22 sec swim if i had a good reaction. Not making excuses but I felt I should add this fact for weight/speed comparison sake. The 100free was swum about 5 minutes later. Legs were still a ton of bricks and I was still a little short winded. I ended up having some major oxy-debt breathing problems, needing to breath into the turns and consequently jamming two of them way too close. 51.6 wasn't bad, but I think with about 10 minutes longer rest I would have been able to pull out a 50.xx swim pretty easily. This was a very short meet since it was my old college team vs the alumni. Mostly 50 races and they were going back to back with little rest in between.
Start/turn/rest problems aside the swims were still faster than they were back in may. It's still hard to say again that this is directly due to the weight, but I thought I'd post it here as it's at least part of the discussion i wanted to update.
:)
My next order of business is learning the track start. I can't keep losing time on reaction with a flat start.
Interesting data. I do wonder if the weight made any difference, or if it was more of a pool/training/weird-ineffable type difference.
.3 in the 50 and .6 in the 100 aren't huge time drops, though they are consistent. I don't know if you can base much on these two races alone unless it was the same pool you swam in last year; the same part of the training season; the same basic suit type; and you were similarly psyched/rested/in good health, etc.
But even if all other variables were constant, it's just not such a dramatic change that I think you can pin it on 8 lb. weight drop (with the denominator being 262--8/262 = only a 3 percent body weight change--again, good, but not hugely significant in some sense.)
As far as the track start goes, I have tried to learn this, and I am probably too much of an old dog to do so. What I have heard is that it doesn't really do all that much for reaction time, explosiveness off the blocks, etc. What it does do is give you some more stability, making it harder to false start (with the one false start and you're out approach, this is pretty important in the super elite ranks.)
Update:
This past weekend I was able to get a SCY 50 and 100 in.
In case you don't recall, back in May was the last I did a SCY race. From back then, at 270lbs My times were 23.4 in the 50free and 52.2 in the 100free. These were swam on seperate days.
After being a few ticks below 260lbs in august, the cheeseburgers won a little battle we had and I was about 262lbs for the meet this weekend. Newest results were 23.1 in the 50 free and 51.6 in the 100 free. The asterisks I would like to add here is that I was the last one off the blocks for the 50. Horrible reaction time on the start that you can clearly see in video (not uploaded yet). There's no doubt in my mind this would have been a high 22 sec swim if i had a good reaction. Not making excuses but I felt I should add this fact for weight/speed comparison sake. The 100free was swum about 5 minutes later. Legs were still a ton of bricks and I was still a little short winded. I ended up having some major oxy-debt breathing problems, needing to breath into the turns and consequently jamming two of them way too close. 51.6 wasn't bad, but I think with about 10 minutes longer rest I would have been able to pull out a 50.xx swim pretty easily. This was a very short meet since it was my old college team vs the alumni. Mostly 50 races and they were going back to back with little rest in between.
Start/turn/rest problems aside the swims were still faster than they were back in may. It's still hard to say again that this is directly due to the weight, but I thought I'd post it here as it's at least part of the discussion i wanted to update.
:)
My next order of business is learning the track start. I can't keep losing time on reaction with a flat start.
Interesting data. I do wonder if the weight made any difference, or if it was more of a pool/training/weird-ineffable type difference.
.3 in the 50 and .6 in the 100 aren't huge time drops, though they are consistent. I don't know if you can base much on these two races alone unless it was the same pool you swam in last year; the same part of the training season; the same basic suit type; and you were similarly psyched/rested/in good health, etc.
But even if all other variables were constant, it's just not such a dramatic change that I think you can pin it on 8 lb. weight drop (with the denominator being 262--8/262 = only a 3 percent body weight change--again, good, but not hugely significant in some sense.)
As far as the track start goes, I have tried to learn this, and I am probably too much of an old dog to do so. What I have heard is that it doesn't really do all that much for reaction time, explosiveness off the blocks, etc. What it does do is give you some more stability, making it harder to false start (with the one false start and you're out approach, this is pretty important in the super elite ranks.)
