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.
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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.)
I agree, to me it sure doesn't seem that this kind of weight loss can yield any results that can't be chalked up to other factors. I just wanted to add it on to the thread anyways as further data to the cause. I do think the 50 swim was faster than the 23.1 would imply, but it's hard to know exactly how much time i wasted on the block with the bad reaction. If I cant find a playback program that shows time on the video i can probably estimate how much i lost down to a tenth by framing through it. There's a lot of easy improvement in both swims just by fixing the mistakes. If I did them again today they'd be at least a few tenths faster without waiting for any further training gains or weight losses.
Suit type hasn't changed. Having never believed in the body suits, i wore jammers then, and also this time. I don't have training "seasons"... not in a club/team and I train on my own schedule with my own workouts.
Perhaps you're right and the track start won't yield any results for me. But I've always had problems getting the weight rolling forward on a flat start. I think alot of that is why i have reaction problems. We'll find out though. It certainly can't hurt to try it and make a time-to-15y comparison of the two.
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.)
I agree, to me it sure doesn't seem that this kind of weight loss can yield any results that can't be chalked up to other factors. I just wanted to add it on to the thread anyways as further data to the cause. I do think the 50 swim was faster than the 23.1 would imply, but it's hard to know exactly how much time i wasted on the block with the bad reaction. If I cant find a playback program that shows time on the video i can probably estimate how much i lost down to a tenth by framing through it. There's a lot of easy improvement in both swims just by fixing the mistakes. If I did them again today they'd be at least a few tenths faster without waiting for any further training gains or weight losses.
Suit type hasn't changed. Having never believed in the body suits, i wore jammers then, and also this time. I don't have training "seasons"... not in a club/team and I train on my own schedule with my own workouts.
Perhaps you're right and the track start won't yield any results for me. But I've always had problems getting the weight rolling forward on a flat start. I think alot of that is why i have reaction problems. We'll find out though. It certainly can't hurt to try it and make a time-to-15y comparison of the two.
