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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Can you present your times in table form so we can see the effect of weight on speed in different events? It seems to me that your weight has been fairly steady of late. A couple meets ago, you described yourself as being under 260. The previous meet ~ 256, then this current meet ~258.
Unless I am reading this wrong, your weight hasn't changed appreciably for these last three meets, thus any change in your speed is probably a training effect, or different pool conditions, or perhaps even a reflection of your overall health at the time of the swim (hangover or not, cold virus or not, stress levels, etc.)
Basically, until we see significant changes in weight, either up or down, I am not sure how this answers the question in the thread's title. And even if your times did go down significantly if, say, you got down to 220 lb., I am not sure you are proving anything but a correlation. Perhaps times faster at 220 then 260 have nothing directly to do with weight per se, but rather the fact that you have worked out so much that you got into great swimming shape, an accidental and unrelated consequence of which is shedding pounds.
No you're not reading it wrong. My weight is fluctuating in the same general area lately. I know the last few swims haven't dont much to plot significantly lower weight vs speed except to form more of an average at the current weight. I'm trying to keep as many things as I can besides weight at a constant level (training, fitness level, etc). There's obviously some things I can't totally control like meet location, unintended training effect, race mistakes, and relative health at the time of each swim. I wish it was a quicker process to get more classifiable results, but me and diets don't work together very well so the plotting of weight reduction vs speed won't happen overnight either. I'll try to get it in table form though, thats a good idea for plotting purposes.
If you'd rather I can quit bumping the topic until I get a better, more significant, sampling of swims?
Can you present your times in table form so we can see the effect of weight on speed in different events? It seems to me that your weight has been fairly steady of late. A couple meets ago, you described yourself as being under 260. The previous meet ~ 256, then this current meet ~258.
Unless I am reading this wrong, your weight hasn't changed appreciably for these last three meets, thus any change in your speed is probably a training effect, or different pool conditions, or perhaps even a reflection of your overall health at the time of the swim (hangover or not, cold virus or not, stress levels, etc.)
Basically, until we see significant changes in weight, either up or down, I am not sure how this answers the question in the thread's title. And even if your times did go down significantly if, say, you got down to 220 lb., I am not sure you are proving anything but a correlation. Perhaps times faster at 220 then 260 have nothing directly to do with weight per se, but rather the fact that you have worked out so much that you got into great swimming shape, an accidental and unrelated consequence of which is shedding pounds.
No you're not reading it wrong. My weight is fluctuating in the same general area lately. I know the last few swims haven't dont much to plot significantly lower weight vs speed except to form more of an average at the current weight. I'm trying to keep as many things as I can besides weight at a constant level (training, fitness level, etc). There's obviously some things I can't totally control like meet location, unintended training effect, race mistakes, and relative health at the time of each swim. I wish it was a quicker process to get more classifiable results, but me and diets don't work together very well so the plotting of weight reduction vs speed won't happen overnight either. I'll try to get it in table form though, thats a good idea for plotting purposes.
If you'd rather I can quit bumping the topic until I get a better, more significant, sampling of swims?
