A little bit of (amateur) swim science

What’s a wetsuit worth in time savings.

I did a 2k time trial in the pool on Wednesday and 2k in the lake on Friday. Given both swims happened at similar stages of my fitness, and both on accurately measured courses, it is possible to estimate the value of the wetsuit (and the time cost to me of turns). The only minor difference being a 54sec recovery at the 1km turn around in the lake. I’ll discount this for the moment, as my inability to swim straight probably contras some/all of this advantage

Soooo!

In summary

Ø  In the pool 38:32

Ø  In the lake 35:20

It would be easy to simply assume that the difference / 2 = 1m:36s per km.

But!

The difference isn’t even across the fatigue spectrum. Garmin tells me that:

Ø  At 1k in the pool I was 18:54 (Lake 17:34) = 1:21 advantage

Ø  For 2^nd 1k in the pool 19:38 (Lake 17:50 (including a 15sec stop to deal with goggle issues) = 1:45 advantage (potentially even 2:00)

Conclusion:

Even though my arms were about to fall off on the return 1k in the lake this morning, my time didn’t diminish all that much. The suit becomes increasingly beneficial as fatigue sets in (I assume by holding you higher in the water).

W