Dry isn't Always Better

Well I’ve started cranking up the workouts to get myself ready for the Buffman & Squeaky Olympic Distance Triathlon May 15^th. I want to drop a couple pounds just to stay light on my feet, but I don’t think I need to really diet in order to accomplish the weight loss. The rigors of my daily workouts seem to be doing a good job of helping me drop those few pounds. I also need to bust out with the wetsuit and make sure it still fits and do a few training days in it. One thing about doing mostly sprints is that you don’t do very many open water swims and because of that you don’t need to use your wetsuit much. The few open water swims that I have done have gone well, it’s just important that I don’t get too excited at the beginning and go out to hard. I will say that my transitions have been very slow, but I attribute that to a lack of experience and should do better this time. While we are on the topic of wetsuits and open water swims I should probably throw out some advice for those of you that are new to the sport. Wetsuits can be very expensive and in all honesty hard to differentiate between. You don’t need to spend big bucks on one. Most wetsuits that cost between $100-$200 work just fine and you will probably only wear it 3-4 times a season if you are competing in sprints. Also, just because everyone is wearing a wet suit doesn’t mean you need too. If you are competing in a sprint and the swim distance is 500 meters or less, test out the water before you put your wetsuit on. Unless it is just unbearable you might want to swim without it. You are only going to be swimming for 8-12 minutes and you could probably save a good 30 seconds in transition without it. I’m a big sissy and freeze in 76 degree water so I always have mine on, but I have noticed some of the faster racers don’t bother if the water is in the 73-77 degree range.

Well good luck to everyone racing this weekend and I’ll report back on my training efforts soon.