- Hey, what's up, Trainiacs?
I'm just about to do a small swim here
and it's getting a little hot in the wetsuit.
I think I'm sweating.
You get that?
So classy on this channel.
We're going to be doing a test just to show you
the difference in speed and kind of performance
between a wetsuit and then with Swimskin.
So we have here a short-sleeve Swimskin.
We have a sleeveless Swimskin.
So what I'm going to do is I'm gonna do a 200
at an easy pace and then four 50s at a faster pace.
(kids shouting)
I'm going to use a Tempo Trainer
to kind of keep the paces all the same,
I'm going to do that same test with the wetsuit,
with the Swimskin that has shorter sleeves,
with the sleeveless and then I'll do it without anything
and you can kind of compare how the differences are.
So we'll do that.
I gotta get in the water.
I'm hot.
(upbeat techno music)
(water splashing)
(upbeat techno music)
All right, so that was the 200 easy with the wetsuit on.
And I did that in three minutes, thirteen seconds.
I was doing that at 65 strokes per minute.
(stopwatch beeping)
No, you want to hear that.
(woman laughs)
(people laugh)
(stopwatch beeping)
Stop that now.
We're going to crank this up to
(stopwatch beeps)
let's go to 75 strokes per minute for the fast stuff
and we'll do four 50s at that little bit faster effort
which is kind of like just barely above race pace.
Like kind of a sprinter in Olympic race pace.
Take 20 seconds, rest in between so I've got a good rest
so I'm fresh for each 50.
(upbeat techno music)
All right so, those were done in 41s and 42 seconds.
(water splashing)
Someone's getting out.
(water splashing)
(upbeat techno music)
So I was done at a 3.21.
(stopwatch beep)
Go up to 75 and see what we do these at.
(upbeat techno music)
(water splashing)
Those ones were done in
a couple of 44s and a couple of 45s.
(water splashing)
(upbeat techno music)
I was done at 3.23, I believe.
(upbeat techno music)
Those ones were also done, 44s and 45s.
(stopwatch beeping)
Maybe just creeping closer towards the 45 than anything.
(upbeat techno music)
I was done on 3.25.
(upbeat techno music)
Those were all done on 45s, pushing 46.
All right.
(stopwatch beeping)
Save all that.
Go back to the pain cavern and talk about it.
Okay.
Trainiacs, let's dive into the results of that testing.
Now, of course, I know there's gonna be a lot of scientists
out there that are like, "Hey, that test wasn't
statistically valid."
None of these tests are statistically valid.
I'm a guy with a camera going into a pool
or like with the disc wheel video,
disc wheel versus non disc wheel video that I did.
Apparently, I got ripped apart online for that
because it's not statistically valid.
I'm a guy on the side of the road
with a wrench and a set of wheels.
I know it's not statistically valid.
I'm not submitting these for publication.
But what we're trying to do is pull out some information
that might help us make some good decisions.
And you know what?
A lot of these things that I talk about are actually
just confirming actual studies
that have been done out there, all right?
People just need to calm down sometimes.
Okay, so what we're gonna look at is the average
pace for each of those tests.
First, let's look at the wetsuit.
And we'll analyze this and we will
look at the lap number one.
So lap number one, I did that 200 meters
in three minutes, 14 seconds.
Right here, let's write these down.
So 200 meters in a wetsuit,
three minutes, 14 seconds.
Then, I did those four 50s going...
Here, I did the first one in 42.51,
then 43.08, then :43.19, then 43.55.
So let's call that roughly an average
of just a touch over 43 seconds.
That includes pressing it, starting, hitting the wall,
stopping, so little bit more than what I said.
So remember those times.
Put 'em up here.
Boom.
3.14 for 200 meters and 43, just a little bit more
for each 50 meters.
Now let's take a look at the short-sleeved Swimskin.
The 200 meters, 3.23,
about nine seconds slower.
In the other laps, 45.27, 47.25, 45.28, 45.26.
Let's call that roughly about 45 and a half
for the short-sleeved Swimskin.
Then let's go with the sleeveless Swimskin.
The 200 meters, 3.28.
Even a little bit slower.
Then the 50s were done
45, 46, 45.65, 45.80.
So we're talking even just a little bit
slower than the others.
So we're looking at somewhere
around 45 and three quarter seconds.
Just a tiny bit slower than the short-sleeve Swimskin.
And then with nothing whatsoever,
just me in my glorious Speedo, we're talking about
a 3.26 for the 200 meters.
And then a 46.64, 46.85, a 46.16, a 47.53.
So we're talking about 46 and a half at that point.
So what we're seeing is that basically the exact way
that I set it up was how I intended for the wetsuit
to be the fastest, which it is.
The short-sleeve Swimskin to be the next fastest,
then the sleeveless Swimskin, then nothing.
Now let me explain why that is.
If you are like me, you're an average swimmer,
you have sinky legs, you don't have a swim background,
you started out not being terribly comfortable in the pool.
A wetsuit is almost always going to be the best way
that you should go about swimming.
It provides you with warmth in cool water.
It provides you with buoyancy in all waters
so it's a lot safer.
It allows you to coast more on the surface.
If you take a look at the footage that we did there,
you'll notice that I was just sitting higher in the water
because that wetsuit is completely buoyant.
(water bubbling)
Now with the Swimskins, that's not actually the case.
It doesn't provide any sort of buoyancy.
It doesn't provide any lift.
It doesn't provide really any sort of warmth.
So then why go with the Swimskin and why was it
actually still a little bit faster?
Well, the reason for that is that one of the benefits
that we see with a wetsuit, particularly the ROKA X
that I've got there, is that keeps you stable.
It keeps you from wiggling around side to side.
A Swimskin does very much the same thing.
It compresses you.
It keeps you very tight.
In addition to that, our skin is not actually that
aerodynamic or hydrodynamic.
So the more we can cover up our skin,
the faster we're going to be.
So those Swimskins, they work from two standpoints.
Number one, they squeeze you in really tight,
keeping you really, boom, nice and aligned,
nice and straight.
Keeping you from doing this.
And the more you cover up with longer sleeves
or with a body and short sleeves or no sleeves,
you end up becoming more hydrodynamic in the water.
And that's exactly what we see is that as we went
from the wetsuit to absolutely nothing,
we just got slower and slower because we reduced
the amount of buoyancy that we had and we started
increasing the amount of skin surface area that was showing.
Now do you need a wetsuit or a Swimskin?
I would say if your race allows you to use a wetsuit,
absolutely use a wetsuit.
Do you need a Swimskin?
If you are a complete beginner triathlete just getting into
the sport, probably don't need a Swimskin.
But if you're going to be in the sport for a long time,
you know that you're going to be traveling and probably
racing in hotter climates that don't allow wetsuits,
and you do want that extra couple of seconds
because you want to shave off seconds
everywhere that you can,
you want to make sure that you're not wiggling,
you are going to benefit from a Swimskin.
No matter what type of swimmer you are.
But do you absolutely need it?
Probably not.
Now this is actually an entire chapter in the new book
that we've released, "Triathlon Swimming Foundations",
that helps new triathletes develop into confident and
capable swimmers and it kind of weeds through that
here are the things that you should buy,
here are the things that you don't really need to buy,
and here are the benefits of each.
And you can get that by going to
triathlontaren.com/triathlonswimmingbook.
You can check that out.
And now you know whether you should be using
a wetsuit or Swimskin.
I use both but, man, do I like me a wetsuit swim.
I just love me a wetsuit swim.
All right.
(claps)
Check it out, Trainiacs,
triathlontaren.com/triathlonswimmingbook
(loud slam)
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Later.