bburrito

I am doing my very first triathlon tomorrow morning and after going for packet/chip/freebies pickup this morning I noticed a booth renting out 2XU wetsuits. The water is warm enough here that I am not going to wear one tomorrow morning (takes me about a minute or two of struggling to get out of) but I was wondering what the difference is with these wetsuits designed for triathlon? I have been training with a Body Glove 7mm wetsuit designed primarily for surfing. The main problem I have noticed is that it is just too damn buoyant. I am fighting the water for forward propulsion but also just to pull my arms down into the water so I can pull below me. I end up using significantly more energy than I do without a wetsuit. What are the differences with a tri-specific wetsuit?

On another note, can anybody reccommend a good running forum similar to this one?

cjbruin

Tri wetsuits are made for swimming so they handle the range of motion much better. Plus...they aren't 7mil so they help you with buoyancy but don't make you float like a cork.

Cool runnings used to me a good forum until active.com took it over. I now check our www.runningahead.com from time to time. It's not bad. This is a much better tri forum than theirs.

Make sure to come back and post a race report after your tri tomorrow...we'd like to read about it.

Cheers.
-CJ

The_Spaniard

i would also be interested in your race report i got my first triathlon in mid july, exactly 2 months from today.

KyleKranz

Good luck to both of you!

Tri wet suits range in thickness from 2 around the arms and high motion points to 5 around the legs and other areas. I never thought of being too buoyant as a problem but they are less so and probably offer easier and more range of motion.

They can also cut off as much as 20 seconds off each 100yard/meter too.

bburrito

Thanks for all of the info everybody. Luckily the water was 65 and I ended up just swimming without the wetsuit. The race was great! Going out for the swim the waves were 3-4ft and breaking perfectly. More than a few surfers were complaining about the race keeping them off of the perfect surf. Everything for me ended up going incredibly well. I had to walk most of the run portion but I knew that going into it. Running is my weak link. I was able to run the last 200 meters or so because hearing that crowd cheer before you can even see the finish line is such a boost! My legs were screaming at me but I dug deep and kicked it through to the finish line. I am not sure if I am ready or not for a full sprint but I know that if I keep up all the hardwork I have been doing it shouldnt be a problem.

On a side note I ran into a cousin of mine who was also doing the mini-sprint. He does a lot of 5 and 10Ks and is in amazing shape so it was pretty cool when I found out that I beat him out of the water and finishing up the bike.

I appreciate everybody's response to my posts. This has been a great community/website to be apart of and I am super stoked that I was able to finish my first triathlon today. Alot of the info and advice that I have gotten from many of the people here has been very useful and motivating. Thanks!

bburrito

Spaniard,

What race are you doing? The race I did this morning was up in Encinitas and I noticed that you are in San Diego too?