This months favourite topic has raised itself with the possibility of events being non wetsuit and many of you out again in the Open Water. We covered the rubber effect and just to back that up Stevo switched from his very expensive Norseman winter suit to a nice new slick 'swimmers suit' and voila a lift of 10secs per 100m. That can be a factor if the suit is restrictive but for most triathletes the wetsuit is an aid in OW. Hence a bit of panic when a race is non wetsuit. Some quick statistics taken from live swims pool vs open water. No names to protect the innocent and a mix of males and females. A - pool pace 1:53, OW 2:16 - delta 23secs/100 B- pool pace 1:30, OW 1:54 - delta 24secs/100 C- pool pace 1:49, OW 1:55 - delta 6secs/100 D - pool pace 1:50, OW 2:33 - delta 43 secs/100 E - pool pace 1:24, OW 2:03 - delta 39secs/100 F - pool pace 1:35, OW 1:47 - delta 12 secs/100 G - pool pace 1: 47, OW 2:11 - delta 24secs/100 Across the sample we can see that all of the swimmers have a substantial drop in pace but there are a very small number who have limited drop off and even 1 solitary person who is genuinely faster! So why is this? There are some very obvious factors that make us faster in the pool and Jack coined a great phrase 'fake fast'. - Wall push off, done well you are travelling at your fastest speed in the length so only actually having to swim 20-22m - Swimming with others even with a 5m gap there is a drafting benefit - Turns provide micro rests - Short reps - next time you are impressed with someones pool pace on Strava go in and see how many 25's and 50's are in there. Form is relatively easy to hold for short efforts. We spend lots of time in the pool all year round and it typically is the best way to work on your swimming but events tend to be outdoors so when we make the switch there are big differences - the first being the rep lengths are always long so immediately that changes things. A thought occured to me that a big OW swim is a bit like the long run - taken at a sustainable pace rather than a series of intervals.

Dog walk musings. Today there are a plethora of races and formats to play with. Back in the early 90s there were much fewer opportunities to have organised fun. The race brochure for the first M dot race in the UK profiled all 5 IM races on the go. Yes 5. No Challenge, No PT100..no social media nada. So what's your favourite race format?

We are once again partnering with the team at Still Going Strong to deliver coaching and support for this and this year the Go Swim series. If you fancy a hit at any of their events let us know..discount codes incoming.