New Suit, Faster Splits!

I've been saying since early summer that my current jammer (swim suit) was getting REALLY baggy, and I was pretty sure it was slowing me down in the pool. I didn't really feel the drag, but my times had been dropping for months. It HAD to be suit related...

... Right?...

My normal black jammers were getting baggy. They were the ones seen 10 months ago in my co-worker "Tri-U-Mah" indoor triathlon relay race report:

My normal black jammers.

But I decided to break out what I had dubbed my "nude shorts" because they KINDA blend in to my body, as first seen (and maybe ONLY seen?) in my 2016 Irish Run 8K race report:

Kinda ugly... which is why they've lived in a drawer for 8+ years.

I did this 3x400 and 3x200 workout that I like a lot where the 400s and 200s get broken down even more into shorter intervals (show well in this post). In the end, it ends up being one 400, three 200s, six 100s, and four 50s (not including any warm-up or cool-down) but in a more random order.

Times were noticably faster this week! My 400 was 6:20, which is what it USED to be (like a year ago). My 200s averaged 3:04, and I haven't seen a time that low for a LONG time. My 100s averaged under 1:28, and my 50s were all 0:40.

Compare that to the last 4 times I did this workout:

11/14:
6:28 for 400
3:10 ave for 200s
1:30.5 ave for 100s
0:41 ave for 50s

10/29:
6:38 for 400
3:12 ave for 200s
1:32 ave for 100s
0:42 ave for 50s

9/24:
6:35 for 400
3:16 ave for 200s
1:33 ave for 100s
0:42 ave for 50s

9/10:
6:37 for 400
3:13 ave for 200s
1:32 ave for 100s
0:41 ave for 50s

Based on averaging those workout times, I was:

0:15 faster in the 400
0:09 faster / 200
0:04 faster / 100
0:01.5 faster / 50

Sure, none of those numbers are HUGE, but all of my splits in this new suit were times I haven't seen in 6-9 months. (As I jumped back in my training log to mid-May, I found 2 versions of this swim with similar overall splits, but my 200s were still faster this week in my new suit. I didn't seen ANY 200s faster than this week anytime throughout all of 2024!) That 6:20 400 felt good, and then those 200 splits were NICELY surprising - those 200 splits are what really stand out to me!

My swim this week. Again, this post highlights the distances more clearly.

One funny thing seen in that Garmin graph is my short 50s near the middle: notice how they start slower and then each of them builds to a faster and faster final 25 yards! The opening 25s all get slower as the final 25s all speed up. I'm HASHED at that point in the workout.