Wetsuit for FL IM?
I can't imagine it really being that cold but some one with some first hand experience I am sure will chime in...
the water is warm enough to wear a sleeveless suit, but i would say the field is about 70% fullsleeve still. the main reason i think is the speed. most people swim faster in a fullsuit.
I wore a sleeveless this year and was plenty warm....just make sure that you have something to keep you warm at the start, windchill this year was about 38 degrees!!!!
[COLOR=Navy]"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve"
the water is warm enough to wear a sleeveless suit, but i would say the field is about 70% fullsleeve still. the main reason i think is the speed. most people swim faster in a fullsuit.
I concur with that.
Speed hurts; how fast do you want to go?
thanks for all the replies - i think i'll just be wearing my sleeveless unless somebody can convince me otherwise (I'm not too too worried about my swim speed - it's my running I'm most worried about!)
Wore a full-sleeve 2 years ago...was very comfortable
In 2005 there was everything from full-sleeve to a couple people without suits. The biggest reason I can see for a full-sleeve - the jellyfish. I ran over a number in my race, didn't get stung at all. There were a numberof people who got their arms. I feel sorry for the lady who was swimming in just a swimsuit.
Scott (Beads) swam in a sleeveless that year. He'll have a better perspective from the sleeveless side as well.
"Care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible."
I swam in a sleeveless in '06, and did all of my training swims the week before in just my tri suit. The water is plenty warm enough to swim in just a bathing suit. The air on race day morning though was another matter - brrrr! I wish I had brought a throw-away thrift-store sweatshirt or even some garbage bags to keep me warm before the swim start.
The jellyfish can be an issue, I got stung a couple of times on training swims in my swimsuit, but they were just tiny stings, nothing serious. I was a little worried about race day, but never got stung at all in the race (maybe 2000+ thrashing bodies chased all of the jellyfish away?)
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
good point on the jellyfish!
if i did the race, i would wear a full for 3 reasons: 1)cold in the morning 2)jellyfish 3) speed
buy a full suit. 05 the water was no problem, but 06 it got cold. I might have gotten cold from the start but I had trouble warming up, try putting arm warmers on when your wet and your hands are cold my t1 time was bad. I only had a sleeveless suit until I got home and within the month I bought a full suit. Good luck.
try putting arm warmers on when your wet and your hands are cold my t1 time was bad. .
Better yet, do like I did: put on your arm warmers, realize you don't have sunscreen on, debate whether or not you need it, take arm warmers off, put sunscreen on, then try to put arm warmers back on over sunscreen-gooped arms! My T1 time was terrible!
My pre-race transition practices never included arm warmers in the equation at all, so that really threw me for a loop. I also hadn't intended on totally changing clothes, but with a wind chill of 36 degrees, I went for dry clothes instead of wet.
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/







I have a question for those of you who have done Florida IM....I currently have a long john wetsuit and was wondering if this is ok for the water in panama city, or should I buy or rent a longsleeve wetsuit for the race? How cold is the water typically in November?
thanks!!