Fit-Pic: Wetsuit Warriors

It was sunny. It was hot. It was Friday afternoon. Normally a description like this would warrant a trip to the beach. A lazy trip to the beach--to nap, to read, to catch some sun, to maybe dip the toes in Lake Michigan.

Not for a group of triathletes. Forget skipping out of work (or being fortunate enough to have half-day Fridays Memorial Day to Labor Day) to bum a boat ride, crash on the beach or get a head start for home. They were armed and ready to swim and run--all in the name of the kicking off the 30th anniversary of the Life Time Chicago Triathlon, which has seen a few name changes in its 30 years (Bud Light, Mrs. T's, Accenture...). And they did it in their wetsuits--I'm sweating just thinking about it.

Nothing like a little warmup in the Millennium Park water feature.

Wetsuit Dash

Let's go running...in wetsuits. Credit: brentzooka

The Jim Gibbons 5K was last night (I love that race and the fun festival afterward!)--the run. The Bike to Work Rally at Daley Plaza was this morning--the bike. Now what about triathlon, or mainly swimming? Life Time Fitness has an answer for that: a wetsuit dash. News of the event landed in my inbox last night. And, well, I couldn't help but get excited for a kick-off to the 30th anniversary celebration surrounding the Life Time Fitness Chicago Triathlon, whose Olympic-distance event closed to general entry earlier in the week.

If you're a triathlete who needed a reason to call off work for the day, or skip out early, this is it. If you pass by Millennium Park this afternoon and see several wetsuits, this is it. If you're at Ohio Street Beach and watch a throng of wetsuit-clad runners march onto the sand, shed their shoes and take a swim, this is it. If you see trolleys full of triathletes, this is it. It's the Life Time Fitness Chicago Triathlon kick-off complete with wetsuit dash getting underway at noon and ending around 5 p.m. at Park Grill Plaza, 11 N. Michigan Ave.

Careful with that Wetsuit

You might need to rethink wearing your wetsuit during triathlon. Come 2013, the wetsuit you've been using might not make the cut for legal use in competition. Not because its warmth factor is ahead of the pack, but because its thickness can possibly help you move to the front of the pack.

USA Triathlon, the governing body for the sport of triathlon, recently announced that beginning in 2013 it would disqualify anyone using a wetsuit thicker than five-millimeters from competition in a USAT-sanctioned event. It found research that showed athletes received a marked advantage over the field by wearing wetsuits laden with the latest technological advancements. While some age-groupers might appreciate the added aid, they won't be able to use those wetsuit technologies that have been found to add even more buoyancy in the water. Why? Because they reduce passive drag and can help the athlete cut through the water at a faster pace while expending less energy.

So much for technology advancements in sports--or rather, using those advancements. Remember the LZR Racer swimsuit that was all the rage in the pool at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (and all the records smashed at the U.S. Olympic Trials and the Games)? Banned from the pool in part because the full-length suits make human skin far faster, their NASA wind tunnel-tested fabric designed to repel water, reduce drag, create better oxygen flow through the muscles and hold the body higher in the water. That went into effect in January. Then the World Triathlon Corporation banned the speed suits popularized in triathlons where the water temperature is too warm to wear wetsuits (i.e. Hawaii's World Championship). Well, actually, they specified that swimwear needed to be made of a textile material, no rubber, and needs to only go so far as the knee and shoulder, otherwise it's considered a wetsuit. Well, sort of. That's my interpretation after reading the why's and why not's for the acceptance of Xterra's Velocity suit in USAT-sanctioned and WTC-sanctioned events. If you see a sale on speed suits, you know why.

For the most part, this doesn't really change much on the wetsuit front. Take Xterra's priciest model, the $695 Vendetta. It's labeled as the "most technologically advanced" wetsuit on the market, yet it still meets the requirements for competition. And usually expensive price tags--if I'm thinking in bike mode--mean more top-of-the-line goods. Carbon frame, race wheels (Zipp, HED), components. But that's for another discussion. Maybe. I might be opening a whole new can of worms with that one. Photo grabbed from Ben Lawson at flickr. 

Note: The LZR Racer link sends you to the newly designed Speedo suit that meets the FINA regulations. For a picture of the suit used at the 2008 Olympics, click here.

What Some People Will Do for a Wetsuit, Part 2

Was a new shoe being released? No. Did I miss an announcement about a sale? Not that I could find in rereading a newsletter. So what caused the line forming outside Fleet Feet Piper's Alley on Monday morning? The hottest commodity on the block, at least if you're a triathlete: a wetsuit rental that would get you through the weekend's Chicago Triathlon.

And this wasn't just any line. My husband spotted it when he biked down Wells after a night on call and when I went over more than an hour later the line wrapped past the building, along the residential courtyard and in front of the next set of buildings north. Those in search of wetsuits brought chairs and cushions to sit on, reading material and more to keep them entertained. You'd think they were waiting to score tickets to a hot concert, but no, they wanted one of the 60 or so wetsuits available for weekly rental at the store.

I have to admit, at first I thought they were a little crazy to be spending $50 to rent a suit for seven days. They could possibly find a slightly used one online at craigslist.org for the same price or find a sale at an online retailer and get some discount on an item they could use year after year. Plus the idea of waiting in line to find out your size was out would be heart-wrenching.

But they knew something about the weather that had escaped my radar or had some extra sensory perception telling them that race weekend would warrant a wetsuit. Yes, Chicago has been blessed, or unblessed depending on how you look at it, with a less-than-stellar summer, especially when it comes to the temperatures and the rain. And the weather also left us playing Russian Roulette to see what we'd wake up to especially as races approached (I've only checked weather.com three times but I swear the forecast has differed every time from an ideal partly cloudy 74-degree day to rain to temps in the 60s). But despite that, Lake Michigan was at least attempting to warm to its typical late-summer temps. Until last weekend, that is, when the Lake was bone-chilling cold and some athletes claimed they were so cold they turned around and got out before completing their desired distance.

Whatever the reason, these racers knew that they needed that wetsuit to solidify their goals of completing the triathlon. The first person in line (pictured above on right) said he arrived around 6:15 a.m. to wait for Fleet Feet's 10 a.m. opening. He didn't want to work all summer to race the Chicago Tri and then have a little weather get in the way of keeping him comfortable in the three disciplines--not exactly his words, but I didn't have a notebook with me and couldn't write anything down. And the three photographed above would be scoring some extra warmth come race day. They comprised part of the first five in line.

Good luck racers and hope no one was left out in the cold! Posted by Kate

Fit-Pic: What Some People Will Do for a Wetsuit

What some people will do for a wetsuit--waiting in line, camping out and maybe even arguing a bit over who was actually in line. But judging from the predictions for this weekend's weather in Chicago--weather.com's initial forecast of 74 and sunny (at least when I checked on Saturday) has now changed to a sub-70 day--and after taking a dip in Lake Michigan where I was freezing for a majority of the mile, they may have been onto something. These triathletes wrapped around Fleet Feet's Piper's Alley location on Monday morning, hoping to score one of the 60 or so wetsuits the store was offering for rental for this weekend's Chicago Triathlon.



More triathlon coverage to follow. Stay tuned. Posted by Kate