Rocket Testing - Time Savings of the Rocket Science Sports Rocket 2Skin SwimSkin

After dutifully enduring years of not fast enough swim splits, often at the hands of those in swim skins, I decided it was time to get on board and buy one. My Rocket Science Sports Rocket 2Skin arrived in the mail Tuesday and I brought it to our Riptide Team practice that night. You can also see the 2Skin here but it’s only available in a Large. As if on cue, we had a broken 500y, a set we’ve done over 20 time that would provide great comparison. Ok I hate to do it but I’ll release one of our secret workouts. All of these are pretty much all out, from pushing off the wall. 200y on the 4 minutes. 2×100y on the 2 minutes. 2×50y on the 1 minute. Add them all up for your 500y. Sometimes we do two, sometimes one. My previous best was a 5:18, comprised of a 2:12, 2×1:03, 2x:30.
I wiggled into the Rocket 2Skin and was ready to go. The first thing I noticed was that the skin just felt good. There’s gotta be a placebo effect just by putting it on because I felt ready to swim faster. Even Amy said I looked good. I think she has a crush on me.

For the 200y leadoff I swam a 2:06. Huge improvement for me. Next up, a 100y. We do plenty of all out 100’s and while I’ve swum 1:01’s I’ve never gotten the dip. Boom, there it was, a 59. I even had to raise my arms in triumph over that one, I really did. Next up 1:00. Then 28, and 30. 5:03 for the total.
Another good point of comparison is that Dan typically beats me by around 14 seconds on these but he was only 1 tick ahead of me this time. And all this is 2 days after running a hard 7k road race at the Runnin of the Green. I came to the conclusion that the suit accounts for at least a 2 second improvement per 100y. Factor this over an Olympic tri and you save 33 seconds on the swim. Lose 10 seconds max taking it off in transition for a total savings of 23 seconds. Factor in the intangibles like making a swim pack that you otherwise wouldn’t off and you can save even more. Do a half or iron and you save even more.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to use the skin this weekend. ITU races don’t allow them. It’s either 68 and under with a wetsuit or nothing at all. The water this weekend should be right on the wetsuit legal line. It’s nearly 70 today in Denver so you’d think we’d be fine flying to Mazatlan tomorrow. But oh no it’s supposed to snow up to a foot tomorrow so hopefully our mid morning flight will get out on time so that we’ll be there to race in Mazatlan at 10:30am Saturday morning.