Internal Mono(b)log

This morning, as part 2 of my review (part 1 found here) I wore a Nineteen Wetsuits Frequency suit for my 1.5 hr Monday morning swim. Want to get some odd looks, don a full wetsuit in the YMCA changeroom at 5:45am and head for the pool. You’re guaranteed to get at least 1 snicker, a couple of smirks and several questions 🙂 All good fun!

As with my show-room review, the suit went on well, zipped cleanly and the leash nicely stowed away into the leash pocket. Upon entering the pool, my worst fears of the morning swim were realized: the water was warm, very warm. Fortunately I always bring a bottle with Amino Vital or some other product along, so I’d at least be able to slake my thirst :).

In the water, the suit felt amazing. I put it through every test I could think of short of doggie paddling:

• Did 1.5 hrs of mostly Total Immersion style free-style, but mixed it up with some breast-stroke, back-stroke, butterfly, skulling, treading water, mid-water sprint starts, sighting, and under-water swimming.
• In the 18m YMCA pool, there were also many many turns: did some as flip turns, some as touch turns (my normal) and even threw in some dolphining in the shallow end.
• When I got out of the pool, I did a T1 suit-peal to see how the wet suit comes off. 20ish seconds. Not bad. I was happy with it 🙂

This suit, so far, is the bomb! I haven’t yet found anything negative to report about it, and trust me I’m trying. Ok, perhaps a slight (insignificant item): during touch turns, the suit would occasionally gulp a bit of water around the neck seam. The elasticity of the torso flushed it right away, so it really was a non-issue (in fact in the very warm pool, it was a bit of a relief). I may not have had the neck closed properly at the back and this didn’t happen when swimming, just when I was tap-turning at the ends of the pool (occasionally), so… like I said… non-issue.

Tomorrow I leave for Atlanta for a week. I’ve found a YMCA not far from the hotel to keep my swims in place. I’m taking the suit with me in the hopes that I can get in an OW swim session in some cool water for part 3 of this review series. If you’re in Atlanta and know where I can go to OW swim, please reach out and let me know. You’re also more than welcome to tag along!

Stay tuned. 🙂