3 December 2021
One of the things I've never liked about the working world is wearing suits; they're damn uncomfortable (even the expensive ones) and I think men look boring in them. I know some guys get all into them, into matching ties, cufflinks, fancy-pants big-ass watches, and what not, but it's just never "done" anything for me. Thanks to the combination of more work places being more casual and the work from home trend, I'm proud to say that I'm down to owning only one "suit" suit and a couple of sport coats. When I finally retire from the work world, I'm going to burn those and all my other "business attire" in effigy!
On the wet side of life, though ... finding the perfect swimsuit ... well that's something a guy can get his heart and head around, something to deeply engage mind, body and soul. I was looking at my current rotation of practice suits and realized that I have 5 different brands represented in active use across six suits now ...
... and this doesn't count the tech suits, drag suits and a couple of other practice suits languishing in a drawer. I do have favorites, though:
Though they are harder to find and not every model measures up, Nike makes the best, most durable practice jammer around. But, at least for me, I've found that you can't reliably buy them online and be assured of quality; I need to see it IRL, touch the fabric, assess the cut. I got this one when I was in Arizona earlier in the year at the best swim shop in the Phoenix area (IMHO), which is actually a ski shop.
For racing suits, I'm still highly partial to TYR. I've tried most of the top brands, but keep coming back to TYR, particularly their older Tracer B model (which has been discontinued but can be found in the far reaches of the web). In direct contrast to the poor build quality of their practice suits (which lose form and, hence, function very quickly), I've always found TYR racing suits to have high durability. I'll race next weekend in a TYR Tracer B and then, in 2022, when I get in really good shape, splurge for their top-of-the-line offering.
Enough about swimsuits!
My workout this morning, a mere 8 days before I do race, was a 1,450 warmup followed by my 3 x 300 test set and then a 350 yard cool-down. I'm in the part of my taper where I'm feeling in the doldrums, which is perfectly fine. I kind of thought I'd go a little faster than I did today, but this will do:
My best performance ever on this was back in December of 2016, when I went 3:08+, 3:09, 3:08+
2016-01-04 - 3:16, 3:15, 3:14
2018-11-23 - 3:25, 3:22+, 3:19+
2019-08-01 - 3:34, 3:33, 3:30
2019-12-02 - 3:27, 3:29, 3:25
2020-02-03 - 3:18, 3:17, 3:19
2020-08-02 - 3:22, 3:26, 3:25
2020-09-17 - 3:24, 3:25, 3:24
2021-08-29 - 3:20, 3:19+, 3:20
2021-10-03 - 3:16, 3:16+, 3:16
2021-11-09 - 3:16, 3:16+++++, 3:18
2021-12-03 - 3:17, 3:16, 3:15
I'll do some quality tomorrow, take Sunday off, and then really start to pull back after Monday's planned repeat of my heart rate test set.