John's Triathlon Journey Follow my journey to becoming a triathlete!

My last post was a basic recap of the first race of the season.  Since then I’ve been training pretty regularly, but not up to the hours that I’d like to see.  In this update I’m going review some of the gear that I’ve used during my training sessions.  The next post will be an update on my training, nutrition and the 90 day plan for the upcoming half ironman.

First is my favorite… the Garmin 310XT.  I must admit, out of the box anyone can use the basic functionality.  Heartrate, time, distance, pace etc are pretty much easy to use.  The watch uses 2 main buttons, bascially start & stop, and reset & lap.  Of course you have the off/on and toggle buttons, but if you can manage the top buttons you get most of the basic watch functions.  With that said… to date I’ve managed to “Ski” a 10 k run this spring (in Atlanta!), I had a transition time of 25 minutes and I managed to lock myself out of the watch for about 5 minutes.  Ok, so this means that I didnt read the darn instructions… true.  But, thats what men do with everything.  Its taken me awhile, but I’ve pretty much figured out how to use all the features of the watch.  I even taught my son how to use the GPS navigation features so he could use the watch for a geo caching event he attended…. and to my surprise he found the cache’s faster than people with those big fat fancy GPS units with full maps!  So, a ringing endorsement is called for  as the Garmin has not dissappointed.  For anyone interested in a full function, waterproof and reliable watch, the 310XT ranks at the top.

Training shorts…. for the past couple of years I have always worn loose fitting running shorts with a compression garment underneath which helped fight chafing.  This set up served me well for running and cross-training.  However, as I’ve moved into triathlon I needed to find something else, something that I could wear while I swim, bike and run.  After I purchased my bike last year I bought my first pair of “bike” shorts.  These are spandex type shorts that have an abundant amount of padding on the rear and around the crotch.  This padding is for comfort during the long bike rides.  Initially, I loved them.  But as I started swimming, biking and then running I began feeling like I was wearing a big diaper!  Still, it was better than just plain shorts and I felt that this was the only option.  Last Christmas I received a new pair of “Triathlon Shorts” made by a company named “Zoot”.  These shorts use a very comfortable chamois in the liner which serves as the padding.  I did a considerable amount of swimming in them, but it was not until the weather improved and I started biking and running that I realized that these are the best option for triathletes.  Tri shorts are sooooo comfortable, I wish I could wear them to work.

After using these shorts for the last couple of weeks I’ve determined that I am more comfortable on the bike using tri shorts than I am using bike shorts.  That is, until I go over 25 miles.  Last weekend I did a solo 36 mile ride with no stops.  By the end, my rear end was feeling pretty sore.  So, for those longer rides where a run is not on the other side I think that I need to stick with bike shorts.  I have a century this saturday, I’m wearing the big fat comfortable bike shorts.  I’ll need to look into the Augusta half ironman to see if the transition will allow me to change from bike shorts to tri shorts for the run… if not I’ll need to work in longer rides with the tri shorts and build some callus’ on my derriere.