Uncle Travelling Matt .com — the personal site of Matt Gifford

In getting ready for my second triathlon, in addition to training hard, I’ve researching the net reading up on tips for all four parts of a tri–the fourth being the transitions.  Here is a collection of tips I’ve either found or come up with myself.  Writing these things down is a good way not to forget them

Pre Race / Setup

• Get plenty of sleep during the week before the race, it’s unlikely you’ll sleep well the night before and while one night won’t hurt a whole week of poor sleep will. Early to bed and early up, so you’ll acclimatised to the very early start and not still half sleep on race morning.
• Inflate your tires to race pressure the night before, check them in morning–if you’re got more than a slight pressure drop, change out the inner tube.  You’ll of course pump up the tires in the morning at the race, but you don’t want to discover that you’re got slow leak when you’re on the bike.
• When setting up your bike in transition check the brake pad alignment and that both wheels spin freely.  These can get knocked during transportation and rubbing brake pad in the race is less than undesirable.
• Set the pedal on the chain-ring side to the 1 o’clock position so when you mount the bike out of T1 it’s ready push off on.

Swim

• Choose landmarks above the swim buoys to sight off, like a distinctive tree, boat or building. The buoys themselves are often hidden by the swell and other swimmers, and I you’ll end up slighting more than necessary if you try to use the buoys alone.
• At the end of the swim don’t stand up until you can easily touch the bottom, swimming through water is much more efficient than running though it.
• Scope the swim entry and exit before the race, especially for ocean swims as there might sand bars or holes–thinking you’re finished the swim getting up and running into a hole isn’t fun or effective.
• Put your timing chip under the bottom of your wetsuit leg, so it won’t come off or get in the way during T1.

T1

• On the run from the water to T1, unzip your wetsuit, remove your cap and goggles with one hand and pull the wetsuit down to your waist. As you’re pulling the hand with the googles and cap let go of them in the sleeve. Practice this prior so you know they’ll stay put.
• Have your glasses in your helmet aligned correctly to pull both straight on–front the helmet upside down facing towards you, glasses front of lenses down, bottoms facing towards too.
• Practice putting on your glasses and helmet while removing your wetsuit with your feet. Pull on the wet suit down as far as possible in one movement, hands then do helmet and glasses, feet remove the rest of the wetsuit. Even with a cheap wetsuit like mine this is possible, do T1 drills until it’s second nature.
• On the topic of wetsuit removal, in additional to using lube/baby oil on your forearms, ankles and feet, make sure there’s no rough skin on back of your heels. Get some pumice or similar buff the skin until it’s smooth as, you want the least amount of fiction possible when getting those heels out of the wetsuit.
• Try to get a transition towel in a colour other than white or blue, which are the most common–you want to find your area fast, choose something that stands out.
• Put a little baby powder into your cycling shoes (or running shoes if you’re not going clipless) to help get wet feet into them.
• Just as on the swim find landmarks for the transition in and out, and walk the swim entry and bike exit prior to the race.

Bike

• Practice running while holding the bike by the saddle, the faster you go the easier it is to keep the bike straight.  This stops your legs hitting the pedals, while is likely if you’re holding the bike by the handle bars.
• Near of the end of the bike leg, increase your cadence to get your legs ready to run, also stand on the pedals and dorsiflex your feet a couple of times to stretch them out (try to continue pedalling while doing this).
• Practice dismounting by swinging your right leg over the back of the bike and coast with it between the left leg and the frame, so you can just starting running at the dismount line. I thought this would be really difficult to master, but it was so easy, definitely worth giving a go. If you’re got clipless pedals you’ll need to unstrap your feet and rest your them on your shoes first–best to try this on grass initially, less unpleasant if you screw it up.

T2

• Put your running shoes on your race belt, stops it from being blown away if it’s windy and the race belt should go on last–you can do it up as you’re running out of T2.
• Forget about the socks, they take time to get on and aren’t necessary–practice running without them, it’s more comfortable than you’d think.
• Just as for the cycling shoes, a little baby powder inside your running shoes with help getting sweaty feet into them fast.
• Invest in some elastic shoe laces so you can just pull your shoes on saving precious seconds, these are pretty much a must have.
• Just as on the swim find landmarks for the transition in and out, and walk the bike entry and run exit prior to the race.

Run

• Found nothing for this one, just run really damn fast

Have I missed another good triathlon tip?  Let me know in the comments below…