This is the series of posts in which I confess how naïve I was about the amount of equipment one might want (need?) to become a triathlete. And, related, how much you can spend doing this. Swim, bike, run, right? So I just need a bike, some shoes, and a swimsuit? Simple!
Ha.
I started this year with an agreed upon budget. Boy, that went fast.
The trick with this is that I love tools, toys, and gadgets so I’ve had some challenges reigning in my expenses — as Mrs. AdultOnset will no doubt agree.
To keep this brief and readable, I’ll break it up into a series of posts over the next few days.
Swimming
First you need a swimsuit. And not your comfy and baggy ol’ beach shorts style. Oh, and the smaller and tighter the suit is the more you’re paying for the privilege of that exposure it will give you [to the world]. yeesh…
What else? In no particular order (and a ‘*’ indicates I purchased this year):
- Kick fins – useful for kick drills and some swim drills
- Kick board – kick drills again. I always just borrow one from the pool where I swim
- *Hand paddles – useful for pull drills to work on form
- Goggles – Right now I have one brand/model I like that fits my big face and doesn’t leak. I need to find another that offers some tint for outdoor morning swimming though.
- Buoy – something to clench between your legs when doing pull drills to help keep the legs afloat
- Gear bag – necessary to carry all this stuff around
- Wet suit – cold open water swimming is cold. So cold. My wetsuit is sleeveless to better accommodate my shoulders and ape-length arms. No rub rashes ever, but it does leave my arms exposed to that cold water.
Late last season I picked up a pair of neoprene sleeves that I will experiment with this year. Trick is I don’t have the arms of the traditional 140 lb triathlete so the sleeves are a bit challenging to get on and off in any sort of timely fashion.
(Late) Adult Onset Triathlete 
2 replies on “Tri Gear. Egads.”
You might add the ‘dry lubricant’ for putting on the skin tight wet suit on, flip flops to avoid picking up the athlete’s foot fungus in the shower, and the overpriced ointment when you contract it anyway. If you wear contact lens, figure your disposable lens usage will double as the small google leaks will allow chlorine to destroy a lens after two or three work outs. What about the the pool access fees! Sure you can mitigate with a membership when you swim at the hometown facility, but if you travel for work, you can really drop a bundle on ‘drop in fees’ as well.
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Great points! Pool fees do get a mention in a future post, but I definitely missed the others
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