Continued from Tri Gear Continued — Running and Biking.
Other Stuff
But wait, there’s more! And I bet I’m forgetting stuff too!
- HRM – There are many options for tracking heart rate during workouts. The one built into my Garmin watch hasn’t been all that impressive in accuracy so I wear a chest strap style unit when running or riding or doing strength training. I had one for swimming but it tended to slide down my chest every time I kicked off the wall so that got retired.
- *Watch – you aren’t a triathlete without a tri watch to measure all the things. I already had a nice Garmin Fenix3 watch that I really liked but I upgraded to a Fenix5x Plus this season. It is a bit bigger so easier for my eyes when on the bike AND, more importantly, has the ability to call for help if I abruptly stop moving (like, oh… say a bike crash). That was an important feature to me.
- *TrainingPeaks.com subscription – coach does everything in TP.com and while I could remain at the free level I opted to pay a bit to get all the pretty lines and graphs. Do I know what they all mean? Not yet, but I’m getting there…
- *Strava subscription – I have been using Strava for about 8 years now both free and paid. I opted for paid this year to get better power and HR data from my workouts. Not mandatory, but being a numbers geek it seemed like a good idea at the time.
- Tri kits – What to wear when racing? I don’t really have a plan for this yet. I have a pair of tri shorts and shirt that I picked up on Amazon last year and used a few times. I will have some experimenting to do to see if this gear will work for longer courses. And then there’s the whole one-piece vs. two-piece debate that I just don’t want to think about yet.
- *Gym bag – I upgraded to a larger backpack style gym bag that can hold the gear for 2 or 3 disciplines at a time.
- *Race Fees – holy cow.
- *Coaching fees – I definitely am seeing the value, but I won’t deny the costs gave me pause at first.
- *Gym membership – maybe not mandatory for everyone, but this time of year I need my gym for treadmills and pool at a minimum. I can do some treadmill and weight routines at my apartment’s gym, but we definitely have more/better gear at the Life Time I go to (well, and the pool).
- Nutrition – I’m months away from any events but I am already experimenting with gels and gummies and such to figure out what might work best on these long bike rides and runs. Definitely don’t want to try and figure it out on race day!
- Chamois butter – I don’t really use this much outdoors, but when doing 3+ hours on a stationary bike I gotta say this is a life/butt saver.
(Late) Adult Onset Triathlete 