- [Narrator] Super high-end, very fancy, $400 tri suit.
(techno music)
Why, why, why, would I do anything?
(techno music)
- [Voice] That's where they make the formaldehyde.
- [Narrator] Oh, would you look at that?
(techno music)
Those sprints hurt.
(techno music)
Morning, trainiacs.
I'm starting to get a fair bit of messages
from people saying, "What do I wear
"for my first triathlon?"
And the answer doesn't need to be
that you need a super, high-end, very fancy $400 tri suit.
You don't need to go and spend a couple hundred dollars
on a separate top and a bottom,
you don't need to buy a team kit.
Granted, those things are nice, they'll make you faster,
you'll enjoy them more, you'll look a lot more studly.
But you can get away with a heck of a lot less,
so what I've done here is I've lined up (whistles)
four different options that you can use
from most ideal tri kit to least ideal,
but still totally acceptable, tri kit.
I'm gonna go and get a chair.
Alright, so let's say that you're just starting out
in the sport,
maybe you've got a background of going to the gym,
just being generally fit, going for runs,
and you're not looking to spend a ton of money
on getting into triathlon.
You just wanna try the sport.
What you can get away with is just a pair of gym shorts
and a gym shirt.
That's all that you need.
I've seen tons of people race triathlons
in this get-up.
Very standard, very common.
You're not gonna look that silly.
Granted, you're not gonna be as fast as you possibly can be,
because everything that tassels behind you
and flaps in the wind with this
and doesn't suck to your body,
it's gonna create more drag in the water,
on the bike, and on the run.
But you can certainly wear this pair of shorts
underneath a wetsuit and it's gonna be fine,
it's not gonna slow you down at all.
When you get into transition, take off the wetsuit,
put on the t-shirt, the tighter fitting, the better.
And then, when you hop off the bike
and you go for the run, you're good.
You're already in running gear.
So you can stick with that, no money outta your pocket.
If, however, you're coming from
more of a cycling background,
then you have the option of using your cycling kit.
And that's perfectly acceptable too.
What we've got here are my cycling shorts
and then a basic cycling jersey.
I also see a lot of people using this
for one of their first triathlons.
And this works just a little bit better
than the running kit,
because in the case of cycling gear,
everything's just a fair bit tighter and more aerodynamic.
You're not gonna be battling the wind as much.
What I would do is I would certainly wear
the cycling shorts underneath your wetsuit.
And you definitely can wear the cycling jersey
underneath your wetsuit, because that'll save you
having to put on your cycling jersey when you're wet.
And you'd be surprised how sticky you are
when you're wet and you're in a rush, in transition.
So this is just the next best option.
Now the the downside to this is a couple of things.
Number one, the chamois inside the cycling shorts
is a fair bit bigger and thicker,
so it's going to impede your running a little bit.
Also, the sleeves on the cycling jersey,
they might chafe you a little bit
when you're tucked into that aero position,
or when you're swimming.
So if you wanna step up from that,
that's when you start getting into triathlon kit.
And the differences between the cycling kit
and the triathlon kit
are that the shorts have a smaller chamois in them,
so it's easier to run after the bike,
and the jersey doesn't have sleeves in it,
so there's less to rub when you're in the aero position,
less to rub when you're in the wetsuit,
fits you really nice and tight so you stay very aero.
It typically has zippers in the front
that you can zip down and cool yourself off,
but it's not gonna zip down so much
and then gradually creep down,
because you might end up getting a penalty
if you show a little bit too much skin.
That's a rule that I'm not a big fan of,
by the way, love showing skin.
And this kit right here, I raced in for five seasons.
You can get away with this for a really long time.
Now, if you wanna get really high-end,
this beautiful number right here
is a Huub compression aerodynamic tri suit.
What has happened over the last few years
is tri suit companies have put a lot of science
into getting the very most aerodynamic materials,
fit, cut, venting, all kinds of things.
And these are getting into $300 or more for a tri suit.
It's your all-in-one, it's got your zippers to cool you off,
it's got cooling vents,
it's tight in certain places
where you need compression, you need aerodynamics.
It's looser in others so you can stay nice and cool.
It has sleeves so that you don't have
a scoop of a little air pocket in your elbows
when you're cycling.
This is about as aerodynamic as it gets.
Granted, you don't need that, but it is the ideal option.
And over the course of a half Ironman,
I think you're set to gain somewhere around
40 seconds to a minute by going with something like this,
because it is that much more aerodynamic.
Pros and cons of one-piece versus two-piece.
One-piece is gonna be a little bit more aerodynamic,
but you're not gonna be able to cool yourself off
nearly as much by showing a lot of skin.
Two-piece historically has looked
a little bit less nerdy than a unitard.
However, you're not gonna be able to dump a bunch of ice
into your jersey and just have it sit there
like you can in a one-piece.
As I say with all things in triathlon,
don't go and blow your entire bank account
in the first season.
It is a gradual thing that you need to grow from
spending little bits of money, and then a little bit more,
and then a little bit more, and a little bit more.
And accumulating all the things
that you could possibly spend your money on
over the course of years.
Here I am, seven, eight years into the sport,
and I'm still gradually accumulating stuff
and I feel like I've just
hit the tip of the iceberg with it.
Just a fountain and all in cheer today.
It is hot in the office.
Is it hot in your office? Oh, oh.
I've been meaning to do this for the last few days
and I've just completely forgot.
I've wanted to ask a question about
what your favorite tri suit is,
so I can see what everyone's wearing.
I love seeing cool looking kits.
Tag me on Instagram, picture of you in your favorite kit,
tagging Triathlon Teran
and let me know that that's your favorite kit.
I wanna see a question of the day.
I have no slick puns or comments or titles for that.
Yeah, show off your kits trainiacs.
It is hot in here.
(techno music)
Be straight up with you trainiacs,
I don't know where I'm parked. (lip smacking)
Gonna go this way, and I am 20% sure that it's,
oh no, it's this one.
I wish I could say I was joking
about losing the whereabouts of my car, but I'm not.
You see, the thing about losing your car when you're Taren
is that you drive in to work like once every two weeks
and when you do, you don't have a parking pass
and there are three main streets that you can park on
and you have to move every two hours,
so you forget where you parked,
and you forget how to parallel park. (exclaims)
I'm all over curbs these days.
(techno music)
So there are a bunch of reasons
that I ended up deciding to ride this two-wheel chassis
to work every single day, two years ago.
First one, is it was really nice out one night
and I could not imagine sitting in traffic the next morning.
Next, is I did the numbers and I was like,
"Parking, $185 a month, insurance, $40 a month,
"gas, $100 a month,
"car repairs, $50 a month,
"a few days of parking at $8 a day."
Like right off the hop, we're talking about $4,000 a year,
just to take your car to work.
And, in my case, it takes me less time
to ride my bike to work, especially in the summer.
In the summer, it's about 23 minutes on the nose.
Driving to work, about 35.
Why, why, why would I do anything but ride a bike?
It's one of the few things in life
that is just as fun as an adult as it is when you're a kid.
And that $4,000 a year went towards paying down any car debt
that I had, so, (snaps) boom.
It's not $4,000 a year, it was almost $8,000 a year
that I'm saving.
Do you know how many bike parts I can buy for that?
You know how many triathlons I could do?
So just the numbers wise, I'm a very numbers guy,
I like my numbers,
I like seeing numbers help me make decisions,
so just by looking at the numbers, I bike to work.
Triathlon's expensive, trainiacs.
Do likewise, do likewise.