- Five critical pieces of triathlon training gear.
My beloved, floaty pants.
How dare you call him little.
What's up trainiacs?
By popular demand, I've been getting
a few thousand questions about gear.
Power meters, heart rate monitors, shoes,
what bike brand I like, what kind of floaty pants I use,
what Speedo's are the best Speedo's?
Actually, nobody asked me that but they should.
So I figured, why not go through
the five critical pieces
of triathlon training gear
that I can't do without.
It's the stuff that makes my training more enjoyable,
makes my training more consistent,
makes my training more purposeful, keeps me injury free,
and keeps my, yeah we won't talk about down there just yet.
Let's go look.
First, most favorite item,
not the bike actually I love the bike
but it's the PowerTap P1 Power Pedals.
(pedals clicking)
And when I got these, I knew that I needed a power meter
because when you start really purposeful training
it's important to have a power meter on your bike
because it gives you really defined metrics
that you can structure your training around.
Because this gives you exact readings
that you know when you're going easy,
when you're going hard,
when you're going the exact right race pace for you
even if you are on the trainer
and it takes all of the variables
of heat, wind, incline,
heart rate, whether you had a good pee in the morning,
yada yada yada, all that out of it, it's just a number
that bam, you know a 100%
that you're either hitting it at the right number
or you're not.
These pedals specifically I went with
because I wanted to be able to switch them
from bike to bike easily.
I didn't wanna have to take off an entire bottom bracket
or entire wheel and I went with the PowerTap ones
because even though I've said that they look kinda clunky,
apparently they're the most reliable power pedals out there.
But I've found the PowerTap P1 Power Pedals,
besides having a bunch of p's in the name
and being super awesome, they've been totally reliable.
That's number one.
The second most important most critical piece
of training gear that I've got is
heart rate monitoring enabled GPS watch.
In the early parts of training you're doing a lot
of structuring around heart rate for your pacing.
So at your heart rate will often figure out your run pace
that you can sustain over a long period of time
without blowing up.
With the GPS watch,
not only am I looking at specific pace times
but I'm referring it to the heart rate that I'm putting out.
And that heart rate that I'm putting out,
allows me to have kinda standard measure
that I can check depending on whether I'm at
this altitude in Winnipeg and this climate in Winnipeg
or I go down to Austin where it's probably gonna be hotter,
it's gonna be hillier
and heart rate is a really good indicator on the run
of how hard you're pushing.
In addition to that, in the beginning parts of the season
you wanna do a lot of low heart rate controlled
base-building type of work
and if you don't have a heart rate monitored watch,
you ain't gonna be doing that.
Right now I'm using the Garmin 920xt.
When I bought it, it was the top of the line
and now it's still really good.
It's got almost all the features that you want.
However, it's not Garmin's number one, premier,
put it on a cover kinda watch,
but it's a really good bang for your buck
at about $280 instead of the Fenix 3
which I think is four to $500.
That's number two.
Now, while I'm down here,
the third most critical piece of gear
is running shoes and not just any running shoes,
a new set of running shoes that still have a fair bit
of cushion in them and a fair bit of spring.
I find that as soon as a running shoe
loses that structure in the sole
and just in general goes from a new running shoe
to an old running shoe I find it usually happens around 150
to 200 miles I start getting small little injuries
that start often right here
on the outside of my ankle and then transfer out my knee.
That to me is the very first indication that it's time
to upgrade my running shoes to a new set.
And I was always somebody that thought you know what,
I don't need new running shoes.
Everyone with their new running shoes, like no.
Injury free is key because then you can be consistent
and consistency is how you build speed.
The ones that I'm using right now are Sketchers.
These are the GOmeb Razors.
But basically in my case I'm not overly fussy on
what brand of shoe I've got or what model of shoe I've got
if it's a neutral,
light, slightly cushioned,
but not overly squishy, doesn't have to be a zero drop
but a minimal drop,
maybe a two to six millimeter drop from heel to toe
and it's comfy and I don't get blisters, I go with it.
New running shoes it's number three.
Now the fourth most critical piece
of training gear for me is my beloved,
haven't made a big appearance
in the blog lately, floaty pants.
Yeah these were a bit of a dark horse.
I didn't think that they'd make it but I thought about it
and I went, what is the number one swim training piece
of gear that keeps me coming back more regularly.
It's not goggles, I don't get psyched up about it.
Pull buoy, yeah I like the pull buoy
but it's not like I got my favorite pull buoy.
Kick board, I have a love-hate relationship with them.
Paddles, meh.
Snorkel, very important but I don't love it.
However, floaty pants,
they keep me coming back to the pool more regularly.
Basically the deal that I make with myself is any day
that I'm feeling like I suck and I don't wanna get up
and I don't wanna go to the pool I say, you know what Taren,
you can go to the pool if you wear your floaty pants.
And I'm like, yeah I love a good floaty pants swim.
So much easier, sign me up!
So while I don't say that these are
a very excellent piece
of gear for you to become a better swimmer,
consistency will make you a better swimmer.
So if I've got to make a choice between not swimming
and not wearing floaty pants,
or swimming because I'm gonna wear floaty pants,
that choice is really easy.
So these are like a good incentive to keep me swimming.
Hence, floaty pants made the list.
Now these ones specifically are the ROKA SIM Shorts,
but there's no reason that it can't be any other brand.
Basically just a wet suit bottom is all you need.
Okay now the fifth and final critical piece of gear
that help me be a better triathlete in this case,
for consistent purposes
is DZ Nuts Chamois Cream.
Yeah, that's right I said it
and there's nothing in particular about DZ Nuts
that is the be all end all of chamois cream.
I found that it consistently fends off saddle sores,
infections, around my little terrain region,
how dare you call him little,
and if you can make your time in the saddle more comfortable
you're gonna ride more.
And I ride five times a week to work and back commuting.
I do two weekday morning rides,
I do a big workout on the weekend
and then a small workout on the weekend so I'm on the bike,
(tapping)
upwards of 10 to 12 hours a week and you can be sure
that this is a big help.
I'll save you the details of why it's a big help
but it's a really big help.
In general with chamois cream, you want something
that's antibacterial, antimicrobial, is soothing,
this stuff is numbing, and ideally, smells good.
So there you go trainiacs.
Those are the five bits of triathlon training gear
that I can't go without.
And if you notice there's a trend there.
It's typically about being able to keep me consistent.
You might be saying,
hey Taren what about the power pedals and the watch?
Those are gadgets and those aren't about consistency.
Well they kind of are because it's about consistently
doing just enough of right workout that you have to,
to get the proper training effect.
It's not about going out and smashing yourself over
and over and over, it's about doing little bits
of workout that are purposeful over and over.
And then the other three, the SIM shorts, the fresh shoes,
the DZ Nuts Chamois Cream,
it's all about keeping me injury free
and keeping me training day after day after day.
So there, I will put links in the description below
to where you can find all of these on Amazon.
If you wanna support the channel it's an easy way to do
that by clicking through those links.
Anything that you buy in the 24 hours
after clicking those links won't cost you a cent extra
but Amazon sends us some loose commission chains.
So, helps us out quite a bit.
There you go trainiacs, favorite gear done.