- Morning Traniacs!
I don't know if you've heard
but inside here, we have a lot of stuff.
An entire shelf filled with wetsuits,
a Zwift set up that cost more than my first car,
strength equipment that takes up more space
than the living room in my first house,
an entire rack intended for bikes
that is embarrassingly empty because
of the situation of the world right now.
One of the biggest drawbacks
to new athletes coming into triathlon is that
they think the triathlon has to be incredibly expensive,
like tens of thousands of dollars,
because those are the bikes
and that's the equipment that people see me using
and pros and really good, talented athletes that have been
in the sport for a long time using.
But these are things that you accumulate
over the course of a lifetime in endurance sports.
When you're just getting started, there are lots
of small little upgrades and accessories that you
can purchase that will make your swim, bike, run, and
strength training experience way better,
and you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to do it.
So what we're going to go through here today
are the 10 best accessories that I think you should buy
if you're a beginner triathlete, and you want to
save some money, while making some significant improvements
to your training and racing performance.
Number one key piece of equipment that athletes should look
at getting is a pull buoy.
Now not just a pull buoy, I'm going to pair that
with another couple of accessories that are really
going to improve your swim performance.
So pull buoy, you put between your legs,
and it helps you add some buoyancy to your legs.
So that pull buoy is around anywhere from 18 to 30
dollars depending on which one you get.
That's the Eney buoy that I use
because you can fill up chambers with water,
but I might fill it up with water just six times a year.
So you can get any pull buoy that you want,
but I recommend that you don't just get a pull buoy,
you pair that pull buoy with a snorkel.
And the snorkel cost about 30 to 40 dollars
but you don't just pair it with a snorkel.
You also pair it with, bonus tip, this is free.
You take an old bike inner tube that is flat
that you don't want, you cut it,
and you create a band that goes around your ankles
roughly about six inches long,
and you pair those three things:
snorkel, band, pull for a huge amount of your training,
and I'll explain why.
Two of the most common issues
that adult amateur endurance athletes who take
up swimming late in life experience, is they end
up getting sinky legs, which creates drag.
And they end up being kind of wobbly in the water.
Like as you swim, you're kind of snaky, and the floppiness
and the low legs in the water ended up creating a lot
of drag so you're really like a tugboat,
just pushing your way through the water.
Snorkel, band, pull, all tied together,
it creates a situation with your body where
your head is almost tied together with your entire torso
all the way to your legs, all the way to your ankles.
Because if you don't keep a nice firm core
you're going to be really floppy.
It's also going to allow you to press your chest
into the water, which then teaches your legs to come up.
So we do a huge amount of our steady swimming,
like things that are fifties and hundreds meant
for speed, anything that is long and endurance focused,
we use a huge amount of snorkel, band, pull all together.
We actually really rarely, for triathletes,
recommend using just a pull buoy on its own.
Next, moving over to the three things that
you should get for the bike.
First one, aero bars.
If you're watching this video, odds are really good
that you're going to be starting out with a road bike.
In which case, the best bang for your buck
is going to be roughly a 80 dollar set of
clip on aero bars that you dial in to
get really really comfortable for yourself.
The reason for that is that about 85 percent of the
drag that we have to push through the air
is created by our body, not the bike.
So if we can make our frontal plane like really
nice and small, aero bar extensions are really
going to be a good return on investment,
as far as dollar per speed increase.
Next thing in the bike category is in here.
Oh, I really didn't prep this ahead of time.
Actually look how clean and organized I am.
A really good Chamois cream, and I like
DZ Nuts Chamois cream because
it's a little bit more natural.
I find that it heals saddle sores as well as prevents them,
and keeping your undercarriage really well cared
for is going to make sure that you want to spend more time
on the bike.
If you just go in dry, you are likely going to
cause a little bit of irritation.
That little bit of irritation can get infected causing pain.
You're not going to be on the bike a whole lot
because you are going to be in pain.
I've had friends that literally had to miss workouts
(sad trombone)
for days and days on end because their
saddle sores got so bad.
So I've got no affiliation with DZ Nuts Chamois cream,
but I've tried a ton of Chamois creams over the years,
and this has always been the winner, and in a group
that I was running with the other day, all of them agreed.
They're like, this is the go-to.
Next on the bike are Aero helmets.
Now you might be sitting here saying Teran,
wasn't this supposed to be a sub-100 dollar purchase?
Yeah, well this here, Aero helmet, I really like,
it is from Lazer, but I've actually found
Aero helmets on Amazon for as little as 40 dollars
that are almost identical to a 300 dollar
Aero helmet from Specialized.
What I really like about this Aero helmet is
that it can be used whether you're doing road riding or
triathlon riding.
Now I haven't tried this Aero helmet, so I won't vouch
for its aerodynamics or its performance, but just,
I mean it's a big chunk of foam.
How much can you really screw it up?
And if you get it for 40 dollars,
the return on investment for dollars you spend
versus improvement in time is going to be probably better
than any purchase that you can make for your bike.
Like a 40 dollar Aero helmet for potentially
one extra kilometer per hour, which a lot of
Aero helmets is actually rated at in my testing,
that's a pretty good return.
Next, moving on to the run.
This is where I tend to be a lot more minimalistic.
I don't believe that there is a whole lot
of gear that people should use when they're running.
Like I don't really go and run
a whole lot with lots of nutrition.
I am not one of those people who carries the running vest.
I've got no problem with the people that
carry the running vest, but I just really like to
go out the door with nothing but my phone,
a little bit of tunes, and some accurate data.
And that's what I do think will add a lot
of additional benefits to your training.
That's where an accurate heart rate monitor comes in.
Now I'm cheating a little bit,
because this is the Garmin HRM-Pro, which technically is
over a hundred dollars, but there are models of Garmin
heart rate monitors that are under a hundred dollars.
Why I recommend having a heart rate monitor
as opposed to something on your wrist,
is because when you start jostling, I love you Garmin,
but I've done testing, and a risk-based
heart rate monitor can be off by as much as
40 beats per minute.
To get accurate heart rate data while you're running,
you really need a heart rate strap.
The heart rate on your wrist is perfectly fine
for just day-to-day living, or cycling, or walking,
but once it comes to running, I find that you
have to get a heart rate monitor.
Why this is so important is because
the run is the easiest place for your heart rate to rise,
and you need to make sure that you're not spending more
than about 70 to 80 percent of your time over your zone
two heart rate cap in the course of a year.
Now, if you don't have accurate data, well
it's garbage in garbage out.
So making sure that you've got accurate heart rate data
on the run, very, very critical.
Next, I don't have this anymore but I used to use it
before I ended up getting all of my shorts
from Malo or Janji, where they had a
pocket in the back of the short.
Now that's where I end
up keeping my keys and my phone now,
and then I put earbuds in,
and I want to make sure that I'm enjoying all the runs
that I'm doing when I'm running solo.
And for me, that means podcasts and music.
Now I don't want to have a phone sitting here
or have to carry a phone.
I want to just be able to run freely
and not have things rub here,
or not have my balance thrown off by carrying something.
So I like to have anything that I'm carrying just
attached to my clothing.
So before I got these shorts, what I had was a flip belt.
It was, like, essentially a hollow sash that went
around your waist and here, bonus,
it actually smashed down my muffin top.
And because the sash is hollow
you can put your phone, you can put your keys.
I used to put a GoPro in there.
I used to put all kinds of things in there.
And even when I started doing lots and lots
of really big training, like three hour runs where
I needed to take nutrition instead
of wearing those shorts to carry everything,
I would wear the flip belt because
it could carry so much.
Put it under a shirt, nobody's the wiser.
Big fan of that.
I gotta get back to those long runs, one year.
Let's move on from running and get
into strength training.
I have become a massive proponent of kettle bells.
A lot of triathletes who start taking up strength training
are looking at being really efficient with their dollars,
start getting things like bands and yet
bands are really inexpensive.
You can get a ton of bands for like 10 to 30 dollars,
but it's just not as versatile as a kettle bell.
What I find is that with one kettle bell, you can keep
busy with almost all of your strength training for months.
And after about three months,
when you start getting comfortable with the
movements of kettle bell strength training,
maybe you're buying a second or maybe a third
kettle bell and all together, like my
entire kettle bell setup, I think is less than 500 dollars.
Which is a way cheaper dollar per pound set up
than almost anything that you could do.
Not sure what to do?
We have videos for that in our app.
So beginner triathletes, listen to the things
that I think would make a significant improvement
in your training and your performance.
They're all under a hundred dollars,
and I will put affiliate links
in the description below to the exact products
on Amazon that I would recommend.
And hey, you know what?
If you want to support the channel,
and you need to get some of this stuff,
if you click through any of those links
and purchase anything within the next 24 hours,
we get a couple cents out of it.
So, much appreciated if that happens.
And if you're watching this video, odds are really good
that you need to sort through how to actually
triathlon train, and for that,
you can go to our app at app.my motive.com.
Link for that is in the description below.
Within about 60 to 90 seconds, you can set up
a fully customized triathlon training plan just for you.
And as of summer of 2021,
it's not just going to be only triathlon.
There's also strength, mobility, running races,
cycling races, swim-run races,
duathlons, all for just 57 bucks a month,
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Later, Trainiacs.