What's up, Motivators Taren here.
Today we are going to talk about sleeved versus sleeveless Triathlon suits.
Why is everyone choosing sleeve Triathlon suits?
Well, a spoiler alert is faster.
We're going to discuss why it's fast faster, what performance benefits you can
expect to achieve Besides just going a little bit faster and what instances.
I would actually recommend that you don't
choose a long sleeved Triathlon suit that nobody else is talking about.
Stick around.
We're going to go through all of that today.
My name is Terry Gazelle.
In my 20s, I was overweight.
Unfulfilled and couldn't even run to the end of the block.
Over the following years, I found endurance sports, lost £65,
won age groups, race world Championships, growth records and trained and learned
from some of the best athletes and coaches in the world.
You, too, can use endurance sports
to change your life and accomplish your fitness goals.
You just need a system, a system that's meant for us amateurs
who want to be our best while feeling our strongest and healthiest.
My company, Mottiv, offers that system,
and I want to share some of the tips from it today.
Thanks for tuning in, Motivators.
I remember when I first got
into Triathlon, the culture was that almost everyone would
have a short sleeved or sleeveless Triathlon suit.
Typically, it was two piece where you had one for the top, one for the bottom.
And lately, almost everything has been going towards long sleeve Tri suits.
Now, is this just for fashion and culture? No.
There is a significant performance benefit.
So let's dive right into why everything is shifting towards long sleeve Tri suits
and how significant that performance benefit is.
The first thing that I found here,
as I was looking, looking up studies, is this large study where they looked
at different lengths of Triathlon suits, different fabrics of Triathlon suits.
And what they found was that the reduction
in aerodynamic drag was significant enough that they could save eight Watts of drag
on the upper body and three Watts of drag on the lower body, totaling 13 Watts.
Considering that in a lot of races,
people are maybe doing between 150 or 250 Watts, 13 Watts saved is very,
very significant just by changing what you're wearing.
What they concluded from this study was that the cycling kit developed in this
project was considerably lower drag than a traditional kit with smooth fabrics.
Only rough material on the sleeves clearly
improves the aerodynamic qualities of a Jersey.
And the results indicate that a dimpled
fabric is more favorable than having a smooth fabric.
They also say since the gain increases
with sleeve length, the sleeve should be as long as comfort and regulations allow.
So we're looking for in a trisuit that is as aerodynamic as possible is long sleeves
with rough patterns on the shoulders and with Ironman races.
The regulations are that you can't have
your torso exposed and that you can't have your Jersey being longer than your elbows
or the bib shorts being longer than your knees.
But according to this study, you want to cover up as much as possible.
Hence a long sleeve Tri suit down
to the elbows because it's going to be as quick as possible.
But then when you start looking at forums,
a lot of people say, well, am I going to overheat in that this next
study here that I found actually indicated that there is a significant performance
improvement from being able to cool your body.
If we look at their guiding principles to actually cool your body in a race,
the very first thing that they mention is cooling as much of the body's surface area
as possible and doing so as close to the performance as possible,
if not in the performance, is what is going to keep you cooler.
So those long sleeve kits are actually going to keep you cooler.
And finally, I just want to wrap it up with a quote from our friend Matt Bottrel,
who is a time trial and aerodynamic cycling expert that we work with a lot.
He says from testing we have seen long
sleeve will always make a good gain over short sleeve.
Fitting is always a key part.
You want to make sure that you have
movement to be able to swim, but the new fabrics can benefit from Aero
and elasticity fabrics are improving all the time to also enhance a cooling effect.
So I would agree with what I typically say
that the right suit will keep you cooler as well.
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So long sleeve, it's going to be faster.
It's going to keep you cooler.
There will be links in the description below to all of these studies
and the competition rules for what you need to wear in an Ironman race.
But that's not to say that you should wear long sleeves all the time.
Sometimes short sleeve jerseys are
actually a requirement, like in ITU and World Triathlon Series races.
You see that all of those athletes are in short sleeves.
I will again link to the suit requirements for ITU.
These are typically World Championships,
sprint and Olympic distance race regulations in the description below.
So you can see that if you are racing
that and these races, you're often going to have to wear a short sleeve Jersey.
But for local races, there really aren't going to be any regulations.
You're going to see local athletes in grassroots level events that are
actually just racing in a pair of bicycle shorts, which is totally fine.
And this is where I think a lot of coaches
and media outlets aren't really guiding beginner triathletes in the right way.
And this is the third scenario.
If you are not looking to spend a whole bunch on this aerodynamic,
super expensive three, four, $500 long sleeve Triathlon kit
with dimpled shoulders and you aren't racing a world Championship level event
and you just want to get into the sport, what do you wear?
What we outlined in our book in the Triathlon Foundation series that is
some of the most highly rated Triathlon training books in the world on Amazon.
And Goodreads is something different than
just the short sleeve trikit or the long sleeve trikit.
It's something that no coach and very few media outlets are talking about.
That option being a pair of tristorts
and the cycling Jersey reason being that they're going to be nice and snug.
And the Tri shorts are going to have a smaller chamois in your crotch so
that you can actually ride on the bike and still get that little bit of padding.
But it's not so large a chamois like cycling shorts that you can't swim in it.
With traditional cycling shorts, there's a really big pad in the butt.
And if you wear those in a Triathlon
and swim in them, you're going to have diaper butt on the run afterwards.
And it's going to be pretty soggy.
And it's probably going to cause chafing in an area that you don't want chafing.
But for the top, I would recommend a traditional cycling
top because this, again, covers the shoulders.
It makes sure that you're going to be a little bit cooler.
It's going to be a little bit more aerodynamic.
As long as that Jersey is nice and snug
fitting to the body, you can wear that in training and in racing.
So then you're only having to buy a pair
of Tri shorts and a cycling top and boom you have everything.
Instead of having to buy bib shorts and then cycling jerseys and a long sleeve
Tri kit and a short sleeve Tri kit for just $200 you get yourself a pair
of Tri shorts and a good cycling Jersey and you can do everything.
To summarize if you're racing grassroots
races or Ironman races you want to be as fast as possible and don't mind spending
a few hundred dollars get yourself a long sleeve trikit.
If you are racing world Championship level
sprint and Olympic distance events you're going to need a short sleeve trikit.
If you are just looking at saving as much
money as possible just go with a pair of Tri shorts and a cycling Jersey and you
are off to the races saving yourself hundreds of dollars.
I hope that that helps you out.
Thank you for watching motivators if you're looking for a training plan
that incorporates these methods that is as good as a one on one coach but as
inexpensive as doing it yourself, check out our Motive training app
that covers triathlons, running races, dothlons swim runs and cycling events.
The link in the description below where
you can check out your customized training plan for free.
Also, if you rather listen to these tips, we also publish these videos in podcast
format on the Terrain's Motive Method podcast so you can check that out and if
you don't want to do either of those things that you found this video helpful
hit us up with a virtual high five by smashing the like button below.
Later motivators.