The Cost of Being a Triathlete

What's with triathletes... it seems that every week there is a new gadget on the market and we rush out like sheep and buy it. I thought golfers were crazy with how much money they spend on their hobby but we are just as bad, and in most cases, much worse.

A show of hands... How many of you have a bike that costs more then the car you drive? Don't laugh there are a lot of guys I know that have bikes that cost three to six thousand dollars. FOR A BIKE!!! And that is just for the bike, add to it a good set of pedals, water cages, computer, bike tools with bag and you just added $200 - $500.

That is just the cost to ride the bike. You also have to take account for a pair of cycling shoes, helmet, bike shorts and jersey and that can quickly add another $500. And that is for only one discipline of the sport.

Swimming has the least amount of equipment but it can still cause sticker shock. A wetsuit, goggles and swim cap can range form $200 - $600.

Running has its own expenses, shoes $75 - $150 shorts, singlet and a hat add $100. Now that covers the cost of racing. But once you add all of the little items like sunglasses, mp3 player, triathlon transition bag, sandals, warm up suit, etc. It can get very expensive.

Don't forget you need to get to your races, so you will need to buy a bike carrier for your vehicle. Lastly there is all the training gear, training aids, books and miscellaneous equiptment that we all have.

This year I noticed how much money you can devote to the sport just to get competitive. The bad news is that next year there is a high probability that I need to get a new bike. As much as I like Christine she is a road bike and I feel that I'm being out technologied (if that's a word). Today’s bikes are catered for triathlons and help racers not only during the bike but also by conserving energy it helps during the run.

Steelhead Race Report: T1

To read the previous part of the series please follow this link.

T1 is first transition when a triathlete moves from the swimming leg to cycling leg.

Getting out of the water of Lake Michigan I unzipped my wetsuit, pulled my arms out of the suit and pushed the top down to my waist so that I could still run to the transition area. I felt a little dizzy which I’ve been told is a common phenomenon of long open water swims. (I’ll have to try earplugs which I’ve been told helps with the dizziness.)

Once I reached the beach there was a long run to the transition area. I would guess that it was about 400 meters on a cement path. I was glad to get out of the water and get my wetsuit off as it was getting hot in one of these things. There was a fair amount of onlookers cheering us on which always helps. I didn’t spot my family. They usually root for me, which motivates me to keep going.

The race entry number identifies each transition area. Prior to the race, we were allowed to set up our transition area as we saw fit. Each transition area spot has the same distance to travel so that no one has an advantage over each other. I set up my area with the biking equipment near the front, the running equipment behind it and with just enough space at the end to place my swimming gear.

Once I reached my spot, I took a large gulp of Gatorade and went to work trying to transition from the swim to the bike. I stepped on the towel and pulled the wetsuit down past my shins so that I was able to step on the wetsuit while pulling each leg out. This seemed to work somewhat, but I should have practiced this a few time more so to get better at it. I finally was able to take the wetsuit off, and threw it towards the back of the area.

Prior to the race, I’ve been milling over the idea of getting a trisuit, which is an article of clothing that can be worn throughout the race, under the wetsuit, during the bike and run. They do save some time during the transition as you don’t need to change your clothes, but I decided to go with the cycling jersey and running tank top instead. The shorts I use are a pair of Zoot tri shorts, which can and are worn throughout the race.

Standing on the towel, I dried my feet and put on my cycling jersey followed by my socks. I then put on my glasses on which where in my helmet in the transition area. I slipped into my bike shoes. (Many racers have their shoes on their pedals already, I’ve yet to master being able to put your shoes on while riding a bike.) Lastly, I put on my helmet and ran towards the transition exit. (You can’t ride your bike in the transition area.) Prior to starting the ride a race official checks to make sure that your helmet is secure and then they let you proceed with your race.

I was disappointed to learn that we were not allowed to ride or run with a radio or mp3 player. I’ve been training with this and even choose a good variety of music to keep me pumped up during the race. This was going to be a long 5 – 6 hours with no music to keep me going.

I jumped on my bike and headed out on the bike course.

Foggy Goggles

A friend from work is a newbi triathlete. He knew that I was a swimmer at one time and asked me how to prevent his goggles from getting fogged up. I responded to his question with what I knew about foggy goggles. Below is a little reserch and my recollection of the discussion I had with him.

During a long swim, most goggles can and will get fogged up to some extent no matter what you do. The reason for this is that static electricity collects on the lenses and they attract very small water particles or droplets that cause the fog.

The most important thing to remember is to stay calm and not let this distraction cause you to veer off the coarse. The way to reduce the amount of fog is to eliminate the static electricity.

Unfortunately, there is no real effective way of eliminating static electricity long-term as goggles are continually exposed to dust and other contaminants that will eventually build up a new layer of charged particles over time.

There are several goggles on the market that claim that they do not fog up, but most often they will eventually fog up just as much as any pair of goggles. These goggles have a coating on them to reduce the amount of static electricity and therefore reduce the fogging. The second way to reduce the fogging is to apply a coating of anti-fog solution onto your goggles. Place a drop of this solution into each lens and swipe the solution with your finger to ensure that you cover the whole lens. Let it stand for one minute and rinse each lens with cold water. Several companies make this anti fogging solution. (Speedo, Aqua Sphere, and Tyr are among them)

These do work. But be careful, some of them sting the eye a bit if water gets into the goggles.

The best solution - and the least expensive - spit. Try this: rinse your goggles completely in water. Then spit into each lens. Then, swipe them one time back under water. Shake off the access and you are good to go. They may still appear foggy right when you put them on, but that should disappear once you start swimming.

One more suggestion... keep your goggles in a clean area when you are done using them. A zip lock bag works great once the goggles are dry.

Blue Seventy Element Goggle

Over the summer, it has become highly apparent that swimming outdoors was getting to be more difficult as the sunlight in the eyes was becoming a pain. I looked at my old pair of Speedo goggles and decided that it was time to pick up a new pair. So, on my list of last minute to do before Steelhead was to pick up a new pair of swim goggles.

I stopped in at the local triathlon store to see what they had. I looked at the different models that they had and settled on a pair of Blue Seventy Elements.

My old pair of Speedo goggles had an adjustable nosepiece that used to hurt the bridge of my nose. The Elements do not have an adjustable nosepiece but the fit is not compromised.

The goggles fit well around the eyes and the seal is watertight. The head adjustable strap is wide for a secure feel when worn. When worn they are comfortable around the eyes and don’t provide that added pressure that most goggles do to keep them watertight.

The Elements are available in a range of lens colors for particular lighting conditions encountered in the open water. I got the pair that has a smoked mirrored finish to block out the sunlight but they still provide enough light for great vision. Additionally they provide exceptional vision to the front and side very similar to my old Speedo brand.

Lastly, they come in a great case to keep them clean while not in use.

These goggles are great, and are worth every penny of the $20 that I paid for them. You can get them cheeper online but I was running out of time and didn't want to risk not getting them in the mail.

Steelhead Race Report: The Swim Leg

To read the first part of the series please follow this link.

The Steelhead Triathlon swim leg is a pier start followed by a 1.2-mile swim that is spaced out by 16 buoys. The buoys are color coded so that you can determine how far to go to the last buoy which is colored orange to identified it. At the last buoy, you make a right hand turn and swim into shore where the transition area is.

As we rode the bus, a few of the racers were trying to get their wetsuits on. One guy had so much Body Glide on that when he slipped into his wetsuit it made a gulp sound. He said that his wetsuit was trying to eat him. This was a tension breaker in the bus and everyone started to laugh and talked about their nights. I told them that I hadn’t had a lot of sleep, which seemed to be a recurring theme in the bus.

When we arrived at the starting location, the weather was perfect. It was in the 60’s and the wind was calm. There we were in a mass of about 1900 athletes about 10 minutes away from the start of the race. I got my wetsuit on after putting enough Body Glide on my shoulders, arms and legs to make the job easy. Even with all the lubricant, it was difficult to get the suit on. I was trying to make sure that I put on the suit so as to not constrict my shoulder, and still have plenty of mobility with my arm stroke. If you didn’t know, I am basically a pull swimmer. My kick leaves a lot to be desired. Therefore, it was essential that I didn’t reduce the effectiveness of my stroke.

I sucked down a shot of Gu and looked around me. Boy was there a lot of hard bodies. It seemed that I had just stepped into some sort of amateur bodybuilding contest. I guess that once you get to this distance the men and woman that race take on a new fitness level. At the sprit distances, you will see only a handful of pros but at this distance there were a lot more pros and the amateurs are very serious about their sport.

We had enough time to walk to the lake for a few a quick dip to check out the conditions. With the wetsuit on, I didn’t feel the cold water at all; a few of the other racers who didn’t have a wetsuit were shivering in the water. As 7 am approached, we looked at the pier to see the start of the event. About 200 people dove in all at once. It was quite the spectacle. I had just about 20 minutes to kill before my heat started. I swam a little to get warmed up and was pleased with how the wetsuit fit. I check my heart rate monitor and it said that I was at 125 bpm. As I swam back into shore I had that feeling again that I needed to use the facilities. I was thinking of going to the port a potties but I didn’t know if I had enough time. As I was swimming into shore a few women were swimming out towards me they just stopped all of a sudden, giggled, and were saying how much warmer their legs were. I knew what they were doing so I figured what the heck. That was the first time I tinkled in my wetsuit. I swam a little more to flush out my wetsuit.

We got out of the water and as we walked to the pier, I told my friend what had happened and he said that it is common. Once on the pier the heats were all going off like clockwork. We timed our warm up perfect because as we stepped onto the pier the heat right before us was just starting. The started announce over the loudspeaker that our age bracket was starting in 3 minutes and to take our marks. My wetsuit was hot and I was sweating. We made our way toward the end of the pier to get away from all of the commotion of starting in mass. There were a lot of us in our age bracket. There was even a second row of athletes that were going to jump in, right after us.

I told the guy behind me that I was hard and boney so if he planned on landing on me that I was sure he would hurt himself. He laughed and said that he would give me enough room so that he wouldn’t jump on me. I looked down and it must have been about a ten feet to the water level. I looked at my friend and asked him if he was going to dive in or go feet first. He said that he was going feet first to make sure that his goggles didn’t fall off and besides, the extra few second weren’t going to matter to him. This made good sense so I informed the guy behind me that my head was even more hard and boney then my back, he laughed again.

The announcer said ten seconds and started to count down. I looked at my heart rate monitor and it read 145 bpm. Nervous I guess no wonder I’m hot and sweaty. I hit the start button on my watch. The started said 3, 2, 1 and the horn went off. I jump in feet first and made sure that I stayed on the surface by sticking my arms and legs out. The water felt great and I started to swim. It seemed that all went quiet for a few seconds and all I could remember was that it felt that I was swimming in a crowded pool.

After a few hundred yards, the swimmers spread out a little and I started to try to relax and start working on my breathing. I knew that my breathing was out of wack but I kept telling myself to try to lengthen my stroke so that my breathing would slow down.

I don’t remember seeing any of the first few buoys but then again I really wasn’t looking for them either. I was having a difficult time trying to relax but I started to count my strokes. I typically use this to kill some time while I’m swimming. It’s not like there is anything to see while you’re in open water. There’s not even the black line and walls that distract you when you swim in a pool.

After what seemed like 15 minutes a felt a tap on my head. I didn’t take note of it but there it goes again. I stuck my head out of the water and looked up. There was a lifeguard in a kayak. He asked, “Are you planning on swimming to Chicago”… I was taken aback but answered “no… why.” As he pointed with his oar, he said “it seemed that you might be as you’re about 200 meters off course.” I looked to my right and sure enough, there were my competitors way over on the right side of me. I should have cursed, but I thanked him, stuck my head back into the water, and made my way back to the racecourse.

As I swam back on course, I was thinking to myself that my bad shoulder must have been the cause for this. I swam about a hundred yards and stuck my head out of the water to make sure that I stayed on course. I’m sure this slowed me up a bit, but I’m sure that being off course by 200 meters was even worse.

As I rejoined the pack, I noticed that there were others with the same color swim cap on around me, so I guess I didn’t loose too much time. After 10 or so minutes, I even saw a few racers with different colored caps on as I passed or was passed by them. The caps are color coded to identify the different age groups.

I went back to counting and lengthening my stroke to try to relax. I felt myself getting tired and was wondering how much longer the swim leg was going to take. After a few more minutes I stuck my head up and low and behold right in front of me was the orange finish buoy. As it was a bottleneck for swimmers, I switched to breaststroke to swim around it and headed for shore. There was a woman a few yards from me that hollered as someone not paying attention kept swimming freestyle and hit her with his arm.

As I approached shore, I did a few dolphin dives to move closer to shore so that I could run in. As I got out of the water, I felt for the zip cord and it was right where it was supposed to be. I started to unzip my wetsuit and pulled my arms out of the wetsuit. I pushed the top down as far as I could and still be able to run without it tripping me. I got out of the water and noted that I was a little dizzy which seems to be common during a long open water swim.

That’s it for the second installment of the series.

Shaving Down

When I was in high school we had an event at the end of the swim season prior to our league championship... it was called "Shave Down Day." Shaving down is not only grant a mental edge when racing but it is also a way to "shave off" a few tenths of a second due to the reduced amount of drag.

What shaving down entailed was a bunch of guys in the shower room shaving their bodies of hair. You could identify the underclassmen by their many dots of white speckled all over their bodies from cuts that they gave themselves. The good part of being an upper classmen was that we took a completely different approach to shaving down. Not only had we done it a few times, but also the areas that we could not reach were shaved by our "timets." Timets are high school girls that time the swim meets and act as judges. (This is before the advent of touch pads) These girls could best be described as groupies, as they hung out with the swim team and several of them dated swimmers.

Don't get me wrong, as a 17 to 18 year old hormone frenzied male, having the tender touch of a member of the opposite sex shave your legs was not only beneficial (as the girls had many year of leg shaving experience) but also very exhilarating. I had dated several of the timets, and made sure to have one of them shave me down, as I was a rather particularly hairy individual.

What does this have to do with this post?

After getting my wetsuit, I made a point to get into the pool to see how it worked. I had never swum in a wetsuit and was wondering about the effect on my stroke as well as my heart rate and time. On the good side, the wetsuit is a great advent to improve swimming time and reduce the amount of effort involved in propelling oneself through the water. On the bad side, getting into one of these things can be quite a task. They are more then skin tight, and require a great amount of time and effort to get it on right.

After doing a little research on the net, it seems that most use Pam spray on lubricant or Body Glide to make getting into and removing the wetsuit easier. One thing I noticed from using Body Glide is that it is basically a roll on petroleum jelly. Anyone who has ever used this product can understand that the cleaning up of this as it is caked into hair and body is a mess and a chore. I did some further research on this and noted that several web sites state to shave down so that the application and removal of the lubricant as well as getting into and out off a wetsuit can be accomplished easier.

So there I was the week before the race shaving parts of my body that have had hair on them for over 40 years. In mid stroke I decided to get into the bathtub to do this as shaving all the hair from my legs was going to be a chore and I didn't need to have hair all over the bathroom. I asked my wife to help. She had this cool little electric razor to get off most of the longer hair off and then followed up with a clean razor to take off the rest of the hair stubble. My legs were as smooth as the day I was born. They say that a dog owner usually picks a dog breed that somehow looks like them. By the looks of the bathtub floor, I would have to agree. Looking at the bathtub reminded me of the times we used to give our dog a bath. There was hair all over the tub floor. Luckily, I just hosed off everything and made sure not to get hair down the drain.

After shaving down, I did notice that getting into and out of the wetsuit was a lot easier. So at least it was all worth the time involved and the few razor blades that were used up. Hey it was even the conversation topic for a few weeks with my friends and family.

Steelhead Race Report: Pre-race

We left our home on Thursday looking forward to a nice drive to Benton Harbor for the Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Half Ironman Race. We got a later then expected start (I didn’t get out of work when I should have). When we got to Benton Harbor my first impression was that there were a lot of athletes at this thing considering that it was still early in the evening. As we pulled into the Jean Klock Park area, an athlete suggested that we park our vehicle at the transition area, as there was still plenty of parking there. I thanked her for the info as I needed to rack my bike in the transition area and I still needed to pick up my race packet.

We pulled into the transition area and looking at all the tri bikes lined up in the racks was awe-inspiring. I have never been in a triathlon race that had this many participants. There were going to be 1900 participants racing in the morning. I walked around at the Expo and I was not too impressed. There were a few race equipment manufactures there, but they did not have any special deals. From my limited experience, I’ve always been able to pick up a few items at these things that I wanted. I got my body marked up with my age and race number and peered over at the swimming course. Lake Michigan looked great. I could just make out the pier from where we stood. I will talk about the pier more a little later.

After race registration was completed, I gave Christine a quick once over just to make sure nothing happened to her during the drive. She looked and drove great, so I racked her on the bike rack with all of the other bikes. I’m sure none of the other bikes had a name. A funny thing happened while racking the bike. The only way in and out of the transition area is to have a wristband (kind of like the ones they give at the hospitals to patients) with your bib number on it. My buddy’s wife put on the wristband and locked it on by mistake. She didn’t know that once you put one of these wristbands on you can’t get it off without cutting it off. Anyway, it was hilarious as he and she were trying to explain to the race officials what had happened. They eventually gave him a different race wristband so that he could rack his bike.

We decided to get some food and looked at the GPS to find a place to eat. We finally decided on a place in downtown Benton Harbor. It was a big place and it still had a 30-minute wait, so we figured the food would be good. I split the BBQ plate (chicken and ribs) with my youngest. The food was good, but I ate too much... at least the triathlon would give me a chance to burn off a few extra calories.

After dinner, we walked around the downtown area for a while and made our way to the hotel. The hotel that my friend found was not the fanciest place around. In fact, the name said it all. We booked two days at the Best Value Hotel. At least it was close to the race. The staff at the hotel tried to look like they were big time, but you could tell that they didn’t. I asked for a wake up call the next morning and asked what time the complementary breakfast was going to be served. The reply was that since they had so many athletes at the hotel that breakfast was going to be served starting at 5 am. Great! Just the time I wanted to get up. That night I had unpacked all of transition equipment and made sure that I didn’t forget anything. I don’t know what I would have done if I did forget something, but at least it calmed down the nerves a bit. We didn’t bring an alarm clock with us but the combination of a cell phone, wristwatch and the front desk alarms would hopefully allow me to wake up. As 1 am approached, I finally was able to fall asleep.

It is amazing how early 5 am is. The worst thing is that I woke up at 4:53 am with at least a few more minutes of sleep to spare before all of the alarms would go off. As the alarms all went off it seemed like I didn’t get any sleep at all and I was nervous. I rolled out of bed with that seasick feeling in my stomach and my head spinning and went to the bathroom for my first of many trips to the bathroom. Pre-race jitters always force me to use the bathroom at least 4 to 5 times. My wife woke up and made coffee for me as I packed my equipment. I got dressed and went to the dinning area hopping to see some fellow athletes and get some food in me. As I walked up the overnight manager was putting on the finishing touches on the breakfast buffet. It consisted of coffee, Tang (not orange juice), bananas, and some frozen (yes frozen) donuts. Ok so the food was not the greatest but at least I ate a banana. I went to the car and grabbed the peanut butter and a Powerbar so that I could get some protein in me as well.

I check in with my friend to see if he was awake and find out what time he wanted to leave. The transition area was going to close at 6:30 and our wave was not starting until after 7:15. We got our things packed and he drove to the race as our wives and kids slept in. As we arrived, we were diverted from the transition area to the alternate athlete parking. This was about a mile from the transition area and we had a lot of equipment to move. Thankfully, there were plenty of busses that were moving athletes to the transition area.

As we walked into the transition area, there was a line of at least 200 athletes that were waiting for the busses to take them to the starting line. I was worried that we didn’t have enough time, but we found our spots and laid out our equipment. I pumped air into my bike tires and filled up the bento box with food for the bike ride. I grabbed my wetsuit and goggles and headed for the buses. As we approached, the lines were gone and we walked right up to the next bus and headed out.

The ride to the start line was pleasant as the whole bus was about the same age and made small talk and joked about the day events to follow.

That’s the first installment of the series.

Steelhead Triathlon Race Report

Stay tuned for the race report to be uploaded this week...

Skull Protection

I got a new helmet just before the race. I’ve been waffling over a new helmet for about a year and looking at the Steelhead race information has prompted me to finally go out and buy one. The race info stated that the everyone needed to have a race helmet that is either ANSI approved or it needs to be less than three years old. My helmet (I don’t think) is either. So what’s a guy to do…? I shopped around looking at the best value that I can get in a helmet. I wanted it to be light weight with plenty of ventilation as well as excellent protection to the noggin.

I looked at the latest magazine and found that they suggested the Bell Sweep R as the best value helmet with the Giro Pneumo a close second… so it was off to try to find one. I searched several stores as well and even some bike specific stores with no avail for the elusive Bell Sweep. I finally did find one at the local Tri store but the price was staggering… $160 and the color selection was limited. I looked for my second choice in helmets… the Giro Pneumo. I ended up at REI and found the last Giro in my size. It must be kismet because the only color left in my size was white. I have this recurring dream of me riding on black two lane asphalt highway with the sun beating down on me and the heat rising up from the asphalt. In it I am wearing a white helmet. I tried it on and it fits like a glove with its Roc Loc 4 adjustment system… so I bought it. The thing I like about it is the size and amount of the vents it has.

More on the vents in a future post.