tri clothing for the, um, well endowed woman

[Brina]

I keep looking at the tri specific clothes - things you can swim in and keep on through the run. Do they really keep the girls under control? what if they are big girls? what if they are big girls that breastfed twins for a year? attached to a 40 year-old body? girls that are a good 3 inches lower than they were 10 years ago?

okay, you get my point.

[tprevost]

Hey Brina,

You are too funny! :p I have the same issue so my plan is to get a tri suit and wear my biggest/baddest sports bra under it. I'll just swim in it w/the bra underneath and the wetsuit on top. I think a lot of people just bike in the tri suit alone but I'm going to throw my bike shorts on top of the trisuit for the bike and strip them off and add my hat when I run. The bra is so rigid that getting it wet doesn't stop it from holding the girls very well! That's my plan anyway, and I like that I don't have to stop in a changing tent at all since it all can be done in transition. I'm sure you'll get some other ideas as well from some of the ladies with much more experience!

Good luck! When is your tri?

Tracy

[Lise]

This is how I found this board at all, BTW.

I emailed Susan O. in TE customer support a year ago, and asked her the same question (minus the breastfeeding of twins, which I would happily have done, if I'd ever had them, so GOOD on you!) Ahem. Back to the question.

I wear a sports bra with no metal parts--it's from Road Runner Sports, but I don't remember what the name of the bra is. I wear a 36D, I'm 5'8", 150#, 45 years old. In this bra, I have a "medium". I ran the marathon in it, also, and it was not supportive enough for that long a run. I've done a couple of sprint tris in it though, and it's been fine. I end up with major mono-boob, but what can you do? I love the Enell bra, and I've read various opinions about swimming/not swimming in it. It is so supportive, you can't believe it. I may use it in one of my sprints to check it out.

So. I wear the bra. If I'm doing a pool swim, in which they don't allow wetsuits, I then wear my Sugoi trisuit (from TE) over the bra. I don't use any additional shorts--the tri suit has enough padding for me on a sprint tri ride. I pull other clothes on to stay warm on the ride, as needed (like in May in Chicago!). If it's a lake swim, in which I can wear a wetsuit, I wear my bra and tri shorts under a sleeveless, short-legged wetsuit, pull that off in T1, and pull on a shirt for biking and running. I'm embarrassed, sometimes, by my blobby thighs and belly, but mostly I'm just so impressed that I'm doing a triathlon that I can hardly stand myself.

Hope that helps. MAN oh man, do I wish I'd found this board when I was first doing tris. Or the year after that! Best wishes, Lise

[btchance]

I'm currently looking for tri tops also, and what one of my friends recommended is using a dry-fit sports bra and then putting a tight-fitting (ie about the smallest you can get into as they DO stretch when they get wet) over the top, giving double support. This works for her, and hopefully it will work for us too.:)