Newb question

[e.e.cummings]

So I am doing it, signing up for my first triathlon! So excited. I don't know what to expect in terms of the swimming portion. It will be in an indoor pool. How does that work, people line up, first come first serve for the laps? Also, you wear a normal swimsuit or a wetsuit in a pool? Totally green at this! Plus, how do you keep your bike safe while you are making your way through the other events?

[sfa]

The one indoor pool tri I did had us group ourselves by speed (I went with the slow group, naturally), then they had us start in the pool at ten second intervals. In the pool we'd go up one lane, down the next, up the next, and so on until we reached the end of the pool. It was, obviously, a short swim, but it kept people moving so there wasn't ever a long wait to get started. It got chaotic in the pool, though, when people tended to glom up going under the lane ropes. I don't know how they'd do it with a longer swim portion of the race. No wetsuits in pools--I just wore tri shorts and top, then because it was a bit chilly that day I threw another shirt on over my tri top for the rest of the race. I saw other people in regular swim suits, but I don't know what they wore for the rest of the race.

Race volunteers keep the bikes safe while you're off doing other things--the transition area is closed to anyone except racers so no one is going to really be motivated to damage or steal your stuff anyway, and the volunteers patrol the area. It felt weird walking away from an unlocked bike the first time, and I imagine that at some races security is an issue, but I've never heard of a problem.

Good luck!

Sarah

[e.e.cummings]

So you do not have to change out of your wet clothes to start running/cycling? So much I don't know. Do you have any recommendations for good brands of tri shorts, tops?

[sfa]

Nope, just remove the dirt from your feet, put on your shoes and helmet and start cycling! Tri shorts are designed with a very thin chamois that dries quickly, so you can wear them for the whole race. You're asking the wrong person for brand advice, though--I own one pair that I wore for both races last year. They seemed to work fine but I have no idea what brand they are. TE has a good variety of tri shorts, so if you have a brand of bike shorts you like already, see if they make triathlon clothing as well.

One thing I learned was that it's not worth it to try to dry yourself off too much. I'm paranoid about blisters, so in my first (pool) tri I dried my feet off carefully and tried to dry my body off as well to avoid getting too chilly, but that slowed me way down in transition. So for my second tri I tried to get smart and use baby powder on my feet (the normal trick is to have a dishpan or bucket of water and dip your feet in them to remove the gunk after the swim, but I always use baby powder to get rid of sand from my feet at the beach, so I thought it could work here too), which would remove the debris and keep my feet dry during the rest of the race. I shouldn't have bothered--as soon as I was on my bike the water from my shorts and top dripped down my legs and got my feet as wet as if I hadn't dried off at all, and again, powdering your feet takes longer than a quick dip in a water bucket or a squirt from a water bottle. In both cases, I was pretty dry by a couple of miles into the bike portion, so my attempts at keeping my feet dry weren't worth the effort!

[sgf726]

The indoor tri I did was similiar. They ask you to enter your estimated swim time when you register and then people are seeded based on there time with the faster swimmers going first. We started 15 sec apart.

I have the Pearl Izumi Tri Shorts and I really like them, I think my top is Sugio.
I just squirt some water on my feet to wash off and dirt then put on my bike shoes. I don't use socks for the bike and I don't really try to dry off. You will dry off fairly quickly.

If you can practive switching lanes by pushing off the wall and going under the lane markers. The one I did we started in the deep end so switched lanes in the deep end as well.

Sharon

[GLC1968]

I'm doing my first tri with a pool swim next month. I believe that for this one, we don't 'snake' through the pool lanes. We are all seeded by our reported swim times and we circle swim with three other swimmers in each lane until we get to 10 laps. There are a bunch of heats, too. Total swim is 500 yards and if we snaked through the lanes in this pool, we'd only be at 150 yards (6 lane, 25y pool).

I'm a little nervous about transitions, but I know for a fact that I won't be the only 'virgin' triathlete, so hopefully I won't stick out too much!