Bike shorts or trisuit for half or full IM?

[beetle]

Ok. So obviously cycle shorts with good/appropriate padding are the best to wear in training but what do you IM and halfIM vetrans wear in the cycle leg of a race. Do you just go with a trisuit for longer events? put in a removable chamois after the swim (is that even possible)? or pull on a pair of cycle shorts over your suit for the cycle leg?

Just wondering what actually works in practice.

[KSH]

Well, I haven't gone those distances yet.

For a HIM... you kind of have to figure out what your butt can handle. My cousin recently did one in his tri shorts. I know my butt could never go that far without a ton of padding under my arse. I kind of imagine hitting a port-o-john and changing into my bike shorts in there. It might work?

For an IM... there are changing tents so you can dry off and put on real cycling shorts.

[susanm8048]

I have done only one HIM.

I wore a sports bra under my 2 piece bathers under my wetsuit for the swim.
Then put my bike shorts on over the bathers in T1 and a bike jersey and socks and bike shoes. A minute or two makes no difference really.

Then at T2, I took off my bike shorts and put on my running shorts.

Others may not like their bathers on , but unless you wear your bike shorts under the wetsuit ( and I know people who do that) you will have trouble getting those bather bottoms off.

I will be interested to hear what other people do.

[skibum]

For my HIM, I wore tri shorts, a sports bra and a tri top for all 3 legs of the race. I must have a pretty tough butt because I've found that I like the tri shorts. I haven't done a full century in them yet but plenty of 60-70 mile rides.

Everyone is different and there's certainly time to do a quick change of clothes for that length of race. You just have to experiment during training to see what's right for you.

[Tri Girl]

I'm with skibum. For my HIM, I just wore my tri top and tri shorts under my wetsuit,then on the bike and run. Some HIM races will let you change in the tent, some won't.
For my IM, I totally changed for each event. All IM events will have a changing tent (at least all I know of). For the swim I wore my sports bra and dri-fit undies under my wetsuit. In T1 I took the undies off, and put on my big 'ol thickly padded bike shorts and jersey. In T2, I took of the shorts and jersey and put on my running skort and another shirt. Same bra all day (but of course, socks changed).
It really depends on how comfortable you are and what works best for you. If you don't have a changing tent available (and USAT rules prohibit public nudity in transition ), then you may just want to wear the same outfit for all. Changing when wet is pretty difficult tho, and I'd try to avoid it unless you have the comfort of a tent where you can get nekkid and dry off.

Ok, sorry so long. Is there a half or full iron in your future?????

[anakiwa]

I've done 3 half IM's, all wearing tri-shorts.

For the first one I had a terry butterfly saddle and a road bike. By about 25 miles I was in agony. I spent the rest of the bike portion moving around constantly to try to get my butt comfortable.

For the second one I had the same bike but switched the saddle to a terry liberator. This was a lot better- it's a little bit wider and I was okay on it with the tri-shorts.

For the third one I had a tri-bike with a terry liberator saddle. I had no butt problems whatsoever. (I think the aero position takes some of the pressure off the butt, I was a little worried about the bones in the front but they were fine.)

So I think it comes down to how well your saddle works for you- if it's a reasonably good fit, you'll probably do fine in tri-shorts- if your saddle isn't quite right, it might be torture. Try a long ride or a shorter tri to test it out first (I had done an Olympic distance race before the first tri and noticed my butt was starting to bother me towards the end- I hadn't realized how bad it would be over 56 miles.)

Good luck!

[Wahine]

I've done 8 HIM and one IM. The first HIM I put on bike shorts over my swim suit at T1 after that I just went with Tri shorts and top and I've never looked back.

One thing to consider if you're going to use Tri shorts and are a little heftier in the legs (as I am) is that you will get some chafing in the upper inner thigh from being wet on the saddle, if your shorts ride up or are 3" inseam. So I prefer a longer short and I always try to make sure that they won't ride up by doing lots of moving about, squats to the floor and generally making a fool of myself in the store.

Another good rule of thumb, the more panels and tailoring in the shorts, the less likely they are to creep.

[susanm8048]

This might be a silly question, but do the tri shorts work for non-wet suit swims? Do they cause significant drag to slow you down through the water?

[Tri Girl]

No, the tri shorts don't cause too much extra drag on the swim. They're bike shorts, so they're really tight anyway. I have found that I need to get a tighter tri top than I would normally wear (and I mean skin tight). When wet, that puppy will hold some water, so the tighter the better (and once in the water, it stretches out and then it's not too tight for the rest of the tri- and it's not like anyone is checking out MY bod in a tri, so I don't worry about it if my rolls are more prominent than normal on race day anyway). Sorry, that was a mouthful.
Short answer: no they won't cause excessive drag, and yes they'll work for non wetsuit swims.

[susanm8048]

Thanks, Tri Girl.