Attire?

[betagirl]

So, I have a question about what to wear the day of. I see TE has "tri specific" stuff. I have a pile of bike clothes, including tanks so I think I'm ok there. What the heck do you swim in? I have a 1 piece swimsuit that would be fine for the swim, but from what I gather you pop out of the water and hop on your bike after putting on shoes and your helmet. I could throw the tank jersey on over the swimsuit, that's fine. My question is shorts. Just throw them on over the swimsuit? I see tri shorts with "multisport" chamois. Do you swim in these?

Can someone break this down for me please?

I'm only doing the swim and bike, so the run stuff doesn't really apply at this point.

Thanks!

[Tri Girl]

I've worn tri specific shorts (less of a chamois to get all soaked in the swim) and a tri tank for up to a half IM distance. I just swim in my tank and shorts and then hop on the bike for the remainder of the race. Everyone is different, of course, so just find what works best for you. Most people can swim and bike in the same outfit w/out a problem. They even make tri swimsuits that have some padding in the right place. I just can't imagine riding my bike in that- oh the chaffing the nose of my saddle would do to the inside of my thighs...let alone the horror riding around in my swimsuit would cause spectators...

[Tri Girl]

Oh- and welcome to aquabiking (and maybe even triathloning one day).

[LynneK]

I wear a trisuit from Jam Trisuits (www.jamtrisuits.com) for all three legs. The fabric is very lycra-rich, so it sucks you in and at least makes you feel like you're more aerodynamic (!), and it is cut so that you have a lot of range of motion in your shoulders. The padding is fairly thin and drains really nicely after the swim, or doesn't retain moisture to begin with, so I've never had a chafing problem. I thought I might, because I'm a bit of a princess-and-the-pea with my saddle and feeling the road, but it's never been a problem.

[betagirl]

Cool, thanks for the info!

[EBD]

I just bought a tri-specific tank and shorts, but I did my first 4 or 5 sprints without. Just swam in my speedo tank suit, then put on bike shorts and jersey over the swimsuit. You don't even need the top - I just liked having the pockets for my gel. This makes for a slower transition, but it doesn't really take that long to throw on bike shorts. It CAN be slow if you try to haul your bike jersey on over your wet self and get your head stuck inside and you can't see anything and you're standing on one shoe-ed foot and one bare foot and your adrenaline-addled brain is soooo . . . confused . . .

Or maybe that's just my transitions.

[Lise]

Oh, dear, EBD has described my transitions very well...!

As others have said, the idea of riding in a bathing suit is awful. OWCH! But I see the pros do it all the time. I always ride with some sort of chamois. For tris with pool swims, I wear a Sugoi tri suit. For open water swims, I wear a running bra and tri shorts under a sleeveless, short-legged wetsuit. Take off the wet suit, pull on a jersey, get on the bike and go.

The only reason I don't wear the tri suit in every tri is that it is too form fitting. Aerodynamic, yes Photo ready? No! Vanity, vanity, all is vanity...

But a sleek gal like yourself, beta, might find a tri suit just right.