What Do I Wear During A Sprint Triathlon?
Saturday, November 7, 2009 23:24I am participating in a sprint triathlon in Texas this weekend. It is an open water swim with temps around 72-75 degrees F. What should I wear? Just a pair of bike or tri shorts? Should I wear a shirt during the swim?
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rwd says:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:55 am
What you wear kind of depends on what kind of swimmer you are. If you are not going to wear a wetsuit, the water will be brisk, but bearable (unless you are the type that chills easily).
Should you wear a shirt? It depends on the type. I wouldn’t consider wearing anything but a tight-fitting tri-top. Anything else will introduce too much drag. Also, if you have never worn a tri-top swimming, don’t do it for the first time in a race. Too many opportunities for surprises — like the possibility of chafing.
Tri-shorts will be better than bike shorts, since the pad won’t absorb as much water. Since the ride will be short, you won’t miss the bigger pad.
Whether you wear a shirt on the bike and/or run is up to you. Have you done any of your workouts shirtless? (Again — you don’t want to try anything new on race day.) What will the air temperature be that day? Will you be prone to severe sunburn?
I just finished a race series over the summer that consisted of a sprint, Olympic, and 1/2 IM. I wore the same thing for each: tri-top and tri-shorts. (Oh, yeah, I also wore a bra, but I’m assuming you won’t need that.) In the Olympic I went without my wetsuit, and rubbed the inside of my arms raw during the swim. Watch out for that! In sprint in late spring, I wore a swim suit (before I got the tri gear) and added a cycling jersey in T1 because the air temp was cool. I would rather struggle a few seconds in T1 putting on a jersey than try to swim with it on.