Things are progressing towards my triathlon about 6 weeks away and I have realised 1 thing over the last weekend. Triathlons are expensive! The entry fee alone is almost $90 but I guess I have to eat that with this challenge. Considering its a run, a ride and a swim that’s three entry fees combined into one (at least that’s what I keep telling myself). The other thing that is expensive is the gear!

I went shopping on Saturday to get my tri gear and god damn! It is not cheap at all. 2 pieces of clothing set me back almost $160 with tax! Not cheap at all. If I had of thought of this earlier i probably could of saved money and bought it all through the web (and earned a boat load of more points in the process) but sadly my pre thinking did not happen and I wanted to try and get in some training before the big trip out to Osh next week. $160 for two pieces of clothing, what is so good about them… well this is what they look like:

As you can see, there isn’t much clothing there at all, and they definately don’t leave much to imagination. The clothes may not look like much, but god damn are they worth it! The shorts are designed so that you can run, swim and ride in them, so there is minimal padding in the groin region but just enough to keep you from wanting to kill things due to the pain. It’s also designed to dry off super quick, so that when you start to ride or run, you aren’t dripping wet. The downside to these are that they are super tight obviously and also the same with the top. It’s meant to be tight to cover you up and wick away any sweat etc, but that just makes it all the more hideous looking. I pity the people who will see me on race day!

So what makes them worth it other than how good they are? Well it’s amazing how well things go when you have something that actually works. My swimming time has dropped dramatically and the new goggles I got at the same time (since the other ones actually fell apart) have helped me get more focused and do really help. I don’t have to stop every few laps to fix the goggles on my face, they just work and with the new tri gear, since its tighter, it’s not slowing me down. My first swim way back when was 28 mins for the 30 laps. Today i smashed it out in 14 minutes! I may have been totally out of breath and shattered after, but doesn’t that mean I have had a good work out.

So I say sorry in advance to anyone that sees me in the tri gear, but it’s worth it dealing with how horrendous I look for the benefits it gives back