How to Transition in a Triathlon

Transcripts

Leslie Williams: I am Leslie Williams, a triathlete and I am here to teach you about training for triathlon. Now it is time to discuss transitions. When you set up a transition zone the first thing is that we need to have a bag that contains all of our gear. You set up this bag the night before the race day that when you get to the race you know you have everything in this bag that you could possibly need. There are lots of compartments to hold out your stuff, so when you get to the race it should be a quick and easy job. You just lay out everything that you need for your race. Start out with a transition towel, this towel is not a beach towel, it is about three times the size of the hand towel and everything that you bring with you needs to fit on this towel, including your transition bag. Then you just start pulling everything out that you have loaded in the night before, that includes your running shoes and socks, your swim cap, your race number, your goggles, your hat, a little towel in case you need to clean up anything. You have also got in your transition bag, your bike shoes, your helmet, very important, you cannot race without a helmet and another pocket, all the little things that you need, our gloves extra pair of Yankz if you need them, sunscreen, glasses and finally we have a pocket just for nutrition, endurolyte, food, more sunscreen, water bottles, aquaphor or whatever protection for chafing that you use just in case you have got it and then at the bottom we pull out the wetsuit and of course we already have our bike behind us.

Now it's a little messy here, so what you are going to want to do is you are going to want to lay this out in a manner that makes sense for you. Everyone will lay out a transition zone differently. The first thing we want to do is know that our wetsuit, our race cap, and our goggles are not going to be on the transition towel at first. What you are going to have on the transition towel is your food, everything you need for the bike and everything you need for the run. Then it is just a matter of setting it up in a manner that makes sense to you. You want everything laid out quick and easy so that all you have to do is run up pull on your race belt and away you go.

Once you get everything laid out the way you want it to be laid out, you can pull off anything that you decide at the last minute that you are not going to use. You dont need the sunscreen, you probably have already used these, you dont need the extra Yanks, they all go back into the transition bag. If you dont use the extra towel back in the transition bag, your nutrition should be put into your Bento box on your bike, so it is not going to be on your transition towel. The only thing that should be here I think that you are going to use during the race, very clean, very minimal, once you have got some endurolyte, if you use these, put them back into the transition bag. And then the transition bag, put all this away, transition bag will go on the transition towel as well and now you have very nice contained small space, you have got your wet suit here and you are ready to race.

Next we will talk about reaching your goal, race day.