Plainsman

Well, I've been going on about my first Triathlon, and training is going well. However, unless about 2/3 of the pack mysteriously vanishes before the end of the race I see no chance of winning. Fine, since that isn't my goal. Still, I'm competitive with myself, and want the best time possible, so I'm looking to transitions to pick up spare seconds.

Do any of you put on cycling gloves for a sprint tri? I was surprised yesteday at how many seconds it took to put them on, and more so to take them off. I'm on a road bike with shorty bars, and my hands get pretty sore if I don't have gloves on (unwrapped bar extensions). I guess I could use some type of gel wrap on the aero bars to soften the grip a bit? Thoughts?

chrisesposito

For a sprint, no gloves, no socks for me. You might also practice your T1 a few times, timing each one.

Plainsman

These Jammer GT bars are pretty small. I hate to buy a whole gel wrap. Think tennis raquet wrap would work as well? Anyone tried it?

Psydotek

Generally for a sprint (or even olympic distance), no gloves and no socks is what most people do. I'll throw on gloves and socks though because i go faster when i'm comfortable.

Plainsman

Perhaps a dumb question, but what do damp feet do to cycling shoes, or better yet, what do 15 hard miles do to bare feet?

rplong

Like the guys have said before, no socks or gloves for short distance. As for the grip, wrap around here is 10 bucks. If it takes you 10 seconds to take them on and off for T1 and T2 in an event (20 total), and you do 5 events this year with those gloves, it will be 100 seconds. So about 10 cents a seconds. Does it seem that expensive? That 20 seconds won't push you from the back 1/3 to the front 1/3, but it will make a difference. Good luck.

Fivetenfrank

+3 on no gloves and socks for a sprint

You should practice running without socks to see how blister tolerant you are.

i am curious to know why your hands get sore on jammers. You'e not putting aot of weight on your hands in the aero position. I could see if your were riding in the drops 100% of the time- that would explain the soreness.

Maybe you invest in a good fit by an LBS that specializes in triathlon

SaabFan

Pull your gloves down over the ends of the aero extensions, or up on the ends of your drops if your aero bars are linked. Then, you can put the gloves on while you're biking away, instead of while you're standing still in T1.

FWIW, I don't wear gloves at all, unless it's really cold. My bars are wrapped, but only with super-thin budget tape for grip, no padding at all. Like others have said, if you're putting that much pressure on your hands, you might want to evaluate your position. When you're on the aero bars, your weight should be on the elbow pads, not your hands.

Plainsman

Thanks all. Soreness might not be the right term then. More likely, I have a habit of tightly gripping the ends. Without tape, hands on bare metal feels less than comfortable after a while. To be honest, that's an impression very quickly formed, because 99.9% of the time I wear gloves. In any case, I've made the decision to ditch the gloves and go for some bar wrap.

About this blister tolerance thing. I'm all for the idea of sockless, but with my first tri only two weeks away, is that too close to experiment now? I would hate to train sockless this week, and go into race week with brand new blisters.

rplong

Just run a mile w/o socks to see how you feet react. People have said it before and I try to stick with it, 'don't try anything new on race day'. If your feet are super sensitive, and you think it will make you uncomfortable, don't risk it, just train with socks and try it for your next race. On the other hand, if the run is 3 miles to 5k, you probably won't even notice a blister forming until the end, and you will be so happy to finish it won't matter! If you get a blister pre race, just lance it, leave the skin on and dry it out. Or at least that is what I do.

Jstyle

I would hit a little more then a mile to practice sockless but then again your prolly only doing a 5k for the run so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

rplong

Plainsman, I saw in your other post that you did your tri last week. How did it go, what did you do??

slim_77

1. nothing, they are well vented. 2. depends upon your feet...try em out. There is a good distance from T1 to the street and that is plenty of time (seconds) to slip some gloves on if you really need them. Socks...well, I dunno. If you have decent shoes your feet should be fine w/o socks...

slim_77

nevermind...yeah, how did it go???

Plainsman

It was an incredible experience! I skipped the grip stuff (good idea), put on socks (BAD idea -wet feet + too much adrenaline + 1st time = LONG T1 time. I pretty much made my goal time though. The facilities were great, the folks I met were extra helpful, but most importantly I had a blast. Sure, made some newbie mistakes that I will work on for the next one, had too much left in the tank when I finished (could have pushed a little more). but still it was enough to get me hooked. I'm now training for my second sprint in May, which will be an open water swim. Now that I know what to expect I hope to really ramp up my training. Looks like running is still where I need to work, even though my 5k time has dropped almost 12 minutes since I started training in January (Yes, I was reaaaalllllyyyy slooooowwww then. Now I'm just moderately slow) I really appreciate all the good advice you have all supplied. Thanks!

Goku

Congrats man!