Athletes toolbox

Thanks to my cousin Jessy I get to talk more about racing. Thanks, Jess! She specifically asked about three things: Chips, Speed Laces, and Gels.

Chips, or timing chips, are little electronic devices that are strapped to your ankle with velcro. It's coded to your bib number and knows everything about you that pertains to race day. Your name, how old you are, and your gender. When the race begins, whether it's running or triathlon, the "gun" goes off. But not everyone crosses the start at the same time. When the athlete moves past a sensor, the chip signals the offical start time for that person. The clock is running. In triathlon, there are offical times for the swim, transition 1 (from swim to bike), the bike, transition 2 (from bike to run) and finally the run. Chip readers are located at entry and exit points for each event. In my previous post I mentioned someone called my name when I came out of the water. When I passed the sensor, my name came up on a laptop and that's how they knew who I was. Mystery solved!


Speed laces are miracles of elastic. I use Yankz! brand shoe laces. They replace regular tie shoe laces with pre-tied stretchy ones. I had to get my PhD in shoe tying to lace them correctly but the video got me through. I just slip my running shoes on and off I go. Brilliant.




I could devote a whole post to race day and training nutrition but I'll stick to the gels to keep it short. For Mooseman I used Powerbar brand gels. It's a small packet of sweet stuff that has 110 calories and 27g of carbohydrates. The chocolate flavor has the consistency of canned frosting but the vanilla is more pudding-like. It's slightly less sweet than those two items. Gels are designed to fuel you up on the go without giving you a bellyache. You tear off the tab, squish it into your mouth and wash down with some water. Sounds gross but working hard makes everything taste delicious. I am able to tuck the packets under the elastic of each leg of my bicycle shorts. It doesn't slip and I can grab and eat it while I'm riding.

There's a multitude of supplements but I'll save that for another post. Powerbar is a great resource and their products are tasty, too. I also use Clif brand products. They are super yummy, high energy food.

I hope that helps explain some things. I think I know about less than 1% of all the products available for athletes but I'm always learning. I'm still training for the half iron and even though I worry about making it through I'll keep at it.

Best,
Annette