3rd Day of Christmas: Three Visions of Sugarplums and Really Sweet Gear!

The third day of Christmas, and now I'm dreaming. Here is some of my dream gear. Remember, I have two little kids now, so I doubt I'll see these dreams come true for a while.

1. Power meter: I want a real, no-kidding power meter that works in all places and at all times. Right now, I use the "meter" that comes in the Kurt Kinetic wireless bike computer, and it calculates the power rather than measures the power. It works good enough for what I bought it for. But I want something that is always truly measuring the power and will give me the downloads of data for analyzing it like some freak scientist.

2. Computrainer: These look sooooooo AWESOME! I honestly have never had the opportunity to ride on one, but how could the theory go wrong. All reviews are that it is quite realistic. The premise is that the computer changes the difficulty of your trainer compared to the elevation and other factors of the course you are riding. You can make up courses with topo maps (ie the course you've ridden three times weekly for the past five years), or you can buy courses that also come with live video as if you were riding down the road.

3 Endless Pool: I have the place already picked out where this will be put in our yard and attached to the house. Now I just have to win the lottery! Wouldn't it be great to have this at home for a 30 minute swim every morning without the pain of dealing with a packed pool and the denizens of the local pool? I can only dream of this sort of thing!

4th Day of Christmas = Running Shoes

Running Shoes. This is one of those topics that is impossible to please everyone because there are so many opinions and scientific studies. I'm not going to get into the specifics about this other than to say I think you need four pairs of shoes.

Thus, Four Pairs of Shoes on the Fourth Day of Christmas.

1. Trainers: these are your every day, volume and tempo running shoes. They should be sturdy with padding to prevent injury.  I like the Nike Structure Triax 14 that I bought last year. They solved my calf muscle problem that I could never really pinpoint a cause of. When choosing your trainer, this is where you get into the types of shoes for pronating and such. Below is a good video on the subject (found on Triathlete.com today!).

2. Race Shoes / Sprint workouts:  First off, let me tell you that I don't have a pair of race shoes like this, simply because I haven't moved them up the financial priority list (ie I don't have the money!). These are the shoes that are specially made for racing; they are light, easy to slip on in transition, and provide minimal padding. Not only are they race shoes, but you should probably run in them occassionally during the year, probably during sprint workouts or 2-3 race distance tempo runs each month so you know that your body "likes" them and they don't cause injury. Some of them look pretty cool, too.

3. Trail Shoes: I like trail running, and trail shoes can make a bit of a difference. If you think you'll be doing a fair amount of trail running in your training year, go ahead and get a pair of trail shoes instead of wearing your road shoes on the trails. I find that the biggest problem with the road shoes on the trail is that the tread gets eaten up pretty quickly. Stability and such is a long-second to simply getting my road shoes beat up too much.

4. Miscellaneous Shoes: All my used shoes turn into miscellaneous shoes. These are the beat-up shoes that are too worn down to run in but can provide basic shoe functions during other activities. The first option is gym shoes, like during a quick weight lifting routine. Or, they can be the shoes I throw on to ride bike with the kids. Some shoes turn into lawn-mowing shoes and get the green-grass-stain treatment. They could also be your first wet-wading shoes for fly-fishing or a pair of very light hikers, but I recommend some real water-shoes or hiking boots for those tasks. Don't forget that charities take shoes, too!

5th Day of Christmas = Headphones (that work for triathlon!)

I've had a lot of trouble finding useful headphones that work for triathlon workouts. I'm talking about big-sweat-fests on the trainer and long runs where I need some mental stimulation.  I prefer bluetooth simply to get rid of the cords.

Here are five headphones for you to check-out, in order of usefullness.

I currently am using a pair of Jayfree Freedom headphones. I like them the best of all the bluetooth headphones I've tried, but they still aren't perfect. I haven't run with them because I'm not doing long nine-milers right now and I only recently got them a couple months ago. They fit snugly in my ear during long bike rides and require minimal fidgeting.  If you're going to get a pair of bluetooth headphones, I recommend these, if only for the sweat-proof guarantee.  I also like the wire that connects the earbuds because it is fairly flexible. Someday they'll come up with headphones that don't need to be attached to each other, and then I'll finally be happy. Finally, the box these come in and the carrying case are a bit over the top for me.....cut the price by $15 and skip the packaging bling for happier customers.

Second in line are the Backbeats. I like these for driving and listening to movies at home on the computer, but I don't recommend them for triathlon (although if you must, they would probably work). Like the Freedoms, the wire between them makes them much more comfortable and flexible than the S-9's.

Third is the Motorola S-10s, theoretically an upgrade from the S-9's. I had three pair of S-9's, all of which shorted out.  These are ok for driving or office-work but I can't recommend them for anything related to triathlon.

Here are some swimming MP3 players. I haven't tried them.  I talked to one person at the pool who had them (the Finis) on, and she was happy with them. I can't see them staying on after a hard push from the wall. I suppose if you are doing only kicks, they would work ok.  I think you should focus on your swim technique instead of music during swim workouts. But here are two options for you....

$79.95 for Fitness Technologies @ Swim Outlet

    

$134.90 for Finis SwiMP3 at Amazon.com  

6th Day of Christmas: Hammer Nutrition

I haven't tried all of the different brands of nutrition and energy, mostly because the first time I was tired and then had a shot of Hammer gel, I was AMAZED at the near-immediate shot of energy. I thought it was truly incredible. Thus, I haven't gone anywhere else since then.

On a different note about the company, I have to say that it's refreshing to see their print catalog with all the employees in it. It just seems like the people at this company are my kind of people, into fitness and love of the outdoors.  That leads to AWESOME CUSTOMER SERVICE....give them a call to see what I mean.

So, on your sixth day of Christmas, get six products from Hammer at http://www.hammernutrition.com/.

*** I don't make any money off the products linked below. This is stuff I have and use and like enough to recommend it to you.***

If you've never used Hammer Nutrition before, I recommend you go with the starter course, which is a way of saying "sampler." But it's all good stuff. And DEFINITELY READ THE BOOK that comes with it; sure, it's part propaganda (ie "sales pitch,") but it's an excellent starter for information on the physiology and all the things happening in your body during an event and how good nutrition plays a part. There is also long-course starter kit.

Go with six different flavors of gel. Get the individual serving packets if you're just trying it out, and then move to the bottles when you know which ones you like (I heard that Santa likes Huckleberry and Raspberry!). 

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Go with six different flavors of HEED for on the fluid replacement. I find Gatorade and many others to be too thick and sugary. I water-down the HEED a bit, too, but not much.

Personally, I'm a fan of the straweberry flavor, but there wasn't a picture of that! HEED comes in strawberry, lemon-lime (too much flavor for me!), mandarin orange (ok by me), melon (never had it) and unflavored (and untried by me). 

If you are doing distances beyond Olympic (or significantly beyond two hours), you'll need some Perpetuem.  Yes, there really is difference on the athlete's side when it comes to using different products for different race lengths. When I did the Pocatello 50 race-leg a few years ago, it took four hours of running and I could feel the difference when I had some Perpetuem. I don't use this for anything beyond 2.5 hours. There really is a cut-off point or wall or whatever you want to call it right past the two-hour mark. You can push through that if you aren't going much past the two hours, but if you plan more than 2.5 hours, then plan for some Perpetuem.

Recovery is such a critical component of the training cycle, and wouldn't you know it....Hammer has a product just for that! Recoverite (get it? Recover...Right?..as in "correctly?"  ha ha, it only two me a couple years to finally figure it out!).  Anyway, this is good stuff but a bit on the expensive side. I use it maybe three times a week during the build phase, after the really hard workouts.  I also take three servings right after a race because it simply helps the recovery process. 

Endurolytes are great for those really hot summer days. I don't use them alot because it doesn't really get scorching hot here in southeast Idaho. But I know when I'll need them, and when I do use them they definitely can prevent bonking.  

7th Day of Christmas: Bike Tools sets from Park Tools

Bikes need maintenance. Good maintenance requires tools.

Get the tools you need to start at home in this tool set from Park.

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Park Tool Home Mechanic Starter Kit - SK-1

by Park Tool

3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews) | Like(0)

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List Price: $123.38 Price: $75.00 & eligible for FREE Two-Day Shipping with Amazon Prime. Complete your free trial sign up at checkout. You Save: $48.38 (39%)

8th Day of Christmas: Technical T-shirts

I love the Champion technical t-shirts available at Target. They are good quality (not great, but will last several years of big sweating). You can usually find them for $12-$15 regular price, sometimes down to $7 each if you get a good coupon.  Long-sleeves go for a couple more bucks..... get a couple of those, too, for the cool/cold days wherever you live.

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Sale Price$12.99 
C9 by Champion® Men's Short-Sleeve Pieced Tech Tee -buy one, get one 50% offSpend $50, get free shipping

9th Day of Christmas: All the Sufferfest! Videos

The Sufferfest! They are great videos with great tunes that will take you to great workouts! All digital downloads; no discs to worry about and take up space, and they are easy to transfer to your phone or other device to view (instead of firing up your computer for every workout).

Get all nine for $84.99!

Not sure which one? Buy the SUFFERFEST NINE PACK

All nine of our videos for $84.99 USD instead of $102! Videos included in the Sufferfest Nine-Pack Bundle: Downward Spiral, Revolver, Fight Club, Angels, The Hunted, Local Hero, A Very Dark Place, Hell Hath No Fury and Extra Shot. Group edition includes all videos (except for Extra Shot) for $179.99 (save $20!).

Nine videos for individual use - $84.99 (Save $18!)	Eight videos for Group & Class use - $179.99 (Save $20!) (HHNF not available yet)