As we get into longer distances, past 4-5 hours on the bike, past 2 hours on the run, now is the time to check out your gear.

Bike:

• If your butt hurts, you may need a) different bike seat, b) new or different bike shorts, c) need to check bike fit, d) use or use more chamois butter (Assos cream on the high end).
• If feet hurt, check shoes and bike fit.
• If knees or other parts of the leg hurt, bike fit might be the issue.

Run:

• If you’re getting blisters, a different set of socks might be what you need. Don’t just get the “Ironman” brand and think they’re the ones you should be using!
• During the course of this year, you should have at least bought two pairs of shoes, likely three pairs of shoes and hopefully the same kind if they’ve been working for you. If you’re still on your first pair of running shoes from the beginning of the season, go buy another pair now!

Any other tips? This next month is a great time to lock-in on gear. You won’t notice much with gear in 2-3 hours on the bike or an hour on the run. You will notice it past 4 hours on the bike and 2 hours on the run.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 7th, 2006 at 8:23 pm and is filed under 2006 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.