The clothes make the man – in triathlon at least

There are loads of sayings and little snippets of advice that involve the threads we wear. “The clothes make the man,” “Dress to impress,” “Wolf in sheep’s clothing,” “The emperor’s new clothes,” “Dressed to kill,” and “Dress for the job you want, not the one you’ve got”…

I’ve always had a bit of a basic, whatever-fits approach to training and working out attire but, over the past couple of years, that has changed significantly.

It was 18 months or so ago, at a big race, that I was chatting to a really top age grouper (sub-9 hour IM guy, it turned out). We were both smugly ridiculing the hundreds of all-the-gear-and-no-idea racers who, by the looks of them, had spent more time shopping at the expo than doing any training; the result being that they all now looked the same – same warm-up pants, same ‘cool’ jacket, same branded visor…

I mentioned to the guy I was chatting to (Norweigan fella, if that helps you paint the picture more clearly) that I just tended to grab any old crap in sports shop sales and mix and match for training. “No, no, no, Matt – that won’t do at all!” he said to me completely seriously, before dishing out the triathlon sartorial advice that I now follow without question (with one exception but that’s coming up…).

His advice was that you should have one or two sets of good quality swim gear, bike wear, and run kit. You don’t need all the fancy track suits, triathlon t-shirts, race visors… you don’t need a wardrobe that looks like a rainbow threw up I it, stuffed with 20 different TdF team bike kits. But one or two good, good quality changes for each sport.

This wasn’t to look good. This wasn’t about saving money (although, ultimately, once I started buying one good pair of bike bib shorts rather than 5 sets of cheap, rubbish shorts, I did save money in the long-term). The reasoning went a little something like this:

·         If you dress like a cyclist, you’ll be treated like a cyclist

·         If you’re treated like a cyclist, you’ll feel like a cyclist

·         If you feel like a cyclist, you’ll train and ride like a cyclist

·         If you train and ride like a cyclist, you’ll become a better triathlete

(Obviously, the same applies to swimming and running too.)

I also find that this process has helped me mentally. When I head to a run workout now, I dress and feel like a runner and, therefore, I push myself to compete with other runners, rather than thinking “well, hey, I’m a triathlete so I don’t have to be quite as good as the rest of these guys…”

With all this in mind, here are some simple tips to get you started:

·         When you wear your goggles around your neck before or after a swim session, you might be thinking “useful and won’t lose them” but all the swimmers are thinking “tool”.

·         ­Unless you’re an Olympic hopeful in the pool or are clocking 25km or more a week in an ITU-style training schedule, the above applies to taking flippers to the pool.

·         Tri suits are for tri races – not bike rides.

·         Tri suits are for tri races – not running races.

But there’s more to this than not looking like an idiot and improving your training. You see, the proper sport-specific kit is almost always the best and most comfortable thing to wear.

As I said earlier, I’ve been sticking rigidly to this ‘dress for the occasion’ principle now for a good 18 months. Except once: my first bike ride after moving to Amsterdam.

I knew it was cold, a little wet – certainly different conditions to those I was used to experiencing in Dubai. But I didn’t need any of those fancy, expensive winter biking clothes, I decided – with all their waterproof this and windproof that. I layered up with what I had, put on a pair of woolly mittens and headed out for what proved to be 90 of the most unpleasant and painful minutes that I can remember. By the time it started raining – and we were a bit lost and 45 minutes at least from home – I’d decided that crawling under a tree to have a little cry would be the best course of action; however, my hands were too cold to actually press on the brakes to stop, so I just had to keep pedalling.

Before: a bit cold

The next time I went out, my road bike was sporting mud guards and I was kitted out in shoe covers, fleece-lined long bike knicks, a proper windproof jacket (with waterproof in the back pocket) and windproof and waterproof lobster claw cycling gloves. The 2 hour ride was a cosy delight.

After: wrapped up, toasty and ready to ride.

Lesson learned - being unsuitably attired is not a mistake I will be making again. It’s not vanity, it’s not showing-off – it’s just the best way to make sure you don’t end your ride weeping under a big tree…