Over the past three months, I have been training on and off with the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro. This is one of the newest watches from Amazfit, and it is supposed to be able to do it all. Whether you’re a trail junkie who needs a rugged watch for your off-road runs and rides, or a triathlete who sticks to the comforts of smooth roads and calm pools in training, the T-Rex 3 Pro should have you covered.

And, for the most part, it does. If I were to sum up my experience with this watch, I’d say it was just fine. Nothing more, nothing less. I wanted to love it, but if I’m being honest, this is not a product that I would end up purchasing myself. Here’s why.

Tracking Workouts with the T-Rex 3 Pro

My first few workouts with the T-Rex 3 Pro were pool swims. Similarly to my tests with the Amazfit Balance 2, this watch was not great in the water. It took only a few laps for the T-Rex to short me on my distance tally. In multiple 2,500-metre swims, it never recorded more than 2,000 metres.

To be fair, there were a couple hundred metres of kick in each of those workouts, and many GPS watches tend to miss that part of pool swims. However, I don’t know where the other few hundred metres of my swims disappeared to. They were standard swims with nothing fancy — mostly freestyle — but the watch consistently missed full laps.

You’re not likely to buy a watch specifically to take it for pool swims, so my opinion of the T-Rex was not decided by those workouts. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, any open water near where I live in Canada is still quite cold, so I have not been able to take the T-Rex for any outdoor swims. I have, however, taken it on plenty of outdoor rides and runs, so let’s get to those.

Firstly, the watch took its time acquiring a GPS signal for every run and ride. There were times when I got tired of waiting around and started running or biking without the watch recording. The T-Rex 3 Pro always caught up and made that GPS connection eventually, but on a couple of occasions, five whole minutes passed before the watch told me it was ready to record.

Whenever the watch did finally connect to GPS, it was quite accurate with its recordings. I made sure to go on routes for which I knew the exact distances, and I also wore a rival company’s watch that I know to be very accurate with its GPS tracking.

Other than the few times when I started riding or running before the watch was tracking me (which meant it of course missed mileage in the final recording), the T-Rex 3 Pro was always bang-on with the distances. It matched the other watch, and they were both true to the route distances that I had anticipated before the workouts.

That’s a big pro for this watch, especially for the trail community for whom it is designed. No matter where you’re riding or running, you want the best and most accurate tracking. The T-Rex 3 Pro will give you that. 

The Cons of the T-Rex 3 Pro

There were several other negatives that came with this watch. These may not be deal-breakers for other athletes, but personally, I don’t want to have to worry about my watch glitching out on me before, during or after a workout — and that is exactly what happened on multiple occasions.

Firstly, the watch screen locks during workouts. This is a feature included in many sport watches, and it’s one I can get behind. This way, if you accidentally touch the screen, you won’t unintentionally pause, end or disrupt the recording. It’s the way that you unlock the T-Rex 3 Pro that frustrated me.

With other watches I’ve used, you maybe have to hold a button down to unlock it, but the T-Rex requires you to double-tap the screen. When this works, it’s way quicker and simpler than those other watches with the button-holding, but the issue is that it didn’t work quite a few times. This left me unable to stop the recording between sets, at coffee stops on rides, or for whatever other reason. Any triathlete can imagine just how annoying that is to watch the time tick by when you’re resting and not moving, therefore skewing your final workout metrics.

Another issue I ran into was actually caused by this glitch, at least initially. I had taken the watch for a run, and when I was finished, I couldn’t unlock the screen to end the session. I tried for several minutes, but ultimately gave up and left the watch on my bedside table, where I forgot about it and the unfinished workout for a bit.

Cut to the middle of the night a couple of days later and I was awoken by the watch speaking to me. It was telling me the final workout totals before it shut off. (The battery drained quicker than usual since it was recording a run that entire time.) This didn’t seem like a big deal, but in the subsequent workouts, it came back to be a much bigger annoyance that has persisted since then.

My next session was a bike ride. It recorded it just fine the whole way through, but when I ended the workout, I got a report from that run that I never wrapped up. Instead of a 90-minute bike ride, the watch told me about my 34-hour run (it died just after the 34-hour mark) from more than a week earlier.

This was sort of strange at the time, but I shrugged it off. That is, until my next workout, which was a three-mile run. Once again, it tracked just fine during the run, but when I completed it, I got a report for those same 34 hours during which I couldn’t end that other run. This has been an ongoing issue that hasn’t resolved itself, even after I cleared the watch’s workout history.

All watch and tech companies have products that suffer glitches, and they are often fixed by doing a system reset or update. Ultimately, that isn’t the biggest deal, but at the same time, it’s an annoyance that Amazfit patrons would of course rather not have to deal with.

More Pros of the T-Rex

There is one more big positive that comes with the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro, and that is its tremendous battery life. As I’ve said, the watch recorded that one run for 34 hours before tapping out and dying, and it hadn’t been at a full charge before I started the recording.

There were stretches when I was using other watches and I didn’t touch this one for two weeks or more at a time. I eventually went back to the T-Rex to find it still with plenty of life left. This is of course when it wasn’t being used at all, but even so, that’s impressive. The watch comes in two face sizes (44 mm and 48 mm), with the smaller of the two boasting 17 days of battery life and the larger lasting up to 25 days on a single charge.

The Verdict

The cons I’ve listed may very well be nit-picky. Maybe I’m not patient enough and should chill out a bit while my watch tries to locate a GPS signal before workouts. Likewise, maybe I’m too easily annoyed by a slight glitch like the watch screen not unlocking when I want it to. Perhaps a factory reset on the watch isn’t too much to ask to fix a technical error like the recurring case of the 34-hour run.

In my opinion, though, if you’re spending hundreds of dollars on a sports watch (the T-Rex 3 Pro retails for $399), you shouldn’t have to put up with silly issues like these ones. I’ve used many watches that connect to GPS in seconds, I’ve never had an issue unlocking my watches and I have most certainly not been required to reset everything to fix a bug in any other watch. The watch does some things very well, but I don’t know if that’s worth the negatives you’ll have to put up with.

The post Watch Review: Neither Good nor Bad, the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro Is Just Fine first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

If you’re new to triathlon and swimming, you may have noticed your fellow athletes at the pool or at races using bands to warm up and wondered if that’s something you should try. The short answer is: yes, bands are are a great way to get your shoulders, back and other muscles warm before jumping into the water. You can also use bands for full-on workouts if you cannot get to the pool. Slowtwitch spoke with former collegiate swimmer and current swim coach Ben Russell to get his take on band warmups, band swim workout alternatives and more for triathletes.

The Importance of Warming up

Russell swam at NYU and, after graduation, he stayed in New York City, where he now coaches the Red Tide masters swim club. The club has more than 200 members who can swim together up to seven times each week, with Russell (who is the club’s head coach), or one of the other Red Tide coaches as the on-deck lead.

Like any good coach, Russell highlights the importance of doing a good warmup before each workout. When it comes to bands, he says you don’t have to do all that much to get your body ready before diving into the pool.

“It can be a very quick five- or 10-minute thing,” he says. “You’re just trying to get some blood flow to your arms and through your shoulders to get ready to swim.”

Russell adds that hitting your lats in this band warmup is a good idea, too, especially if you’re swimming freestyle (which is, of course, the stroke of choice for most triathletes).

“Warming up is important no matter where you’re swimming, but especially if you’re doing open water, [because] you might take an awkward stroke or something, which could tweak or pull a muscle,” he says.

Bands and Other Warmup Tools

Russell says that bands are great to use for warmups, but he has a different tool that he uses first up before his swims.

“I get a PVC pipe and take it from in front of my body to behind my body,” he says. “As I do that and my shoulders start loosening up a little more, I start moving my hands closer and closer together along the pipe, just to kind of loosen up my shoulders a little bit before starting anything else.”

If you’re having trouble picturing that move, it’s quite simple. Your arms are in front with your hands spread out wide on the pipe, then you lift straight up, over your head and then slightly behind you. Don’t force your arms back, just go far enough so you feel a stretch in your shoulders.

With that move done, Russell says it’s time to move on to your bands. But what kind should you get? There are a lot of options on the market, and they are available in many different tensions. Russell says you want a band that is “pretty loose” for the purpose of warmups.

“You want to feel some strain, but it’s not like you’re trying to build muscle,” he says. “It’s just waking things up a little bit.”

With that low-tension band, Russell first starts by taking it in both hands and holding his arms out straight so that “it’s like you’re making a T with your body.”

From there, you bend at one elbow until your arm is at 90 degrees. Next, keeping your arm out straight from shoulder to elbow, rotate down so your hand goes from pointing up to pointing forward, than rotate back up. Do this movement 10 or so times, then repeat on the other arm.

Russell’s next recommendation is the same move (arm bent at 90 degrees and rotating down and back up), but with a repositioned stationary arm. For this move, instead of holding your one arm out straight, you’ll keep it down at your side so that the band crosses your body from one hip up to the opposite shoulder.

“This is working down your arm a little bit,” Russell says. “It’s more of an activation through your whole arm.”

Russell’s last suggestion for this banded warmup requires a pole. (The pole that holds the flags at the end of the lane works well for this.) Start by putting the band around the pole, then hold it on either side. Russell says to bend at your waist to about 120 degrees (down but not all the way to 90), then pull the band down to your sides.

“It’s almost like the butterfly stroke when you’re underwater,” he says. This will help activate your lats before you hop into the pool.

Your upper body may be warmed up at this point, but Russell notes that you can’t neglect your legs. He says simply doing some leg swings while on the deck can help to “loosen up the hips” and get you ready to go.

Finally, he adds that this is only the first part of your warmup and that it doesn’t mean you’re ready to swim at full speed as soon as you hit the water. The first chunk of your swim should still be dedicated to slower pacing, drills, kick and whatever else you use to ease into your workouts.

Dry-Land Training

Sometimes your life will get busy and for whatever reason, you won’t be able to get to the pool for your swim sessions. If you have a band, however, you can still fit in an alternative workout that will at least keep you in swimming fitness.

For these workouts, you’ll want something with a bit more tension than the bands you’ll use in warmups. There are also bands you can buy that have handles, which make it easier to use for swim-specific training and moves.

As Russell says, these workouts will mainly focus on the catch section (when you’re pulling the water) of your stroke. You can certainly go through the motion of doing your full stroke, but the emphasis and most of the focus should be put on the catch.

“You can go back to that lat activation I mentioned for a warmup, just with a slightly stronger band,” Russell says. If you have a pole you can use at home our outside (for example, the post of a basketball hoop), this will work great. You can also get bands that can be anchored to doors, which will allow you to do these at home, at hotels or wherever else you’re trying to fit a workout in.

Russell says you can do one of two movements here. First is one arm at a time (like freestyle) or two arms at once (like butterfly). You can also focus on one arm for however many reps, then move to the other arm, or you can simulate your regular freestyle stroke motion and go from one arm right into the next continuously.

While this is a swimming alternative, you’re not going to get the exact same benefits of a swim. Russell says not to go into this trying to get any sort of cardio done, but rather to look at it solely as a strength routine.

“If you did six to 10 45-second to one-minute sets where you’re really intentional with each pull, that’ll keep you in a good place,” Russell says. That’s quite a quick workout, but it will still help to maintain and even develop more strength in your arms and back, helping you prevent too much loss of fitness during your time away from the pool. Don’t expect to swim well if you never touch the water and only do at-home band workouts, but when you’re in a pinch, this is a great alternative.

The post Beginner Training: How You Can Use Bands for a Better Swim first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Twenty top pro women hit a hot and hilly course in Pamplona, Spain, on Saturday as the T100 Triathlon World Tour made its third stop of 2026. Georgia Taylor-Brown took the win in 3:38:03 in this women-only pro race, taking home her first victory on the T100 tour. Switzerland’s Julie Derron finished 1:19 back in second, while American Taylor Spivey rounded things out in third, also recording a milestone as she secured her first-ever T100 podium finish.

Waugh Misses the Race

Reigning T100 world champion Kate Waugh of Great Britain made waves before the race in Spain, but not in the way she would have hoped, as a calf injury forced her to skip the event. That makes two missed T100 events in a row for the the Brit, as she also didn’t race the season opener in Gold Coast, Australia.

A second race with no points for Waugh is a big blow to her hopes of defending her world championship title. In 2025, she raced seven times on the T100 circuit, and there were nine races available to her and the other pro women and men. This year, the series was cut down significantly, and while there are still nine races on the pro calendar overall, four are women-only events, another four solely feature men, and only one — the T100 finale in Qatar — will see both men and women on the start line.

This pared-down schedule required the T100 to adjust the scoring system for the year-end rankings. In 2025, athletes earned points from their five best races on the year, but this season, their ranking will be determined by just four events. With only three races to go for the women in 2026, Waugh will not be able to maximize her points total, which will make it difficult to defend her T100 crown.

Perez Sala’s Early Lead

Back to the women who did race in Spain. It was home-country favourite Sara Perez Sala who led most of the way in the water on Saturday. The swim was a two-lap affair in the Alloz Reservoir, and Perez Sala (who was third at T100 Wollongong last year) took charge at the front of the pack early on. After exiting the water and starting the second lap in first, she carried that lead through to T1.

A long string of women followed Perez Sala out of the reservoir, with Spivey right on her heels just a second back. Great Britain’s Sophie Evans, Taylor-Brown and Holly Lawrence were also in the mix, as well as Derron, the 2025 T100 series runner-up.

All in all, there were 12 women within 24 seconds of one another as they hit transition. After that, everyone else was more than a minute back of the leaders.

Perez Sala was first on her bike, but her lead as she started to ride was quite slim. With so many women so tightly packed in T1, it set up a fun opening few miles of riding as various athletes climbed in and out of the lead.

A Three-Woman Race

While most T100 events feature lapped biked courses for the pros, the race in Spain was a point-to-point ride. The course was winding and hilly, with multiple fast descents that required technical care to navigate sharp turns and corners.

Perez Sala didn’t get to enjoy her time at the front of the race too long after leaving T1, as Taylor-Brown flew into the lead just a couple of miles into the ride. Derron faced a 28-second gap as she started the bike, but she wasted very little time erasing that, and soon enough, she found herself in second place behind Taylor-Brown.

Also in the mix early on was Belgium’s Hanne De Vet, who finished fifth at T100 Wollongong last year. About four miles into the ride, she moved into the lead, passing both Taylor-Brown and Derron, but she faced a potential issue, as the race commentary team noted that she seemed to have lost a bottle at some point in those opening miles. In another T100 race, this wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, as the lapped format gives athletes plenty of opportunities to reload their nutrition. In Spain, however, there were just two aid stations on the bike course, making De Vet’s lost bottle a potentially significant blow.

Over the next 30 miles, there was a lot of shifting within the top five. Germany’s Bianca Bogen rode her way up to second place for a stint, then dropped back. Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds moved into second for a while, only to fade away. De Vet regained control of the lead, but Derron eventually blew by her once more.

After 20 miles of riding, it looked like Derron was fed up with this yo-yoing. She dropped the hammer and opened up a gap of 14 seconds over second place. There was still plenty of riding to go, but it was conceivable at that time that Derron would ride away with the lead. Six miles later, though, her compatriot Alanis Siffert came charging down the road, flying by Derron to take the lead.

Siffert had started the ride more than two minutes back of the leaders, so she had put in a hard effort to claw her way through the field. The next few miles saw Derron and Siffert exchanging the lead back and forth, and all the while, Taylor-Brown sat just a few seconds back in third, apparently content to let the two Swiss women duke it out up front.

With 16 miles left to ride, it was a three-woman race at the front. Simmonds and De Vet sat in fourth and fifth, but they were both close to two minutes back. Further behind them, Perez Sala and Evans were in sixth and seventh, both north of two and a half minutes off the lead.

The final third of the ride saw very little change at the front. The two Swiss women did manage to put a bit of time into Taylor-Brown in the closing miles before transition, and by the time they racked their bikes, it was Siffert in first and Derron in second nine seconds back. Taylor-Brown hit T2 31 seconds down, but a very slow transition cost her another half a minute, leading her to start the run 59 seconds behind Siffert.

Simmonds was the next athlete to cruise into transition, sitting in fourth 2:17 back of the lead. After having such a tremendous opening half of the race, De Vet faded hard, and she found herself close to five minutes off the lead as she started the run, just ahead of Perez Sala.

Taylor-Brown Wins on the Run

It didn’t take long for Derron to catch Siffert and move into first. After just one kilometer of running, Derron had caught and passed her compatriot, and after a mile, she was 16 seconds clear. Further back, Taylor-Brown had managed to make up time on Siffert, but she still found herself close to a minute behind Derron.

Just over two miles into the 11-mile run course, Derron’s lead had grown to 35 seconds over Siffert. Taylor-Brown was still in third, but only 42 seconds behind Derron as she slowly ate away at the gap. With about nine miles to go, there was still plenty of time for drama to unfold, and less than half a mile later, Taylor-Brown had flipped that gap from 42 seconds to 24.

Another half-mile down the road, Taylor-Brown was suddenly right behind Derron. She made the pass on an uphill section of the course, blowing by her Swiss competitor so quickly that it made Derron look like she was at a standstill. Yet another half-mile later, Taylor-Brown was a whopping 35 seconds clear of Derron. The race was still far from over at that point, but in that moment, it was Taylor-Brown’s to lose.

Just after the halfway mark on the run, Taylor-Brown’s lead was up to 1:45 over Derron, who was still safely running in second place. Siffert was in third at that point, and while she was by no means running slowly, it did look like she was at risk of being caught. Her gap over fourth-place Simmonds was about a minute and a half.

It didn’t appear to be Simmonds who was the biggest threat to steal a spot on the podium, however, but instead Spivey, who was flying through the field. After getting off her bike in 10th, Spivey had jumped five places in the opening half of the run. She was well back of Taylor-Brown (more than five minutes off the lead), but a first-ever T100 podium looked to be well within her reach as she charged along the course.

With six and a half miles down on the run, Spivey passed Simmonds to move into fourth, and it looked inevitable that she would catch Siffert. Two miles down the road, that moment came, and Spivey jetted by Siffert to move into podium position.

Further back, the next threat to pass Siffert was no longer Simmonds, who had faded to seventh. A pair of Brits, Lawrence and Lizzie Rayner, had passed Simmonds, and with under three miles to go, they were running side by side, sharing fifth place.

With two miles left to run, Taylor-Brown’s lead was around two minutes. Derron had made up a few seconds in the previous mile or two, but nothing substantial enough to threaten the leader. It was the same with Spivey back in third. She was running much quicker than Derron, but since she was still two minutes behind the Swiss athlete, she was bound to run out of real estate before she could take any real shot at stealing second place.

While the podium was set by then, the battle for the top five was shaping up to be very exciting. Despite having looked to be labouring earlier in the run, Lawrence had moved into fifth all on her own after gapping Rayner by 15 seconds. With two miles left, she was 35 seconds behind Siffert. Half a mile later, the gap was down to 19 seconds. At that point, Lawrence was running the fastest out of the top-five women, and she had even managed to pull to back within a minute of Spivey.

By the time the women hit the line, it was Taylor-Brown in first in 3:38:03. Derron ate into the gap considerably in the final miles of the run, crossing the line in 3:39:23. Spivey had the best middle-distance race of her career to date, finishing in third in 3:41:29.

Just off the podium was Lawrence, who used a 1:10:46 run split to fly into fourth place. Siffert was just under 20 seconds back, completing a stellar race for her best T100 result yet (her previous highest finish was 10th).

Here is how the top 10 shook out:

The post Georgia Taylor-Brown Charges to First T100 Victory in Spain first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The T100 Triathlon World Tour is back in action this weekend with the third event of the season, this time hitting the streets of Pamplona, Spain, for another all-women pro race. The women’s T100 season kicked off in March in Gold Coast, Australia, where American Taylor Knibb grabbed the first win of the year. With Knibb absent from this weekend’s starting lineup, there will be a new addition to the list of 2026 T100 winners after what is sure to be an action-packed day of racing in Spain on Saturday.

Waugh vs. the Field

Great Britain’s Kate Waugh has to be the favourite heading into this next race. After a 2025 season that saw her win three races and reach another four podiums, she won the T100 world title handily. Waugh missed the first T100 race of the year, but she has not been sitting on the sidelines waiting to start her season. Instead, she opted to go back to her roots in short-course triathlon for a couple of races, competing at the World Triathlon Cup in Chengdu, China, in early May and at the WTCS event in Yokohama, Japan, this past weekend.

She finished third in China in a thrilling sprint finish that saw her cross the line one second behind first and second place. The field in Yokohama was of course more competitive (not to say that Chengdu wasn’t), with the top short-course specialists all in attendance. Despite having much more of a focus on middle-distance racing these days, Waugh still held her own, finishing in 14th place.

While short course may be where Waugh’s roots lie, the T100 is where she has found most of her success as a pro, and it will be exciting to see her back in action this weekend. She finished second at T100 Spain last year, a full two minutes behind winner and fellow Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay. Charles-Barclay is not racing in Pamplona this year, as she will be busy in another part of Spain at IRONMAN Lanzarote.

While Waugh lost by a sizeable margin to Charles-Barclay in Spain last year, she still beat third place by the same two-minute gap that separated her from the win. If not for Charles-Barclay, Waugh would have been unbeatable that day and cruised to the win. Will that be the case on Saturday? Not so fast — there are several women who could spoil Waugh’s T100 season debut.

The Top Chasers

Leading the way as the women who are most likely to steal the win from Waugh are Switzerland’s Julie Derron and Imogen Simmonds, along with Waugh’s compatriot Georgia Taylor-Brown. Derron won two T100 races last year, beating Waugh on both occasions. Her first came at T100 San Francisco, where she used the second-fastest bike and run splits on the day to finish well ahead of second-place Knibb and more than four minutes up from Waugh.

Derron’s other win was in Dubai near the end of the season, when she had the fastest bike and run on the day to once again beat Waugh with relative ease, crossing the line more than three minutes ahead of the eventual series champion. Derron finished the season in second place in the tour rankings, capping off a tremendous year that saw her reach the T100 podium four times.

Derron has raced twice so far this season, winning both times. Her first triathlon of 2026 came in mid-April at the Olympic-distance Yangtze River Delta International Triathlon in China. A week later, she threw down a dominant performance in a limited pro field at Challenge Taiwan to take the win by almost 13 minutes. She hasn’t been challenged too much by rivals just yet this season, but Derron looks to be in great form, meaning it could be a fun battle between her and Waugh on Saturday.

Derron’s fellow Swiss racer Simmonds is a bit of a question mark going into the race in Spain. She has had a great start to the season with a third-place finish at T100 Gold Coast and second last weekend at 70.3 Pays d’Aix in France. She has only raced against Waugh once before, however, at last year’s T100 finale in Qatar, where she finished well back in 17th.

The T100 Grand Final was her only race of the year, as she spent much of 2025 barred from competition due to a doping infraction of which she was ultimately cleared and retroactively found not guilty. She entered the race in Qatar well out of practice, but she has looked to be back to her usual self after the first couple of races of the year. It will be interesting to see how she fares against Waugh, Derron and the other top women as she tries to keep her great start to 2026 rolling.

Finally, there is Taylor-Brown, who seems to be a threat in any race she enters, no matter the distance. In 2025, Taylor-Brown had an amazing last couple of months to the season. In early November, she finished fourth at the 70.3 World Championship in Spain. A week later, she was fourth again, this time at T100 Dubai. A week after that, she won the Laguna Phuket Triathlon, followed by a two-week break before winning 70.3 Bahrain. Once again, she had one week to recover before racing the T100 Grand Final, where she finished second to Waugh.

The three-time Olympic medallist has raced a pair of short-course events so far this year, first at the World Triathlon Cup in Lanzarote (where she finished second) and the WTCS season opener in Uzbekistan (where she was fourth). Taylor-Brown loves to go all-out in any and every race, so she very well could take it out hot from the gun and punish the rest of the field, Waugh included, right to the line.

Other Contenders

The thing about T100 races is that their small pro fields mean they only accept the best of the best. This means that any one athlete is capable of charging to the podium or outright win on any given day. Belgium’s Hanne De Vet is one athlete who looks ready to take the step from mid-top-10 results onto the podium. After finishing second last in her first T100 race of 2025, De Vet had a stellar rest of the season. She finished in the top 10 at three T100 races, including a fifth-place result in Wollongong, Australia. She followed that up with ninth at the 70.3 worlds a month later.

She has raced twice this season, first placing 14th at T100 Gold Coast before bouncing back this past weekend with a top-five finish at 70.3 Pays d’Aix. De Vet has proven that she can duke it out with the best in the world, so it really seems like only a matter of time before she has a big, career-best result.

Dutchwoman Lotte Wilms is definitely better at full-distance racing than T100s or 70.3s (she has recorded multiple IRONMAN podiums in her career, including a third-place finish at IRONMAN New Zealand earlier this year), but she has still shown her competitors that she can hold her own in shorter events. Last year, she finished sixth at T100 Wollongong, and this year she was eighth at T100 Gold Coast just two weeks after her podium result in New Zealand. She may not be able to take out Waugh or Derron for the top spot in Spain, but don’t be surprised if she jumps to a big finish on Saturday.

While Waugh and Taylor-Brown are the two Brits most likely to take the win in Pamplona, this list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning one of their other compatriots, Holly Lawrence. Lawrence had an amazing 2025 season after returning to racing since becoming a mother. She raced seven times across the T100 and IRONMAN circuits, finishing in the top 10 all but once (she registered a DNF at T100 London).

Lawrence’s best results included a sixth-place finish in Kona and seventh at the T100 Grand Final. Anyone who thought she may take a while to get back to her old ways after giving birth to her daughter was immediately proven wrong in 2025, and Lawrence’s amazing showing points to her continuing with that form as she kicks off her 2026 season.

Finally, one last athlete to keep an eye on is France’s Audrey Merle. Merle was relatively unknown to many triathlon fans before 2026. Her biggest result before this season was a win at last year’s Challenge Vieux Bocau in France. She started 2026 in a big way, however, after a surprise third-place finish at a very competitive 70.3 Oceanside.

Merle started 70.3 Pays d’Aix last weekend, but she recorded a DNF. She has never raced a T100, so it will be exciting to see where she ends up on the day in Spain. Could she have another shocking performance like she did in Oceanside? We’ll have to wait to find out.

T100 Spain starts at 12:00 p.m. local time and can be live-streamed on the T100 website.

The post Previewing T100 Spain 2026: Kate Waugh Returns To Racing as Defending Champ first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

When you talk about triathlon, many people will say they would “love to” do a race one day, but something is stopping them. Maybe it’s a fear of the unknown, or perhaps the assumption that they won’t have time to train, or it could be that they don’t know where to start when it comes to workouts, gear and racing. The thing is, most people probably won’t ever be ready to start in triathlon. Instead, they simply need to dive in head first and commit to racing, as this will give them a carrot to chase and something to motivate them week in and week out in training.

Signing Up for Your First Race

Slowtwitch spoke with Empire Tri Club coach Doc Halliday Golden to discuss the benefits of signing up for a race before you think you’re ready to swim, bike and run it. Golden has been a coach at the New York City-based club for 10 years, and she says her triathlon journey started this way, with her jumping into the sport pretty much blind.

“I worked at a gym and I had been a recreational athlete,” she says. “One of the guys that I was working with was a triathlon coach. He was always speaking about his triathletes like they were the bees knees, and I was like, ‘Well, I want to do that, too.'”

Golden signed up for a race with no real knowledge of the sport. This was intimidating, she says, but those nerves prompted her to take action.

“Because I had signed up and paid money and set a date, I found a community and started training,” she says. “It became real when I signed up.”

Golden notes that athletes probably shouldn’t sign up for a full IRONMAN if they have never even done a sprint triathlon, but she says that registering for a smaller event with no experience in the sport can be “very fruitful” and “a huge motivator” to train.

“Signing up is a commitment to yourself and to the world,” she says.

Finding a Community

As Golden said, one of the first things she did after signing up for a race was find a community of likeminded people.

“That looks different in different places,” she says. “If there is a physical tri club in your area, I recommend joining that group. If there’s not a physical one, find a virtual or online one. Find a way so that you’re in communication with triathletes as well as coaches and people who are educated in the sport.”

If you can’t join an official club, even finding just one other triathlete or endurance athlete who swims, bikes or runs can works wonders for your training and motivation. Golden says she knows many triathletes who “have trained by themselves for months or years,” but the best thing they can do for themselves is find a training partner or group and therefore introduce added accountability into their triathlon journey.

“If you know someone is waiting for you for a workout, you’re more likely to do the workout,” she says. “Or if you know everyone is doing the same workout on the same day, you’re more likely to do that as well, knowing that others are doing it.”

So many triathletes start their time in the sport all alone, and although this is perfectly manageable, it can be difficult to know if what you’re doing (whether that’s in training, what gear you’re getting, or anything else) is right or the best option for you. You may not feel ready to race when you sign up for your first triathlon, but joining a community can certainly help get you to the spot where you do feel prepared.

Make a Plan

Another big component of signing up for your first race is to have a plan, Golden says. You don’t have to have your plan ironed out and set before signing up for that race, but once you do have an event on the calendar, you’ll be more likely to figure things out. Why? Because you’ll know that you have to do so if you want to arrive at your first race feeling well-equipped to tackle the day.

“You need to have some structure in there in order to help you stay injury-free and to build towards doing this first race,” Golden says. This planning can be aided by a coach, a training partner or a club, or if you insist on going about it alone in your early days in the sport, you can find plenty of resources online.

Shaping a plan will help you learn what is needed in weekly training, how often to do each sport, what brick workouts are and more. These are all things that you might be clueless about before signing up for your first race, but they will come to you quickly as you map out your course to becoming a triathlete.

Give Yourself Grace

A big piece of advice Golden give to new triathletes is to “give themselves grace” in their training and racing.

“That’s one of the first things that I tell people,” she says. “Enjoy the journey. When you first commit to this, whether it’s a race or joining a community before you sign up for a race, enjoy the journey. Remember to have fun.”

Golden notes that triathlon can be quite an intimidating sport, and if all new triathletes based their progress, success or goals off of what they see from other people, they might feel too inadequate to even start.

“From the outside, before you step in, you’re like, ‘Oh, all of those people have it together and they’re all super fast and they win everything,'” she says. “But it’s so important to not compare yourself to other athletes, because you don’t know what people’s history is. You don’t know what their health is, their injury, their this and that. And you have to do your races for you.”

She adds that you don’t need to win. Would it be nice? Of course. But there is only one winner in every age group, so why put the pressure on yourself to be that single person (especially in your first race)?

“If this is your first triathlon, then it’s an automatic PR,” Golden says. “Get out there and complete your first one. That’s great.”

Instead of setting daunting and potentially unattainable goals like winning that first race, instead focus on yourself, Golden says. Celebrate your milestones along the way in training, whether that’s breaking a specific time barrier or hitting your goal pace in a workout. That’s how you can measure success, she says, and that is how you can stay motivated to push to your first race, along with the many more that hopefully follow.

The post The Psychology of Signing Up Before You’re Ready first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

As I wrote in a review of the Kipride Max training shoes last month, I am a recent Kiprun convert. I had never tried a Kiprun shoe before the Kipride Max, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved them. Since then, I have solely run in my Kiprides, other than when testing different shoes for reviews — a task that eventually included trying out the Kipstorm Elite.

I won’t be running in the Kipstorm Elite every day like I do with its Kiprun cousin, but that’s because this shoe is carbon plated and designed for fast efforts. With that in mind, I will be wearing the Kipstorm in any races I enter this summer, as it is a remarkably fast and comfortable ride that I am certain will lift me to my best possible performances, whether I’m racing a 5 km, half-marathon or any other distance.

While I went into my first run in a Kiprun shoe with next to no expectations, that was not the case with the Kipstorm. I had already recorded many pleasant runs in the Kipride Max by the time I tried the Kipstorm Elite, so the bar was high as I set off to test it. The shoe matched — and even exceeded — my expectations run after run, and if I wasn’t already a Kiprun fan after wearing the Kiprides, I certainly became one after confirming that the company is the real deal with a second straight top-tier product in the Kipstorm Elite.

Kipstorm Elite Specs

• Weight: 7.6 oz (U.S. men’s size 9), 6.5 oz (U.S. women’s size 7.5)
• Drop: 5 mm
• Stack Height: 39 mm (heel) / 34 mm (forefoot)
• Price: US$260

One of the first things you will notice when putting on the Kipstorm Elite is its weight. At 7.6 ounces for a men’s size 9, the Kipstorm rivals most other top carbon-plated shoes on the market. This is a wildly light shoe, and its featherweight build is especially noticeable after spending the winter running in trainers.

The shoe’s stack height is 39 mm down to 34 mm from heel to toe, giving it quit a tame drop compared to the likes of the Nike Alphafly, Saucony Endorphin Elite and many other carbon-plated super shoes that feature drops of up to 8 mm. While those other shoes rely on a steep drop to create more of a rocker effect with each step, the Kipstorm Elite pulls this off with close to half of that same drop total at 5 mm. At no point in any runs in the Kipstorm Elite did I wish there was more of a drop, as it always felt like the 5 mm was more than enough to propel me and promote forward momentum.

The foam underfoot making up that stack in the midsole is Kiprun’s Fastech+ — a cushioning system that “provides a soft, dynamic ride that reduces fatigue while maintaining propulsion,” according to the company. Kiprun engineers say this foam is 25 percent softer than previous version they have produced, and it also boasts 21 percent more energy return.

Running in the Kipstorm Elite

This is a fast shoe. My first time wearing the Kipstorm Elite was on an easy five-miler. I was painfully aware that I was being that guy taking his carbon-plated shoes on an easy run, but I was too keen and really wanted to test them out. Right from the get-go, it was clear that my run was going to be faster than I had anticipated.

After the first kilometre, I looked at my watch and saw I had completed it in just over four minutes. This is right around 6:30 mile pace, and while this time wouldn’t win me any races, it was still a much quicker opening split than I had expected my watch to read. The time came as a surprise mainly because I was not trying to go that quickly at all. I had set out with eight-minute mile pace in mind, and although I knew early on that I was running faster than that, I did not think I was anywhere close to 6:30. The shoe simply made that pace easy, and it continued to feel like light work for the rest of that session.

After that run, I was very excited to take the Kipstorm Elites for a proper workout. A couple of days later, I did just that, and I was not disappointed. As I already touched on, the shoe has a great rocker feel that encourages you to go faster with each step. I have not had the opportunity to race in these shoes yet, but I did run a couple of solo time trials, and they helped me reach quick paces with relative ease, whereas other shoes would have left me struggling to hit and hold these times.

Kiprun had elite runners test the Kipstorm as they developed the shoe, and the consensus on the shoe was unanimous: it’s great. The team asked these elite runners if they would choose to run in the Kipstorm on race day, and “100 percent answered yes.”

As I said, I haven’t raced in the shoes yet, but that is definitely on my to-do list.

Maximal Comfort

I admit that, when I first pulled on the Kipstorm Elites, I was worried they wouldn’t be comfortable. They have a very snug sock-liner that made it tough to get on right away. (This could be a downside for T2 if you choose to use them at a triathlon, but I imagine you’ll have no problems if you simply loosen the laces before leaving transition on race day.) As I tried to maneuver my foot into the shoe, I thought it might be uncomfortably tight, but once it was on, I knew those worries were unfounded. The sock-liner is remarkably soft, and the snug knit upper hugs your foot comfortably.

As for the Fastech+ foam, this also adds to the shoe’s comfort. You might think that a shoe that weighs only 7.6 ounces would have to make sacrifices in the comfort or plush departments, but that is not the case at all with the Kipstorm Elite. I have taken it for hard runs, long runs and hard long runs, and at no point have I felt anything but comfortable. I’m not a marathon runner, but based on my experiences in these shoes, I have to imagine they would not only help you reach your time goals over 26.2 miles, but also that they would keep you running comfortably the whole way to the finish line.

The Kipstorm Conclusion

I have recommended these shoes to many of my friends. Everyone knows about Nike, Adidas and Asics, even if they’re not in the running world. More and more people are learning about Hokas and On Running shoes. Not enough know about Kiprun.

If you are in the market for a fast and comfortable race day shoe, the Kipstorm Elite is a must try. It will help you do what you want to do in fast training sessions and at races, and I believe it will even lift you to new levels. I haven’t looked back since trying out my first two pairs of Kiprun shoes, and I don’t think you will, either.

The post Could the Kipstorm Elite Be Your Next Race Day Shoe? first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Social media and great marketing from IRONMAN have convinced a lot of people that the only triathlon worth doing is a 70.3 or longer. If you search “triathlon” on Instagram or TikTok, you’ll get countless videos of people training for or racing 70.3s or full IRONMANs, but comparatively, very few people are promoting their journeys in sprint or Olympic-distance competition.

For new triathletes looking to get into racing, this representation can lead to the assumption that a 70.3 is a good starting point for a rookie, but that’s really not true at all. Entering a 70.3 for your first race isn’t wrong by any means, but the shorter races exist for a reason, and they can help you progress in the sport at a steady rate. If you’re new to the sport and looking to get into racing, here is why you should test the waters with shorter races first before diving into middle- and long-distance triathlon.

A Gradual Progression

If you were new to the gym and you made your way over to the rack of dumbbells, where would you head first? The lightest dumbbells are at one and of the rack and they increase in weight until reaching the heaviest at the other end. You might not need to start with the lightest, but you certainly wouldn’t go right for the heaviest. Instead, you would find a weight to lift comfortably and then work your way further down the rack over time as you got stronger and gained confidence.

It’s not exactly the same in triathlon, but it’s close enough. Why jump into the middle of the distance range when there is an obvious starting point? There are sprint (or even super-sprint) races that can give you a taste of the sport. From there, you can work up to Olympic (which is double the distance of a sprint) and then maybe a 100-kilometre race or a 70.3. These race distances provide a pretty natural progression for any new triathletes as they grow in the sport.

Don’t Let the ‘Half’ Mislead You

For some reason, there’s a strange stigma against the “half” races in endurance sports. A half-IRONMAN or a half-marathon is looked down on, as though it is only part of a whole instead of its own entity. Anyone who has done a 70.3 knows that it is in no way diminished simply because it is halfway to an IRONMAN, but you may have noticed people who are not in the sport smirking or belittling the achievement of a half-distance race.

Because of this, the public perception of a half-IRONMAN may be that it’s actually not all that hard. That’s wrong, and you’ll realize that pretty early on in your first race. Don’t let the race title mislead you — 70.3s are hard. There is no shame in starting shorter and working up to those longer distances.

The Cost of Going Longer

The longer the race, the more expensive it will be. The resources required to cover half a mile of swimming, 12 miles of biking and three miles of running are far less than those needed for 70.3 miles of racing. We’re not saying a 70.3 isn’t worth the money, but it could be a good idea to dip your toe into the world of racing with a shorter, less-expensive event.

Cheaper doesn’t mean worse, but it will definitely be easier to swallow a poor or less-than-stellar result at a race that costs under $100 compared to one that’s more than $300. You may crush your first race, but most people won’t, and although that doesn’t mean it won’t be a fun experience, a faster time is always more enjoyable than a slower one. Why not get your not-so-great result out of the way at a cheaper race before diving into the pricier ones?

The Experience

No matter what you choose for your first race, it will likely leave you shattered. Triathlons are hard, especially your first, and whether you’re racing a sprint, a half, a full or any other distance, you’re going to be exhausted by the end. You’re also likely to make a lot of mistakes in your first race (or first few races), so why not gain a bit of experience before tackling something as big as a 70.3?

Racing a sprint or Olympic will prepare you mentally for the walls you’ll hit in future races. I personally know several triathletes who started off with a 70.3, and each of them told me after the race that they wished they had raced a shorter event first. Racing 70.3 miles is a huge undertaking — there’s no shame in building up to it.

Get Used to Training

When you first get started in triathlon, the training can be overwhelming. You’re trying to find your way in three sports, you need to fit hours upon hours of training sessions into each week and you’re working to fit everything into your already busy schedule. Frankly, it’s going to be tough to fit training for a sprint into your life at first, and the hours of work required to race well in that distance are far lower than the minimum you’ll need for success in a 70.3. That’s not to say you can slack in sprint training, but your long sessions will be much shorter than if you were working toward a 56-mile ride or a half-marathon.

Instead of jumping into middle-distance training right away, take some time to get used to triathlon training in general. Carve out time for sprint training and figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. This will help you to eliminate any junk mileage before taking the step to the next distance, meaning you’ll be able to train more intentionally when more work is required of you.

What’s the rush?

Unless you’re planning to buy all of the gear, do all of the training and then doing a single 70.3 before retiring from the sport, you’ll have plenty of time to level up in triathlon. There is really no rush to get into racing 70.3s or longer, so why force yourself to bite off such a large chunk?

IRONMAN has done an amazing job with branding, and when you pair that with the attention those races have gotten on social media in recent years, it seems like anyone who’s anyone is racing M-dot events. That’s not the case at all, and no matter what race you choose for your first, it will give you everything you need to fall in love with the sport of triathlon.

The post Why Your First Triathlon Shouldn’t Be a 70.3 first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Over the weekend, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde put on a clinic at T100 Singapore. The reigning T100 world champion, Wilde swam with the leaders, rode away from the pack with the day’s fastest bike split and closed things out with the second-fastest run to cross the line in 3:21:58, more than six minutes ahead of second place. He beat over 60 percent of the finishers at the race by over 10 minutes.

This might occur at 70.3s, IRONMANs or other events with bigger fields, but the T100 caps pro start lists at 20 athletes, meaning that anyone toeing the line at these races has a good resume. Even so, Wilde destroyed every other man who raced in Singapore, making many of their still-solid times look like age group results in comparison to his.

After the race, many triathlon fans in the Slowtwitch Forum and beyond asked a pair of questions. Firstly, is Wilde unbeatable over the T100’s 100-kilometre (62-mile) format? Secondly, if he is, in fact, unbeatable, does that make the men’s T100 races drama-free TV that isn’t even worth watching? Let’s take a look at Wilde’s racing history to find out.

Wilde’s T100 Wins

Wilde has dominated the T100 series since he entered it in 2025. He made his debut in Singapore last April, winning that race in 3:18:11 and finishing two and a half minutes ahead of second place.

A month later, he suffered what could have been a career-ending injury after a bike crash in training. Despite breaking multiple bones, puncturing a lung and requiring surgery, he made it back to race fitness by August, when he returned to the T100 circuit in London. There, he had to make up to close to a minute after the swim (at that point, his swimming stroke was still hindered by his injuries), but he really had no troubles after that, flying along the course with the second-fastest bike and run splits to take the win by about a minute.

Less than a month later, Wilde won T100 French Riviera, which ended up being his closest battle of the season. He beat Belgium’s Jelle Geens by just 22 seconds to take the win in France. At T100 Spain, he beat Geens again, this time by close to two and a half minutes. T100 Wollongong was his second-tightest battle, as he only beat Germany’s Mika Noodt by 35 seconds.

In November, Wilde took his only loss of the T100 season, but it was a genuine fluke. Racing in Dubai, he missed the turn off at the end of the bike course while in the lead, ultimately riding another full lap. After hitting the run course, he recorded the fastest split, so in all likelihood he would have won the race. The extra lap, however, led to him finishing eighth. Finally, at the T100 World Championship Final in Qatar, he won the race by just over one minute.

Wilde has been the man for everyone else to chase for a full season and more, and he has been unbeatable over that stretch in the T100 format. He had those closer calls in France and Wollongong, but even those weren’t all that close. In France, Geens made up a lot of ground in the closing couple of miles, but Wilde had built up a lead of about a minute over the first half of the run that was too much for Geens to overcome with only an 11-mile final leg.

In Wollongong, Wilde got off the bike with Noodt and immediately opened up a gap that continued to grow for most of the run. The closest Noodt came to winning the race was in T2, but it was clear once they started running that the best he would do that day was second place.

Every one of Wilde’s wins last year felt comfortable and in control. Although he was never pushed right to the line, it seemed as though he would have been able to respond to any attacks from athletes coming up behind him trying to make a pass.

What’s amazing is that it looked like Wilde was dominating when he was winning by one to two minutes, but what he did in Singapore on Saturday took things to a whole new level. In his six wins on the T100 circuit last year, Wilde’s cumulative winning margin was eight minutes and 18 seconds. In Singapore, he beat second-place Samuel Dickinson of the UK by six minutes and 21 seconds.

The gap between him and second place from that one race was within two minutes of his entire winning margin from all of last season. That’s has to be a scary stat for his competitors to see.

How To Beat Wilde

Wilde’s only loss in the T100 may have an asterisk next to it, but he has legitimately been beaten in other races in his middle-distance career. Geens bested him at the 70.3 world championship in 2024. In March, Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt won 70.3 Geelong ahead of Geens while Wilde placed third. This is quite a small sample size of losses, but it is proof that Wilde is not perfect. He can be beaten, but it takes a monster effort.

At the 2024 70.3 worlds, Wilde led off the bike and put time into Geens in the first eight miles of the run. He had a 56-second lead over the Belgian at the eight-mile mark, but then he started to fade. Over the next three miles, Geens clawed his way back into the race, and he made the pass on Wilde just before the 11-mile mark. He charged forward for the last two miles to take the win thanks to a 1:07:34 half-marathon. Wilde finished in second more than a minute back.

In Geelong this year, it was a similar story. Wilde took to the run course with a sizeable lead, with 45 seconds separating him and Geens and a 1:37 gap to Blummenfelt. The Norwegian ran like a man possessed in that race, catching Wilde after just six miles and carrying on to post a 1:06:39 run split for the win. It took Geens a bit longer to catch Wilde, but he eventually did around the 10-mile mark. Wilde would hold on for third, finishing a minute and a half behind Blummenfelt and 28 seconds behind Geens.

So, what does it take to beat Wilde? Firstly, you might have to be named Kristian Blummenfelt or Jelle Geens. Secondly, it could simply be that Wilde is better at riding 50 miles rather than 56 and running 11 miles instead of a half-marathon. If the 70.3 world champs had been a T100 race, Wilde may have held on for the win, as Geens didn’t pass him until around the 11-mile mark.

When it comes to beating Wilde before passing 11 miles on the run, it looks like the only way to do it is to be like Blummenfelt and run out of your mind. Sure, Blummenfelt caught Wilde after only six miles of running in Geelong, and yes, he made up a 97-second deficit on the bike. As Blummenfelt has shown, however, he is a very special case, and although the T100 attracts some of the fastest triathletes in the world, few (if any) of them can match Blummenfelt on any given day.

The questions remain. Can Wilde be beaten? Yes, but maybe only in 70.3s or longer. Will someone beat him in a T100 race this season? Unless he has a crash or a monumental collapse on the run course
— or maybe if Blummenfelt shows up for a race, which is unlikely — probably not. He is too strong, and on the few occasions anyone manages to make up any ground behind him, they run out of real estate on the shorter 11-mile run courses.

Why Watch T100 Races?

Is there any reason to watch the T100 this season if Wilde winning is a foregone conclusion? In short, yes. The women’s races are much more competitive than the men’s. In 2024, American Taylor Knibb ran the show much like Wilde has been lately, but last year, her rivals figured out how to beat her.

There were five different women’s winners at the nine T100 races last season. Granted, Knibb didn’t race all of them, but her winning wasn’t a sure thing when she did show up. Knibb did win the first women’s race of the season in Gold Coast, Australia, but the subsequent events this season should be more competitive, making for exciting racing and a great viewing experience.

As for the men’s races, they could still be worth watching. Wilde may have been way ahead of everyone else in Singapore, but the battle for the podium was still quite fun to watch, with multiple men moving in and out of the top three and top five for much of the race. Wilde will probably win any T100 race he enters this year, but the fight for second and third place is still very much up for grabs, and that will be very entertaining.

The post Has the Dominance of Hayden Wilde Ruined T100 Racing? first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

You know how Paul Newman was an Oscar-nominated actor who decided to step outside the box and make great salad dressings? Effortless Swimming is kind of like that. The YouTube and social media page dedicated to fixing swimmers’ and triathletes’ form in the pool also happens to have designed some of the best goggles on the market.

OK, maybe that’s not as random as an actor turning to the salad game, but it’s close enough. Think about it like this: someone who knows everything about cars couldn’t necessarily design a great one, but the team at Effortless Swimming somehow managed a Newman-esque side quest that saw them go from great coaching service to top goggles seller.

Not convinced? Well, take it from someone who has always struggled to find good goggles: Effortless Swimming’s NanoClear goggles are the best I’ve ever tried, and I will not be switching back to any of the top brands for the foreseeable future.

Getting into Goggles

Australian swim coach Brenton Ford started Effortless Swimming in 2009. Over the next 17 years, he grew his YouTube and social media presence to what it is today, with close to 1 million subscribers across platforms. His foray into the world of goggles didn’t occur until recently, however, when he tried a game-changing anti-fog technology called NanoClear.

Ford says he was “so impressed” by the maintained clarity these goggles provided when he tried them.

“I was going to heaps of swim camps at locations with amazing sea life,” he says. “I could finally experience it properly.”

Prior to this, Ford had to put up with an annoyance that any swimmer or triathlete will be more than used to: fogged-up goggles that prevent you from seeing much of anything (other than maybe the line at the bottom of the pool or the next buoy on race day, if you’re lucky).

Of course, the goggles aren’t designed for sight-seeing (although that’s a bonus of using them if you’re swimming in an interesting location), but rather for open-water swimmers and triathletes.

“[These athletes] require larger lenses for visibility in open water and different types of tints and lenses for different swimming conditions,” he says. He adds that, while some goggles may lose their anti-fog feature over time, this won’t be an issue for the Effortless Swimming’s NanoClear line.

As the product page reads on the company’s website, “NanoClear isn’t a coating,” which is often how anti-fog goggles are designed. Instead, the team behind the design uses an “advanced nano-embedding process” that produces a “permanent, structural anti-fog — not a fragile film.”

Further, Ford says that the goggles will remain free of fog no matter how far you swim.

“We’ve had swimmers do 20-kilometre marathon swims using goggles that are months old and they don’t need to clear them,” he says. Seeing as Ford is the man behind Effortless Swimming, of course he is going to say his goggles are going to deliver on all fronts, but after using them myself, I can confirm they are unrivalled when it comes to both visibility and comfort.

Swimming with NanoClear Goggles

As I mentioned earlier, I have had bad luck with goggles in my decade and a half of swimming. I’ve worn some well-reviewed goggles from some of the best swim and triathlon companies out there, but in most cases, when I’ve strapped them on and hopped into the water, they have flooded within only a few strokes. This has more to do with me than the goggles (I must have deep eye sockets because the water always flows in by the bridge of my nose), but it can be quite frustrating, especially when some companies promise zero leaks no matter who wears them.

Because of my history of goggle struggles, I’m never too keen to try a new pair out. When I find some that I like, I wear them until they bust, then get a brand new identical pair. With that in mind, I really didn’t have too much hope for the NanoClear goggles. I was sure they were a fine product, but I figured it would be the same old story and that before I made it to my first turn in the pool I wouldn’t be able to see a thing.

That was not the case at all. These goggles fit perfectly right from my first swim. They were (and continue to be) so comfortable, lightly suctioning to my face to not allow leaks without leaving marks. I can only speak for myself when it comes to fit, but from my experience, any goggle that fits me well fits everyone else (but most that fit everyone else don’t fit me). The goggles are also adjustable with multiple nose bridges (which I find is lacking with many triathlon brands, as many opt for a one-size-fits all design), so odds are you’ll be able to find a size that works for you.

Effortless Swimming has three models: the Recon, the Strike and the Viper. Ford sent me the NanoClear Strike, and all he told me to do before my first swim was to give them a splash in water. I did that and didn’t have to touch them for the rest of my swim. (Ford notes that sometimes you may get some fog at the very start of your swim, but after clearing that with your thumb, it won’t return.)

There are few things worse in swimming than not being able to see clearly. It’s annoying enough in the pool when there is a solid black line to follow, but in open water and during races, not being able to sight effectively can seriously hinder your performance. Like many triathletes, I have had enough bad experiences in races with foggy or leaky goggles to realize just how important this pretty basic piece of equipment is. The NanoClear goggles can eliminate any of these problems from your future swims and races.

If Ford’s word wasn’t enough and my opinion on the goggles didn’t persuade you to give them a try, look to pros like IRONMAN world champion Kristian Blummenfelt, two-time 70.3 world champion Jelle Geens and multiple IRONMAN champion Kat Matthews. All three of these athletes have been wearing Effortless Swimming goggles this season, and although Geens has a business relationship with the company (Effortless Swimming sponsors his podcast), neither Matthews nor Blummenfelt have any official affiliation with Ford and his team — they just like and trust the goggles.

If nothing else convinces you to try these goggles for yourself, those endorsements should. The world’s best triathletes would not use any piece of equipment (let alone one so essential for a good race) that did not deliver on their needs 100 percent. We can’t guarantee you’ll swim like Matthews, Geens or Blummenfelt, but if you go for any of the NanoClear goggles, you’ll at least be seeing just as well as they would at your next race.

The post More Than A YouTube Page: Effortless Swimming’s Venture into Goggles first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

You spend so much time swimming, biking, running and working out in the gym, all with the goal of getting faster. That is, of course, the best way to improve as a triathlete, but there are other things that you can do outside of training that will give you free speed on race day. Here are a few tricks that will improve your overall time on race day without having to put in any more effort.

Tearing Off Your Wetsuit

For most triathletes, the worst part of the day is the swim. Getting out of the water is a relief for many, but the next step is not the bike — it’s ripping off your wetsuit. This may seem like a silly thing to practice, but getting out of a wetsuit when you’re on the clock in a race situation can be hard. You’re pumped full of adrenaline as you enter transition, your hands may be cold from the last few minutes you spent in the water, and suddenly slipping out of your wetsuit becomes a herculean task.

It’s worth dedicating some time in training to practicing this race day scenario. It will help even if you only do it once at the end of every open water training swim. Run out of the water, locate the zipper tie at the back, and tear the suit off. The toughest spots are around your wrists and ankles. The key here is to take a breath, calm yourself and ease your way out of the sleeves and legs. When you try to force it, you might feel stuck, and soon enough a 60-second transition turns into minutes.

Mount and Dismount

Some triathletes will tell you that you have to have your shoes clipped into your pedals in the transition area and that you need to hop onto your bike and slip your feet in on the ride. You certainly can do that, but just because it’s the fastest method used by the pros doesn’t mean it will be fastest for you.

Practice your transition and your mounting and dismounting at home before your races. Get used to hurrying to mount your bike and quickly dismounting. Maybe you will use the pre-clipped method, just as you might take your feet out of your shoes before dismounting at T2. Whatever the case, make sure you practice these maneuvers so you’re as comfortable as possible on race day and not losing any time on silly mistakes.

Practice Your Nutrition

You likely know that you need to have a solid nutrition plan for races, but figuring out what you’ll eat and drink on the big day is just the first step. You need to practice with the entire menu. Wake up and eat your pre-race meal, giving yourself the same amount of time to digest that you would before a race. During your training that day, eat and drink the same things you’ll take on the bike during your races. Go for runs with whatever gels you plan to eat. Don’t leave anything untested, because doing that could end up with you cramping, feeling sick, taking unplanned bathroom breaks or worse.

Shave Your Legs

You’ve heard this before — triathletes love shaving their legs. Do you know why? It saves so much time on the bike. You can save more than a minute during your 25-mile ride in an Olympic triathlon, more than two minutes in a half-distance race and upwards of five minutes in a full-distance affair. That is a lot of time you’re leaving on the table if you decide to show up to your race unshaven.

Know the Rules

It is every athlete’s duty to know the race rules before the starting gun goes off. You need to know where the mount and dismount line is, you should find out how far you have to be behind your fellow athletes on the bike course, you have to know when you’re allowed to take your helmet off in T2 (hint: once you’ve racked your bike). If you don’t know the rules, you’ll make silly mistakes that can lead to you getting penalties, and penalties will cost you more time than anything else on this list.

Get to Know Transition

Depending on the race, the transition zone could be rather small or it could be massive. No matter the size, take a lap of it before your race so you know exactly where you need to go at each stage. Find the entrance to T1 from the swim, walk the path from there to your bike, then proceed to the bike exit. Take a walk back from there back to your rack so you know where to go in T2.

You don’t want to lose valuable seconds (or even minutes if the race is a big one) as you try to remember where you racked your bike. Here’s an extra tip: bring a bright towel to put in your transition section. This will help you locate your spot much quicker and help you save time in T1 and T2.

Get Used to Riding Aero

So many triathletes spend thousands and thousands of dollars on top-of-the-line bikes that weigh next to nothing and slice through the air like a Formula One car, but then they lose so much time by sitting up and out of the aero bars. You can save so much time by taking advantage of your bike’s aero profile. Even if you don’t have a particularly aerodynamic bike, you can still get in an aero position.

The thing about aero positions is that they aren’t always the most comfortable. Firstly, find the most comfortable positioning with a proper bike fit. Then, once your fit is dialled in, practice riding in that position so you’re used to holding it for however long you’ll need to on race day. It’s OK to sit up at times to stretch your back, but for the most part, you want to stay down so you can get from T1 to T2 as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The post Get Free Speed at Your Next Race with These Triathlon Tips first appeared on Slowtwitch News.