I love doing sprints. The short distances and smaller spaces through the transitions help expose the little process failures and mental lapses that I can improve for bigger races. Plus, they are a ton of fun.
Yesterday I did a sprint and another of my shortcomings became top of mind. I am horrible in T2. T1 I am in the top quartile, so I have some room for improvement, but am OK. However, I am in the bottom third of T2. And the difference between my T2 time and the other AG podium finishers was 45 seconds to a minute in the two races I did. T2 potentially cost me 1 AG podium slot in a race earlier this spring and one or two AG podium slots yesterday. (Plus, yesterday’s race had a couple other totally avoidable stupid human errors that were also very costly in time.)
Two things I know I can do in T2, that I just haven’t bothered with yet:
So, what are the favored speed laces people are using? How long do they last… one pair of shoes, a few pairs of shoes, a very long time? Do you run with them all the time or just during races? Anything to consider when picking laces?
Second, I am not sure I am ready to take the plunge and go sockless on the run. I ride sockless on sprints, but not on HIM distances (feet just get way too sweaty and gross feeling in bike shoes without socks for that much time). I have read that rolling socks hugely improves time to put on socks. That is free time; I just haven’t done it yet. Is there anything else related to socks that is super helpful for improving transition speed?
Yesterday I did a sprint and another of my shortcomings became top of mind. I am horrible in T2. T1 I am in the top quartile, so I have some room for improvement, but am OK. However, I am in the bottom third of T2. And the difference between my T2 time and the other AG podium finishers was 45 seconds to a minute in the two races I did. T2 potentially cost me 1 AG podium slot in a race earlier this spring and one or two AG podium slots yesterday. (Plus, yesterday’s race had a couple other totally avoidable stupid human errors that were also very costly in time.)
Two things I know I can do in T2, that I just haven’t bothered with yet:
- Rolling my socks to make them quicker to put on
- Using speed laces on my shoes
So, what are the favored speed laces people are using? How long do they last… one pair of shoes, a few pairs of shoes, a very long time? Do you run with them all the time or just during races? Anything to consider when picking laces?
Second, I am not sure I am ready to take the plunge and go sockless on the run. I ride sockless on sprints, but not on HIM distances (feet just get way too sweaty and gross feeling in bike shoes without socks for that much time). I have read that rolling socks hugely improves time to put on socks. That is free time; I just haven’t done it yet. Is there anything else related to socks that is super helpful for improving transition speed?