Best Laces & Socks for Fast Transition Times

Triathlon Forum
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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:
Rolling my socks to make them quicker to put onUsing 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?

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Lock Laces https://www.locklaces.com/
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I’m a HUGE fan of xtenex laces. I have them in most of my shoes and they are the best by far, as you can adjust each eyelet to custom fit your foot. I have some that have lasted a number of years now…

4

Wow, if you are only losing a minute putting on socks and lacing shoes, you have some serious free time waiting for you!

Locklaces, yanks, whatever else…they are all fine. The trick is to get the tension right. I have a pair of shoes dedicated to races (racing flats), so yes, I keep the stretchy laces on full time. But for training, I like normal laces.

For sprints, try running without socks. Sure, pre-rolling may make putting them on take 5 seconds or so, but if you bumble it, you’re looking at a big penalty.

5

You don’t need socks for an olympic and shorter.

6

Buy one of each type of quick laces and see what works best for you.

No socks for sprints!

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I’m super picky on the type of sock I race with. I really don’t care about it’s performance when in the cycling or running shoe, the number one thing I look for is ease of putting them on in transition. I’ve found that I like really thin and super meshy socks that expand a lot when putting them on. I have occasionally sprinkle baby powder in the opening of the sock to make them even easier to put on. SockGuy.com has a lot of options to choose from, so I’d suggest to try a few different pairs until you find some that you can whip on in just a few seconds.

8

You don’t need socks for an olympic and shorter.

This.

I use Zoot TTs - built in elastic laces, no socks needed.
For sprints, I don’t even bother to tighten the laces.
For Olympics, it is 50/50 if I bother tightening the laces.

For HIMs, I will put on socks, and use shoes with more cushioning.

9

Wow, if you are only losing a minute putting on socks and lacing shoes, you have some serious free time waiting for you!
Haha, yeah. Yesterday I was 20th overall. I had a 1:30 T2 time. The average T2 of everyone ahead of me was 44 seconds. The next slowest T2 after me was 1:06. At a minimum, I can probably get 45 seconds of free time. 2nd Place AG beat me by 36 seconds. 1st place AG beat me by 58 seconds, but I was the faster runner. If I had started the run within 13 seconds of him, I probably would have found those 13 seconds to win the AG.

Now, if I had not screwed up twice earlier in the race, I would not have needed the T2 time to win my AG, but perfect execution seems to elude me.

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I was using lock laces, but they probably aren’t any better or worse than any other elastic lace, just buy one and try it. They last longer then the shoe will.

Really try dumping the socks if you are racing for podiums. You are giving time away to your competition. I use baby powder around the shoe entry, and put some A+D ointment down inside the shoe where I get some hot spots to help there. You want to aim to have the fastest T1 and T2 overall, look at every aspect of the time you spend in transition, every second counts in sprints/olys. Don’t do anything standing still that you could do while you’re moving.

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I used to be in your shoes. heh heh.

you need to find the right shoes to run sockless. Once I did that, there is no difference in comfort and my transition is faster. There are probably many options with a sock like upper but Zoots work very well for me. There is essentially nothing inside to rub harshly against your foot. Except for a pre-race run or two, I otherwise always run with socks. The transition to the Zoots for races is very easy

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I thought I couldn’t run sockless either, but here is what I started doing. I take an older pair of stretched out socks, and turn them inside out. Then I wrap them around the shoe insole with the hole in the sock on the bottom. I stick the insole back in the shoe and I basically have a sock for the bottom of my feet. Saves time in T2 and soaks up some of the sweat!!!

13
  1. Skip using socks
  2. Yes get some speed laces or find a pair that come with them

I currently race in Newtons that comes with speed laces, previously used Zoots.

You might need to look at other issues too, 45 seconds to a minute is a long time. Here’s a run through of my T2s for a Sprint.

Flying dismount, run to my rack (know where your rack is) pushing bike from the seat, rack bike, helmet off, shoes on, grab run belt and head out. I put the run belt on while I’m running out.

I put my run belt under my shoes so I can grab it after I’m done putting them on and attach things to my run belt like visors, sunglasses if I want them for the race. I can situation that on the move.

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No socks for Olympic and Sprints, will save you huge time right there. As for laces, I buy bulk 1/8" parachord (small bungee chord) . Simply cut what you need, pretty cheap compared to commercially available bungee style laces. I already have a bunch of lace locks from previous sets of bungee laces so I reuse those until the springs die.

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Another great thing about Xtenex is that there is no other pieces other than the laces, so no “lock” to engage. Fast. If you don’t mind a used pair, I have one I could send you…

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Definitely Xtenex. Tried them one time and never went back. Best thing out there.

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Thanks a ton. This thread has been immensely helpful. I learned about two products I did not know existed: I use Zoot TT shoes with built in speed-laces, and Xtenex laces. And, it affirmed Lock Laces, which I had heard of.

My plan is to buy some Xtenex and Lock Laces right away just to experiment with them on regular runs. And, I will try to locate a local shop that sells the Zoot shoes to check them out. I may buy the Zoots for the total package on sprint races (since I plan to try to get better in those and I plan to race the Nationals in Cincinnati in 2018). And, I will probably go with my regular shoes and either Xtenex or Lock Laces for HIM races. My feet are kind of fragile, so I am cautious of shoe changes in general. But, I have no problem is running a 5K in shoes that may not be ideal for me if they can save me a minute in transition.

18

Not sure if anyone mentioned this but ditch the socks…

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I hate to be the dissenting voice, but I have a strong dislike for the Xtenex, I could never get them dialed in, and always get hot spots with them in my instep. I’ve always done best with basic elastic laces and lace locks. I have them in most of my shoes for every day training and racing, I set them to the length I need, and then tie a knot on the other side of the lock, and then never have to worry about slippage, and the stretch in the laces gives me plenty of room to get my feet in. I fully agree to sockless for anything shorter than a HIM type race…

And yes, overall for transition, the less you have to do the better… because your brain doesn’t work at 170+bpm, you want to be on autopilot for execution… T1, shoes are in the pedals, elastics to keep them level, helmet is open straps out, with the nose facing me upside down (do I can directly flip it onto my head), sunglasses are in the helmet vents, and any nutrition that I need is on the bike already, and the number belt is on the seat (since most of the races I do require a bib on the bike) unless I’m racing a Du, in which case it’s already on. For T2, hat is right by my shoes, usually any nutrition I would need was on the bike so I would already have loaded it into a pocket… In terms of race sequencing, coming out of the water, cap and goggles come off in my right hand, unzip the wetsuit with my left, as I pull the right sleeve off, I let the cap and gogles go, and they are caught inside that sleeve, no risk of a discard penalty, and one less thing to worry about, do the other sleeve, and get it down to my waist while running to the tzone, then it’s one solid two handed push with thumbs inside the wetsuit to get it to the knees, then it’s 1-2 steps with each leg to get it off (I’m usually putting my helmet on at the same time), then grab the bike and go, flying mount at the line… coming back, I usually try to shift to an easier gear for the last 500m into T2 to spin out the legs, feet are already out of the shoes, flying dismount, rack the bike, put on the shoes, remove the helmet, grab my hat (if I’m wearing one) and go… No thinking required, and it’s practiced enough that I can do it without thinking… The last super sprint I raced, I got 2nd overall and won my age group in the t-zone, I outrode the guy behind me, but he outswam and outran me by greater margins, but I beat him by 45sec, because I put 90sec into him across the two transitions (the guy who won spanked me on every leg, but I clawed back time in transition on him too)… not to mention, when you fly by people in transition, you’re delivering a psychological blow to them…

20

I thought I couldn’t run sockless either, but here is what I started doing. I take an older pair of stretched out socks, and turn them inside out. Then I wrap them around the shoe insole with the hole in the sock on the bottom. I stick the insole back in the shoe and I basically have a sock for the bottom of my feet. Saves time in T2 and soaks up some of the sweat!!!

This is simple and brilliant and I might try it. No matter what I do I can’t run more than 3 miles without socks without some horrible blister on the bottom of my feet. That never happens with socks. Drives me nuts to be doing a sprint to olympic and be putting socks on.