Lace swapped for elastic laces, normal boa road shoes or Velcro Tri shoes?
Aiming to master a moving mount this year so shoes will be on the pedals, main focus 70.3 but also BUCS sprint and Olympic in the season.
Can only afford 1 high end pair of shoes, so Tri race shoes will also be road cycling race shoes/training shoes excepting on the turbo
I have normal road shoes and tri shoes. The tri shoes are faster to change into, but not a huge amount, the biggest issue I find is the weather. Living in Northern Europe the tri shoes are only used very occasionally, as we often race in single figure temps even in the summer.
If I could just choose one it would be Boa, or possibly double boa. Another reason for this is comfort and adjustability too, which I feel is slightly easier with a Boa. Not so much of a issue for short course I would imagine.
Since all of your tri races will be less then threshold effort I would go with the tri shoes.
Sprint & Olympic less than threshold? Even on a 70.3 climbs will be at threshold? E.g. for me 250 watt average (mid Z3) but climbs will have surges at 350+ (5.5ish+W/kg) watts to break up any trains a bit and hurt any body hanging on a bit (it worked in my first 70.3 last year except losing a bottle and 1/2 my race nutrition meant I couldn’t fully realise it)
Plus using them for UK hill climb season and TT’s. I guess I’d the amount over threshold the place to switch Tri to road shoes is what I should be asking?
If you want to run within 30 seconds of your 5K or 60 seconds of your 10K times then yes, slightly less than threshold.
Yes, there may be points where your are over but not the whole bike portion.
If you are over threshold on a HIM for a significant amount of time then you are going too hard for your ability or the race has unusual demands.
You’re asking for 1 type of shoe for two distinctly different jobs. The tri shoes will do both jobs, the road shoes might do one of the jobs better but not allow the other (flying mount).
Don’t the majority of long course pros use road shoes and do flying mounts?
I’m not pro or do Ironman events, only non Ironman branded HIM’s
I would also think that pro’s have more than one pair of high end shoes as well.
For bike racing I use Sidi G10’s
For tri racing I use Sidi T3’s
For Mountain biking I use Sidi Cape
All have their strength and weaknesses but are specific to the type of riding I do with them.
The Fizik Vento Powerstrap R2 might be a good compromise between performance road and tri. Otherwise I would look at a good tri shoe or the Giro Empire elastic lace hack.
The best combo tri/road shoe is the Pearl Izumi Tri Fly Pro’s. I still prefer my Bont Vaypor+ for riding my road/fixed gear/TT when it is cold. These pearls are warm weather (luckily I live in Jax FL) and the turbo.
https://www.amazon.com/PEARL-IZUMI-Tri-Fly-PRO/dp/B096YHBCLV
Those look awesome. Never seen them before. Are they fairly wide up front, or soft on the forefoot area? I have a pair of shimano road shoes that I don’t like because they are so stiff in the toe box.
I have been using my shimano tri shoes (TR-52) and love them. However, it is time for a change…They are pretty old and worn out.
If you are even reasonably competitive (not just for wins, but agains your old times), you really will need the trishoes for sprints and Olys.
You don’t need to learn the full flying mount, and you can even put your shoes on in T1 if you want (not leaving them on the bike), but it definitely saves time AND is more graceful to get out of your trishoes before T2 while on the bike and then run it in.
If you learn the not-hard method of leaving the shoes on the bike for T1 and sliding into your shoes and the strapping them in on the go, you’ll be really moving on the transitions.
But for both these, you do need the rear heel loop on trishoes.
Probably the easiest 30 seconds (or more) you’ll save on race day, given it takes less than 15 minutes of practice to learn how to do both the T1 and T2 transitions.
If you learn the not-hard method of leaving the shoes on the bike for T1 and sliding into your shoes and the strapping them in on the go, you’ll be really moving on the transitions.
It’s not that hard, but I’ve still made a mess of the cyclocross style mount…
My method now is to set up the shoes on the bike with the left pedal forward, that way when mounting (from the left side) I can just stand on that pedal mid-run, and swing the right leg over without having to land crotch-first on the saddle.
If you learn the not-hard method of leaving the shoes on the bike for T1 and sliding into your shoes and the strapping them in on the go, you’ll be really moving on the transitions.
It’s not that hard, but I’ve still made a mess of the cyclocross style mount…
My method now is to set up the shoes on the bike with the left pedal forward, that way when mounting (from the left side) I can just stand on that pedal mid-run, and swing the right leg over without having to land crotch-first on the saddle.
Yes, that’s a required skill in the on-bike-pedals method. You definitely have to practice that so you get used to having the correct pedal in front.
Flora Duffy does that in most of her races.
If you learn the not-hard method of leaving the shoes on the bike for T1 and sliding into your shoes and the strapping them in on the go, you’ll be really moving on the transitions.
It’s not that hard, but I’ve still made a mess of the cyclocross style mount…
My method now is to set up the shoes on the bike with the left pedal forward, that way when mounting (from the left side) I can just stand on that pedal mid-run, and swing the right leg over without having to land crotch-first on the saddle.
NO!!! You don’t land on the crotch. You land on the upper inner thigh and slide into sitting position. Geezus, are you trying to not have kids or something?
I land on my buttocks or sitbones
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NO!!! You don’t land on the crotch. You land on the upper inner thigh and slide into sitting position. Geezus, are you trying to not have kids or something?
I know what you’re meant to do. It just doesn’t always happen perfectly in the heat of battle. And yes I have practiced, but I find my method described above is just as fast and guaranteed not to hurt.
And no, I don’t want to have any more kids.
Those look awesome. Never seen them before. Are they fairly wide up front, or soft on the forefoot area? I have a pair of shimano road shoes that I don’t like because they are so stiff in the toe box.
I have been using my shimano tri shoes (TR-52) and love them. However, it is time for a change…They are pretty old and worn out.
It is kind of hard to say since I am coming from Bont’s. They feel almost as stiff, I notice the stack height more than anything. The top of the upper is soft but the non-mesh parts have some decent structure. They aren’t crazy wide but I have never had any rubbing or chafing issues at all. I replaced the factory insoles because I could feel the drainage areas in the sole.
If you want to run within 30 seconds of your 5K or 60 seconds of your 10K times then yes, slightly less than threshold.
Yes, there may be points where your are over but not the whole bike portion.
If you are over threshold on a HIM for a significant amount of time then you are going too hard for your ability or the race has unusual demands.
You’re asking for 1 type of shoe for two distinctly different jobs. The tri shoes will do both jobs, the road shoes might do one of the jobs better but not allow the other (flying mount).
I’ll take it a step further……if you are over TH for a significant amount of time in an HIM, your TH isn’t accurate.