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Do you stop?
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Has the water at your races been in a sealed water bottle or from a large cooler? If in a sealed water bottle, do you quickly unscrew the cap, empty the water into your sports bottle, and toss the garbage to the side?
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Do you stop?
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Has the water at your races been in a sealed water bottle or from a large cooler? If in a sealed water bottle, do you quickly unscrew the cap, empty the water into your sports bottle, and toss the garbage to the side?
It is in squeeze bottles open and ready to go. Toss the old bottle, grab a new one. Never stop.
Grab a new one, toss the old and never slow down…
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Do you stop?
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Has the water at your races been in a sealed water bottle or from a large cooler? If in a sealed water bottle, do you quickly unscrew the cap, empty the water into your sports bottle, and toss the garbage to the side?
It is in squeeze bottles open and ready to go. Toss the old bottle, grab a new one. Never stop.
Hmmm. Going to be sad to part ways with the bottle that I have been training with for months.
Maybe start with none then. What you may have been reading about Canada notwithstanding aid stations are all over at IM races and have tons of bottles.
Buy a bottled water at a gas station to start with, then just ditch that one. Ive either done that or used a really crappy bottle that I wouldnt mind ditching.
I personally feel no attachment to water bottles. Over time, I’ve hated all I own for being empty when I didn’t want them to be.
As far as I’m concerned, a road ditch is a good place for them.
You may want to practice this pickup a few times at home. And while you do not want to stop, you may want to slow down a little. Having volunteered, i can say people who go through at full speed are harder to hand a bottle succesfully. Don’t just toss your empty anywhere along the course. You want to toss it just 10-20 yards before the .aid station. Sometimes they put up a sign to aim at. As a volunteer, my technique was to hold the bottle from the bottom so the rider could grasp the bottle and take if from my hand.
As a youth, we had a flag race we did on horses where we grabbed a small flag from a bucket of sand, raced around a far barrel, then back and then deposited it in another bucket of sand on a barrel. Never knew that was going to come in handy later in life.
Refill? Why not toss old bottle and grab new one? No refill necessary.
**You may want to practice this pickup a few times at home. And while you do not want to stop, you may want to slow down a little. **
Good point; to add to this, make eye contact or verbal contact and/or point at the volunteer you are going to get the bottle from so they see you and are ready for you (and you for them) for a smoother handoff.
**You may want to practice this pickup a few times at home. And while you do not want to stop, you may want to slow down a little. **
Good point; to add to this, make eye contact or verbal contact and/or point at the volunteer you are going to get the bottle from so they see you and are ready for you (and you for them) for a smoother handoff.
X2
throw bottle on ground
take new bottle
do not stop
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My first “long” race (CA 70.3), was also my first race that offered bottle handups. I had never tried it before and my thought back then was “don’t crash. take a few extra seconds to stop and grab a bottle”.
I have since realized that it is quite easy to yell out “Water, Water, Water” or “Gatorade, Gatorade, Gatorade” until a volunteer makes eye contact. Once he/she looks at you - then you point to him to let him know that the bottle in his hand is yours. Slow down a little and grab it.
If for some reason you drop it (never happened to me), just keep going. No reason to jam on the brakes and make the person behind you crash into you. Look for a spot in the aid station that is least crowded. Sometimes this is the front portion, sometimes it is at the end.
I use and Aero drink on the front. I try to grab a bottle at the beginning and squeeze it all into by aero drink before the trash spot.
I keep a supply of old “tosser” bottles for that very purpose. Many have have old-style tops or are just beat up and I’m happy to get rid of them. Most of those were given to me at races or bike expos etc. My “good” bottles (ie. ones with my team logo) are kept for training!
My first “long” race (CA 70.3), was also my first race that offered bottle handups. I had never tried it before and my thought back then was “don’t crash. take a few extra seconds to stop and grab a bottle”.
I have since realized that it is quite easy to yell out “Water, Water, Water” or “Gatorade, Gatorade, Gatorade” until a volunteer makes eye contact. Once he/she looks at you - then you point to him to let him know that the bottle in his hand is yours. Slow down a little and grab it.
I use and Aero drink on the front. I try to grab a bottle at the beginning and squeeze it all into by aero drink before the trash spot.
Use the same method, the only bottles I normally keep on the bike are my Infinit. 1 for a half 2 for a full. Fill up the aerodrink and pitch the empty. Sometimes I may grab a gel if the station isn’t to busy, if not I have a couple in the bento box along with a broken in half cliff bar.
I personally feel no attachment to water bottles. Over time, I’ve hated all I own for being empty when I didn’t want them to be.
As far as I’m concerned, a road ditch is a good place for them.
*** +1…lol
x16 on what others have said. Toss, grab, go. And don’t start the bike leg with any bottle you’re attached to.
By the way, if you get a volunteer who doesn’t pop the top in advance for you, you can open them fairly easily with your teeth. If this happens once, you’ll also get the hang of eyeballing which volunteers are holding out opened bottles vs. not.
Here’s a tip that I think you will find helpful regardless:
Once you have decided to take a bottle from a particular volunteer do not just rely on eye contact. *** Point your finger at the volunteer*** to let them know you are going to take it from them. This is a good thing to do both in triathlons and in long-distance running races.
You would be surprised how many times you think you’ve made eye contact with a volunteer only to find that they’re surprised when you take the bottle. Pointing makes it a lot clearer.
-Joe
I used a front Profile Aerodrink… super easy to just grab the bottle from the aid stations (pop-top, already opened by the volunteer) and shoot it into the aerodrink with a couple hard squeezes, maybe a quick mouthful or splash on the back of the neck or squirt to rinse some whiz off the seatpost, and still toss it within their target drop zone. Only slow down a little.
two cages on the bike, one spare in case I miss a stop or they run out and one I drink from. usually between stops is just enough time to drain one bottle so it works out well. Assuming the stations are about 16m apart I’d toss the empty one in the run into the station, slow right down (too fast and you could knock it out of their hand or just hurt them) I’d shout to check it had what I wanted in it eg Gatorade etc when they said yes grab it off a volunteer and off you go. One time I didn;t check and I ended up with water which wasn’t a big deal really but was annoying nonetheless 