Hail to those, beginner or experienced triathlonists, who won’t get lost in the abundant supply of triathlon clothing and can choose the optimal solution. It is a complex matter, as you need to be able to evaluate your needs in a proficient manner, manage your habits, find appropriate comfort and harmonize suppliers’ offers with your taste and budget.

Earlier there was a saying that the fourth challenge of triathlon is clothing; you may not win a race through it, but it might well make you lose it. Professionals today fight amazingly close races on ironman distance, with the first twenty competitors completing the race within some minutes, which leaves no time to waste on unnecessary things. So the statement rules - mainly - for professionals on sprint and Olympic distances, but I doubt amateur athletes’ success will depend on these few seconds.

But let’s inspect the matter of clothing in terms of performance! I heard it from Chris McCormack two-time Hawaii champion, that triathlon can be described as the mixture of movement (swimming-cycling-running) and nutrition, i.e. refreshing, nutrient intake. It sounds plausible, since during his exceptionally rich career he won hundreds of trophies including Olympic-distance world champion title, still, it seemed for quite long that winning in Hawaii remains a dream for him, as he failed multiple times within the extreme circumstances. But what does this have to do with clothing?

For someone to perform well at a long-distance triathlon competition, they must build their refreshing strategy, which is tightly connected to racing gear. Several questions arise:

 
It is challenging to synchronize these parameters, but it can be simplified if you know what really matters. Kropkó Péter fifty-one-time ironman puts down the importance of clothing excellently in his book. Let’s see his points on universal clothing vs.changing!
 
Changing. Just 20 seconds. In Olympic distances it is true that he who is the fastest to dress, wins. In case of Ironman, if you are good coming out of the water, you may even wait for others before you change. You gain more if you adjust your clothing to the fact that you need air cooling when on the bike, you feel relatively cool air because of the leading wind, while running relies on water cooling, i.e. you need to sprinkle water on yourself. When cycling, you mustn’t sweat the valuable salts. When running, you cannot wear the thick cycling shirt; if you sprinkle water on a tightly woven material plus you sweat, and there go the extra kilograms. Cycling gear for cycling, running gear for running, I don’t prefer universal clothing, though I tried it...

You can see how important a factor you can influence just by investing some seconds. Fluid and salt balance; both are vital in terms of refreshment. If you add the scheduling of carbohydrate replacement, you have arrived at the refreshment strategy. However, you must know regarding carbohydrate intake when and which products that fit into your plan you will find available at the refreshment points. Apart from this, your gear needs to enable you to store jellies, bars.

So, if the picture is getting clear, there is just one more ingredient to the formula: cooling. Kropkó Péter also approaches the matter from this aspect, not by chance, as body heat considerably influences the functioning of our body, thereby your performance. The right temperature is essential for proper carbohydrate-absorption and operation of enzymes.

Research has shown that the core temperature of the body influences the cooling of various body parts in a diverse manner. The cooling of the chest and the total torso is up to one and a half times more efficient than e.g. that of the thighs and even twice than that of the forehead. It is therefore recommended to leave the chest and back as exposed as possible.

To sum up the aspects: comfort comes first, since the competition is decided in the head, so any unnecessary suffering should be ruled out. Secondly, ventilation is important. Anything else can be solved through dressing or other accessories, such as by using belts suitable for storing energy bars.