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Andy Potts offers tips on transitions
By Gina Zaccagnini // April 12, 2006
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| Photo by Marco Garcia/Getty Images |
Triathlete Andy Potts rides without his left shoe on during the Honolulu Triathlon. His shoe was already clipped in to the pedal, so all he had to do was slip his foot into his shoe
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Andy Potts, 2004 Olympian and 2005 Edmonton World Cup Champion, shares his advice on making successful transitions during a triathlon. He came from a swimming background where he was a member of the U.S. National team from 1995-1997. After two years in corporate America, Potts decided to go back to a career in athletics, but this time as a triathlete. He raced in his first triathlon in 2002 and competed in his first Olympic games after just 22 months in the sport. He just completed his first half ironman distance triathlon where he came in second and he is on his way to Beijing for another World Cup.
Making smooth, fast, efficient transitions during a triathlon
#1: Clean is fast. As long as you aren’t making a lot of mistakes, getting flustered and doing a bunch of stuff that is haywire. Clean is fast. As long as you don’t get ahead of yourself, you are going to have a clean transition.
#2: Set up equipment
Setting up your equipment has to be like a flow chart. You want it to be smooth. When you come in on the swim, you come in and you’re dumping the goggles off, the cap off and just kind of putting them out of the way. You have your helmet ready with sunglasses already on it, so all you have to do is put it on your head and buckle it. Then just take your bike off the rack and go. It is a pretty simple transition, but it is a lot simpler when you don’t have a lot of riffraff around you. To make it so you don’t have a lot of people around you, you have to actually hammer the swim – easier said than done.
#3: Compose yourself
When you’re running to your bike, compose yourself. You just went from horizontal to vertical so your heart rate is going to kind of go through the roof. Breathe big deep breaths and have a mental picture of how you are running up to your bike, put on your helmet and go.
#4: Use your bike for support
When you are coming in on your second transition, you don’t want to come slamming in to the point where you’re making mistakes. You want to make sure you’re getting off the bike at the right time and start to get your running legs under you as you are running with your bike. Use your bike as support because you haven’t been standing up in a while. Lean on your bike just a little bit as you are guiding it and running with it to help get your running legs moving. When you get to your transition area, you rack your bike and you should already have your shoes with your tongue pulled out so all you have to do is slip your foot.
#5: Use baby powder in your shoes
Two keys to making that transfer happen is putting baby powder the shoes. I put baby powder in both my running shoes and my cycling shoes – it helps dry up your feet after swimming and after getting them all sweaty. It helps keep things dry and they don’t rub a lot. Another thing I like to do is put a layer of Vaseline around the heel so my foot slides in nicely, then I just take off.
#6: Don’t wear socks
You don’t really have a lot of time to put on socks. If you are ever worried about blistering and you aren’t worried about winning the race, put on socks. It’s well worth it the next two weeks to take the extra 20 seconds to put on socks. People tell you, ‘you just need to put on socks, how long does that take? You could practice that in your bedroom.’ Well, practicing putting on socks in your bedroom when your heart rate is 50 beats a minute is completely different than practicing putting on your socks when your heart rate is 200 beats a minute and you just swam and biked for an hour and a half.
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