Is it acceptable to wear a swimcap in a pool based traithlon?
I only ask coz...
1) I have a nice shiny new Pirate cap to wear! And
2) The weather on Sunday is not meant to be warm so I'm thinking a cold wet head at 6.30am as I hit the bike won't be particularly pleasant and is avoidable with aforementioned classy headwear.
But it does somehow feel a bit gaylord...
Wear it or just HTFU and JFDI etc?!
Comments
Since I've never done a pool based tri what I'm about to say could be complete bollocks but,
Wouldn't they provide you with a swimcap to make you easier to identify for the lap count etc??
Ruins the perm and turns the hair green cause of the chlorine as well!!!!
D'oh! Good point!
Only other pool based tri I did you sort of migrated from lane 1 to lane 8 of the pool so no one was counting, but having checked the instructions you are quite right - they supply a cap.
Maybe I can pursuade them to let me wear my pirate one anyway - it's quite distinctive enough
If you have a piratey one, I say wear it!
Thanks!
I'm off first with the other drowners at 6am! Which means about a 4am start from home
I've never done a pool tri where you don't wear a hat. Generally they give you one to wear to aid lane counting. I have worn my own one in one as well and they just called me blue and counted me as blue, in a pink hat.
Fun2Tri give you a hat but I might try my own this year as theirs come off my head.
They will either provide you with one for ease of counting or would request that you wore one for hygiene reasons?
I still think this ducking under ropes and changing lanes business is weird, must cost you time. The pool tris I've done here in Germany you swim up to 8 in a lane, seeded in expected finish times so in each lane you have swimmers of different speeds, it works perfectly. Each swimmer is given a different coloured cap and the lane timekeeper puts a tick against each hundred metres under the colour every time the swimmer completes a lap. When a swimmer has completed all but the last 100m, a helper shows them a kickboard to indicate last lap. Easy-peasy.
The Fun2Tri 4 lengths in a lane and swap over are the least congested I've ever swum in. There is a local tri to me which is terrible, get behind someone slow and you are doomed. Others I've had people I've lapped 3 times (in 400m) and they've been a pain in the bum to pass each time.
I think it comes down to pool size. A narrow 25m and it makes for congestion. Smaller than that and you just have every man for himself.