Shammy time is training time

Growing up as a young cyclist, one of the lines we always used jokingly was ‘Shammy time is training time’.  Meaning that sitting around in your shammy after your ride was considered training time.  Obviously not the case, but funny nonetheless.

This tip has to do with your shammy - relative to your saddle height on race day (not the amount of time you spend sitting around in it).  Most of us as triathletes will race in a tri-short with a small shammy that doesn’t soak up a gallon of water from the swim, and doesn’t feel like a diaper during the run.  However, we often train in a normal cycling shorts with those nice thick pads that ease the bumps and bruises on our skinny butts.  The difference between the two is relatively minor, but, it does make a difference on race day if your legs and back are used to having that extra ~5mm of height.

So how do you solve this?  We tend not to like adjusting our physical saddle height to compensate, but, if you want to be extreme you could certainly do this.  Rather, we simply make sure to train in our Tri-shorts a couple times per week, and every single ride for the 2-3 weeks before race day.  The difference really is small, but, with ~5000 revolutions of the pedals every hour on the bike, those little differences are worth paying attention to.

For those long rides dedicated to being in the race position we generally find the Tri-shorts more comfortable anyway.  Perhaps you’ll find the same!