Without your hands, arms, shoulders, shoulder blades, spine, or head losing contact with the floor, slowly slide your hands and arms away from the sides of the body. Distortion sucks — Trust me, you need to be able to see clearly for that split second you lift your head up to sight. Ideally the second pair would be darkly tinted if the first pair is light or colored, but either way, there is NOTHING more debilitating on race morning than a goggle issue or the wrong color lens. Of course you won’t win any fashion contests with these goggles, speedo kneeskin and you may want to save them for race day, but for the cold, hard, and cloudy realities of actual tri racing, these are a good option. I always have at least two pairs for different conditions on race morning, and I’m always glad I do. Freshwater fish that wind up in seawater will have a similar experience, eventually dying as their bodies become overly dehydrated. While the pool functions work with just the goggles, you will need to also purchase a smartwatch that works with the goggles for open-water data like distance as you go. In the pool, the goggles will tell you pace as you do those long intervals without having to stop and look at the clock, and even help you log your swim sets to look at later-much like you would with a smartwatch.
Triathletes need to be in the open-water (truly, they do), and open-water training is nearly impossible to quantify, given the lack of walls, structured distances, etc. With the heads-up display in the Form goggles, you can now see time, stroke count, and even GPS-based distance (with a compatible smartwatch)-all as you swim. Snorkels have never really been all that popular among swimmers until recently were competitive swimmers started using them quite a lot during training! What equipment do the swimmers use? But since swim caps break easily, I recommend getting cheaper caps to use for practice and saving the more expensive swim caps with your school logo for meets. Large caps are mostly for people with long hair to prevent hair from coming out of the cap and interrupting a swim session. How do you clean swim caps? The best pair of swim goggles for a collegiate pool swimmer is absolutely not the best pair of swim goggles for an age-group triathlete.
Just like how a pair of cycling shorts isn’t generally the best pair of shorts for the bike leg of a triathlon, think about how completely different pool swimming is from open-water swimming in triathlon. We couldn’t live in Amsterdam without a cargo bike (since we have no car here). Most people don’t have any idea how many calories are in a pound of body weight. Some breeds, like Labrador retrievers, are traditional boat dogs. Cats might not be susceptible to the siren song of waves lapping the shoreline, but most dogs will plunge into water fun with zeal. But for open-water swimming, we need to see the whole world around us, we need to have as little distortion as possible, we need to see out of the water (sighting), and we need to expect that at some point, we will probably be hit in the face. Fancy prisms and lens designs may look cool online, but they are not great for open-water swimming. Also the X1 and R1 both come in a monstrous range of lens colors with a really cool comparison chart online. Big bonus: It comes in five solid colors and is often on sale for even less than $12.
There is an exception on the fit-roulette rule below, but even custom goggles aren’t perfect. There are a few brands below with silly-huge goggles, which won’t win you any style points, but longtime triathletes absolutely swear by them for a reason. Especially when it won’t cost you more than a few minutes of research and a little bit of smart shopping. You won’t find a swimsuit cheaper than this. One pair is ok, two pairs is just right — Once you find the right fit, buy another pair of the same goggle. Ok, so this suit is alllll about the flash. Despite the price, this low-coverage suit is still constructed with flatlock seams and chlorine resistant fabric. The only downside here is the price, but don’t forget with replaceable foam and included anti-fog drops, this could conceivably be a lifetime pair. Though not exactly the coolest goggles on the market, Barracuda’s amazing foam fit system has been around forever, and is a huge favorite amongst those older, grizzled veterans from whom we should all be taking advice. The soft, replaceable (this is unique) foam padding means that you don’t lose an eye in a face-to-elbow collision, and also ensures the likelihood of a good fit without something that takes over your whole face.