With Covid restrictions easing across the U.K., I have managed to book myself onto a standard triathlon. I plan on using this as a training race, just to make sure I remember how transitions work, get used to the race environment, and get accustomed to the competitive open-water swim. However, my current wetsuit has a hole in the armpit, and my tri-suit has seen one too many races. With this in mind, I have decided to splash out and buy new ones. But what do you buy? There are so many suits out there.

I started with the tri-suit. I was looking in the price range of £100–£200, which I assumed would give me a decent suit. My current tri-suit is a 2XU armless suit. This is great—no chance of chafing—but the issue I had was sunburn. In Hamburg and Bolton, during my last two Ironmans, I suffered from sunburn. Bolton gave me a horrible vest tan that took an obscene amount of time to fade, and in Hamburg, I got some very nasty blisters from sunburn.

I’m guessing, like most people do, I started by checking multiple lists of the best triathlon suits. I really like the 2XU suit and was drawn toward that brand. I looked through the lists and narrowed my options down to three, based on reviews from different sites and user feedback (and, admittedly, a little to do with price…). The first was the 2XU Perform Suit, the second was the Zone3 Lava Suit, and the third was the 2XU Compression Suit. I’ll note that pricing at the time I bought mine was different from now. I’d read that the 2XU Compression Suit was a good choice for long-course distances, so combined with the price at the time, I decided to go with the Compression Suit. Sizing can be tricky with these suits. I went for a medium and, luckily, it’s a really nice fit.

Next was the wetsuit. This was harder—where do you even start? The price brackets are budget (up to £250), mid-range (£250–£500), and top-end (over a grand). I browsed all ranges and found I was best suited for the mid-range. My current wetsuit is a Zone3, which I really like—it gives good buoyancy and is comfortable. The suits I initially wanted were a bit out of my price range. I looked at the Huub Varman Suit and the Orca 3.8 Suit, but in the end I went with the Zone3 Aspire Suit. The price was right, it had good reviews, and I was impressed with my last suit from the same brand. Again, sizing was tricky—I tried medium, medium tall, and medium large. They were all close, but after research I chose medium tall. Luckily, it was the right choice—it’s a snug fit, and I’m happy with it.

I’m not going to lie—this week has been tough. Going from a recovery week into a full-on week with swimming, which I’m not used to, hurt. I decided to pick up the swim sessions from the plan as they are, without any build-up. This may have been a mistake—the two sessions I had this week were hard. I also got called in for my Covid vaccine, which absolutely knocked me for six, making the weekend bike and run much harder than they should have been.

The first swim session this week was more of an endurance session. I covered 3.4k, but the last couple of 200-meter efforts were in Zone 3. This caught me off guard after a much longer session than I’m used to. The second session was a threshold session. It was shorter at 2.4k, but the main set was all in Zone 4. This was tough. I plan to continue the swims as prescribed, hoping they get easier, while keeping an eye on performance in other areas to avoid negative effects.

I got a phone call early this week for my Covid vaccine. I was actually happy about this, as it could make traveling easier. We are planning to travel to Estonia by air. With current travel restrictions and Covid regulations, I’m not sure what will be required to fly. I went for the vaccine on Thursday, which was good because Friday was my rest day. I needed it—I felt like I was hungover all day, with no energy. This carried over into Saturday.

On Saturday, I was feeling a little better, but I had a 4-hour ride and a half-hour run to complete. I set off feeling slightly below my usual self. With about an hour left on the ride, my heart rate started to rise, and I felt really weak. This was not helped by the headwind on the way back. I had no power in my legs, pushing about 140 watts when I normally push at least 170 watts. It made for a miserable end to the ride. For the run after the transition, I just gritted my teeth and got on with it—it was only half an hour, after all.