What's in your closet?

How do you raise the blogging bar?  One theory is to join forces with another writer and hope that the combined output is more dazzling than either could do on their own.  Ah, but an ironic twist this is.  Most endurance sports are individual pursuits - a single athlete versus other athletes or the clock.  But Kovas from Midwest Multi-Sport Life and I have no problem bucking the system.  Are we early adopters of a new trend in blogging?  Or do we just want to be the blogging world's version of Hall & Oats?  Only time will tell.

Today we compare/contrast our equipment and how it is stored. 

Kovas = regular font

Patrick = bold italic font

Some people have a gear closet, others a gear room. Patrick and I suspect that Jeff has a climate-controlled vault with a secret lab for nutrition research. I have space down in the basement, sharing the area with children’s toys and boxes of varying shapes and sizes. Some might call it a Pain Cave; to me, it’s The Corner.

As you can see, it straddles a not very fine line between organization and complete chaos.

I haven't named my area, but it's the front right quarter of my garage.  Save for clothing, most of my stuff (at least theoretically) goes here, and shares the space with tools, a workbench and and a few restoration projects that have not been touched since I've started triathlon. 
 

My bike is a Look 555, with Campagnolo, Bontrager, and 3t components. It is way more bike than I deserve, but as I ride and get stronger, I hope the cycling gods are at least chuckling a little less. My favorite riding gear is my Garneau bib, Bigfoot Triathlon full-zip jersey, and my Sidi shoes. 

In the foreground you can see my Cycle-Ops trainer and riser block, for riding inside. My other bike is a Fisher Rig 29er, one speed to help teach me not to pedal squares. In the future, when I compete in offroad triathlons, this will be the bike!

My bikes (a Specialized Transition TT bike and a Bianchi Mono-Q road bike) take center stage in this little world.  In fact the bikes are the only gear that consistently ends up back in the same place every time.  You can't see it in this picture, but there are various piles of supporting gear strewn around.

If you look close enough, you can see various other bikes in the background: a couple of beach cruisers, Ian's Specialized Jr. BMX bike, and Mary's mountain bike. 

Why is my Xterra Vortex3 inside out? That’s how it came home from the Bigfoot Triathlon and I really like the blue color, so inside out it has remained. If I ever actually swim again, I can’t imagine I’d find a better wetsuit for the price.

Don’t know why the Xterra logo is upside down.

Why is my 2XU SC:2 sleeveless wetsuit inside out?  Because I just finished rinsing it off from this weekend's open water swim.  In all honesty, I HATE rinsing my suit.  It's one of those things - despite the fact that it only takes 5 minutes, it feels like it takes hours and I'm loathe to do it.  The suit is hanging next to a Zinfandel vine that I've had for 5 years that has never borne any fruit.  In fact, this year the vine barely has any leaves.

One of these things is not like the others… I’ve been partial to this line of Nikes recently and I rotate between the Lunartrainers and the two pairs of Lunarglides. Recently, Somnio sent me a pair of Westridge trail shoes to test out and so far they are really great. This is really an embarrassment of riches really, who needs 4 pairs of running shoes?

This high-tech storage system was custom-designed by me, but I believe patio furniture stores sell something very similar. 

As far as running shoes go, I am a Newton man (right).  It makes buying new shoes really easy, I just go get the exact same pair.  There is not any other gear that I use that I am this TOTALLY loyal too, preferring to experiment with new things as I replace them.  That said, I currently wear New Balance 875's (left) on the trails and Zoot 2.0 racing flats (center) when it's go time.

 

In the corner reside the hats and some minor swag picked up recently. As the years go by, there will be more. Oh yes, there will be more.

I don't have a hat/swag section.  Consider those items part of the "supporting gear" that currently lives in various piles.  However, this would be a good time to point out that the laundry service in my house is super-efficient.  Currently drying on the rolling rack is a pair of Louis Garneau bib shorts, the black version of a "Runners High" tech tee (best. tee. ever.), a Tyr one piece tri-suit and a San Diego Triathlon Series cycling jersey.

The remainder of my gear resides in this dresser, organized VERY neatly (some might claim anally): socks and small stuff up top, swim stuff top drawer, bike stuff center drawer, and running at the bottom. Nothing hierarchical about it and I just realized it’s the typical order of a triathlon. There are NO coincidences!

(Sleek and modern, a most useful hand-me-down.)

Storage for the various pairs of shorts, tees, compression clothing, socks, arm warmers and whatever else I have is in an unremarkable drawer in the closet of the bedroom.  Lately I have been obsessed with Capo crew length cycling socks, with the pair below being my current favorite.  I wear them when I ride, but then I keep them on all day.  I like to think that rolling around town with shaved legs in a pair of duo-toned cycling socks gives me a certain "don't-mess-with-me-unless-you-want-a-metric-wrench-to-the-side-of-your head" look.  That's right, I'm an American and I just used the word "metric".

Kovas, is this where I am supposed to ask everybody where they store their stuff?  We never discussed this part...