Episode 120 - The Ultimate Triathlete Christmas Gift Guide

The Ultimate Triathlete Christmas Gift Guide

As the holiday season approaches, we know you’re on the hunt for the perfect gifts for the triathlete in your life. Or maybe you’re looking to fill up your own wish list. Absolutely no judgement here. 

To help you out this festive season, we’ve put together the Ultimate Triathletes Christmas Gift Guide!

It includes 20 tri-specific items we know you’ll love!

Links:

Unwrap the goodness >> Download my FREE Ultimate Triathlete Christmas Gift Guide

Check how well you’re doing when it comes to your nutrition with our 50 step checklist to Triathlon Nutrition Mastery: dietitianapproved.com/checklist

Start working on your nutrition now with my Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course: dietitianapproved.com/kickstart

Unwrap the goodness >> Download my FREE Ultimate Triathlete Christmas Gift Guide

 It’s for you if you’re a triathlete and you feel like you’ve got your training under control and you’re ready to layer in your nutrition. It's your warmup on the path to becoming a SUPERCHARGED triathlete – woohoo!

Connect with me: 

To learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy, head HERE | dietitianapproved.com/academy

See behind-the-scenes action on Instagram: @dietitian.approved

Follow along on Facebook: Dietitian Approved

Join our FREE Dietitian Approved Crew Facebook group: Dietitian Approved Crew

Enjoying the podcast?

Let me know what you loved about it and what you learnt by tagging me @dietitian.approved on Instagram!

Episode Transcription

Episode 120: The Ultimate Triathlete Christmas Gift Guide

Taryn Richardson  0:00

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

Taryn Richardson  00:42

Welcome to Episode 120 of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I honestly can't believe how we got here. At the time that this episode lands, it is exactly 38 sleeps to Christmas. How crazy is that? Now I know we have listeners all around the world and Christmas may or may not be something that you celebrate. Regardless, what I've got for you is a gift guide for the triathlete, perfect things that anyone who swims, bikes and runs is going to want in their life. So even if it's a list that you keep or add to for your birthday, I know that there's something in here for everyone. 

Taryn Richardson  01:25

Now, there are definitely two kinds of people in the world. When it comes to gift shopping. There are people that a super organised and do it all early and know exactly what they are buying for people. And then there's also the people that are literally out there shopping on Christmas Eve like scrambling to find stuff, and often buying just crap that people don't actually want or need because you're in a mad rush. You're likely to overspend if that's you as well. And you're spending what should be a nice relaxing time with family in the absolute carnage of the shops on Christmas Eve. So I wanted to get in before the Black Friday sales which are happening next weekend with the Ultimate Gift Guide for every triathlete. 

Taryn Richardson  02:13

A lot of businesses around the world will do a Black Friday promo. So if you can get yourself organised this year to do your Christmas shopping, or tell the people purchasing for you what you want, it can be a great time to shop. I try and do all of my Christmas shopping in the Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday. Yes, I'm a total organisational nerd. But it saves me so much money. I'm not doing some crazy last minute rush. And what I like to do is I keep a running list throughout the year of ideas for people. So it's easy, and I'm not kind of racking my brains for what I need to get for somebody. Now gifting is not my love language, I don't really like stuff. I don't like clutter. I don't like things that take up space, like candles and bath salts, oh my God, the number of people that give me bath salts. We have a bathroom cupboard full of bath salts that will probably never get used because, well one, who has time for bath in my life. But two, I live in Brisbane and it's hot here most of the time. So getting in a hot body of water is not something that really entices me to relax for the majority of the year. So I wanted to help you get a bit more sort of thoughtful and purposeful with your gifting plus, of course, give you a long list of ideas for yourself.

Taryn Richardson  03:23

And I've got a range of things for you. I actually wanted to do a bit of a 12 Days of Christmas and do 12 things. But once I got going, I couldn't stop. And we've actually got 20 gift ideas for the triathlete in this episode. There's a huge range of prices as well from sort of $20 - $30 bucks, all the way up to a couple of $100. Even you could spend sort of up to A$600 if you wanted to. But if you're out driving, you're running, you're on the wind trainer or you're riding your bike, I have this in a one page PDF download that you can grab for free to save you jotting notes and I'm even going to put some links in there too. So you can go straight to that product and see if that's something that you want or not. So you can grab that for free at dietitianapproved.com/120. To celebrate our 120th episode of the podcast. Alright, so let's get straight into it.

Taryn Richardson  04:15

Number 1, every triathlete needs a set of fins. We had Brenton Ford from Effortless Swimming on the podcast a little while back, and he recommended a particular type of fin that he likes to use with his swimmers. They are the DMC Elite II Tri Fins. I'll drop the link for you so that you can have a look. They're about A$99. He did an episode way back at episode 81 on how to become a faster, more efficient swimmer back in February 23. So if you don't own a pair of fins yet, then these might be a good one to add to your swim gear bag. Or if you do have a pair of fins they might be the long ones and so maybe you want to go the short variety or have a couple of different options depending on what type of swimming you're doing fins honestly should last you forever I've had the fins that I've owned for 20 years. So it is a little bit of an investment but good quality ones should last you forever.

Taryn Richardson  05:13

Number 2 is a pull buoy. Another thing to add to your swimming gear bag. Brenton also suggested a particular type of pull buoy which I've actually never used myself. But he said it's the best is the Eney Buoy II. I'll drop that link as well. It's A$42. It is an interesting design. I'm not gonna lie. But he says it's the one of the things that you want to add to your kitbag as a swimmer. And so if you have just a normal sort of foam, pull buoy, this might be something that you want to add to your wish list or could be a good gift for your fellow triathlete.

Taryn Richardson  05:46

Number 3, a shameless plug for my Fuel Your Adventure book, it is a little physical, a five booklet of homemade sports products. So it's full of energy bars, energy balls, there's homemade sports drink in there, there's even some savory options as well so that you can make your own sports food from the comfort of your very own kitchen. So if you go to dietitianapproved.com/fuelyouradventure, you can check out with that. And that can be a great little stocking filler or a gift to somebody anywhere in the world. It's A$32, including shipping Australia wide, or US$32 including international shipping worldwide because it is a physical booklet. And we're up to our second edition. Now I've added a few additional things into that this year, we've just done another print run. So get in quick before they all sell out. 

Taryn Richardson  06:39

Number 4, and I would personally love to be gifted. This is a sports massage, every triathlete could do with getting a massage. But it's got to be the right type of massage. So hopefully, you know somewhere in your area or you have a particular person in mind, or even a sports medicine type clinic might have a good massage therapist that can do a good sort of remedial sports massage. There is nothing worse when you exercise a lot. And you're always sort of tired and sore. Getting those really like gentle relaxing, fingers running down your back tight massages, hate those don't have time for those. They don't make me feel more relaxed, they make me more worked up. But a great gift for somebody that maybe has everything that they need, or you're not sure if they need anything or not. But I reckon everyone would love to be gifted a massage. Often it's those things that you don't necessarily pay for yourself or want to invest in yourself, that can be great to gift.

Taryn Richardson  07:38

Number 5, and this could be a big one. But maybe you want to be gifted or you want to give somebody a race entry, you want to check that they want to do that distance first or that event. But triathlon is a very expensive sport, right. And so if someone can give you a leg up for an entry that you want to do already, or you know that person wants to do, then that can just help really lower costs for somebody and can be a really nice gift. As long as they want to do it. Don't give someone an Ironman entry if they don't want to do an Ironman.

Taryn Richardson  08:10

Number 6 is a pair of goggles. I'll drop some links in my one page PDF for you for a few different things that I like. And I know a lot of people use and enjoy. But we can often go through goggles relatively quickly. I just had a pair that broke. It took me a little bit of time to do some research around the type of goggle that I wanted because there are so many different options on the market. Is it open water swimming? Is it pool swimming? Do you want something that's got like polarised lenses or reflective lenses? Because you're in the sun all the time? Do you just need it to be super super comfy? Because you're in it for a long time? Or do you want it to be fast like a sprinters type goggle. And they honestly can range from sort of $20-$30 up to over 100. You've got a few options in your download depending on how much you want to spend. But a pair of goggles is a great stocking filler and also a great gift because you will use them. And the other person that maybe you're gifting for will use them as well.

Taryn Richardson  09:09

Number 7 is a pair of running shoes like how quickly do we go through runners when we run lots of kilometers and lots of miles in a week. When I was full blown training, I was replacing mine every three months. And that as an expense can add up really really quickly. So if you know that you want a particular pair of shoes for you, like you just I used to just rinse and repeat the exact same brand size, whatever colour came out at the time, then use the Black Friday sales to get what you want for yourself. Get someone to give it to you or gift it to your triathlete friend or partner. But again, like it's just helping to lower the cost you want to check that you've got you know the right size the right brand because she's a very, very individual as you know, that could be a nice little gift and you can spend you know $100, you could obviously spend three $400 So maybe if you know that they have a particular brand, get them a gift voucher for that brand, or a sports gear store to get their own.

Taryn Richardson  10:08

Number 8 is a gel or sports drink or bar sample pack or taste test pack, you can get things like this at The Feed, and get a whole range of different brands and flavours of gels. If you're somebody that's looking to try different products, or you have somebody that's maybe just starting in the sport, or maybe stepping from sprint up to a Olympic distance or beyond, and they're going to need to start to look at the fueling they're using during the race itself. Or if you know that that person has a particular brand and particular flavour that they love, get them a whole box of that it's the most cost effective way to buy it. If you are a one type of gel or sports drink person, but again, it just helps to lower someone's cost in the sport. And it's a great little gift to receive because it's super practical, you know that they're going to use it.

Taryn Richardson  10:59

Number 9, this would be for somebody that is doing more long course racing. But if they don't have it yet already, or you don't have it on your list is some sort of scoops for your TT bars to make them more comfortable. There's quite a few different brands and varieties out there at the moment. If you are, you know doing your first full distance, or Ironman race or even a 70.3, and you want to be more comfortable on your aerobars, then something to rest your forearms on can be a really nice gift. And again, the world is your oyster with how much you spent here. Depends how much you love them. But could be something that you want to add to your wish list or gift somebody that is gearing up to do something a bit longer.

Taryn Richardson  11:41

Number 10 trigger balls and any form of thing that you can shove into your body and do your own trigger pointing. You can get these from Amazon, I'll drop some links for things that I like to play with. You can get them from physio practices, sports medicine clinics, but definitely online and some sports gear stores as well. But things that you could put underneath your desk and roll your feet over while you're working to trigger your feet, or little pocket physios that you can check into your ITBS and check into your hip flexors to help release those things. They can be a great little stocking filler, and it's a little bit like N plus one in that space, there are so many different toys that you can play with to do some self-triggering. So that can be a great little gift if you didn't want to spend too much, or for somebody that is relatively new to the sport as well and is starting to feel the pain and the hurt of not really doing a lot of self-maintenance.

Taryn Richardson  12:36

Number 11 is a race belt. I don't know how many I've bought at races because I've forgotten mine. That's probably the number one thing I would forget is a race belt, we can never have too many in all your different bags. And there are so many different things on the market that somebody may not have yet. So you've just got this simple loops that go around that you can toggle your race numbers on, but you can also get things that you can loop gels into and fueling or carry bottles and things like that, or little zip sections that you can stash gels and blocks and things into so lots of options and ideas on the market might be something to add to your list if you don't have one, but definitely going to be a great gift for most triathletes. Even somebody like me, that's probably got three kicking around. I would love something that was a little bit fancier upgrade in that arena.

Taryn Richardson  13:24

Number 12 is some sort of straw bottle or torpedo for your bike hydration. So Profile Designs do a nice one that sits on your handlebars, and is a straw on your face. I also really liked the speed fuel products that have that bottle down on the frame and then the straw that loops its way up through your frame and up through handlebars into your face. There's lots of things on the market. If you don't have one for yourself and you are doing long course and I definitely recommend a straw in your face as part of your hydration strategy. Because you're more likely to drink it if it's in your face. You don't have to get out of aero to use it. But you need to find one that fits on your bike really well. It is aerodynamic, so it's not like a brick at the front there that slowing you down and making sure that if you are going to put that weight on the top of your handlebars rather than your frame, it's not going to throw out your steering. 

Taryn Richardson  14:18

Number 13 shameless plug for my Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course it is A$347 or US$247 US and you could give that to anyone in the world. It is a great place to start to lay some foundations with your triathlon nutrition for someone that is perhaps not ready for the bigger Triathlon Nutrition Academy yet. So if you go to dietitianapproved.com/kickstart, you can read all about it all the information that I go through in that course. But that could be a great gift for yourself or for your fellow triathlete to make sure that they are really laying down the foundations of the fourth leg. That is what I'm all about is teaching triathletes how to level up their performance with the power of nutrition. And you may not have thought about gifting a course to somebody as a present or asking for that for yourself.

Taryn Richardson  15:12

Number 14, these things are getting a bit of limelight lately, but those run foot pods, definitely not on the budget end of the spectrum, they sort of $250. And I think the latest stride is $380. But it's a little thing that you can attach to your laces that give you information about your foot stride, and your rate and your pace and even lower body stress and lots of things like that. So it might be something that you've been looking at for yourself, hold out to the Black Friday sales, I reckon something will come up in that space. Or it could be something that you give to somebody too. I know a lot of triathletes that are starting to play with them lately, and they enjoy them. And that data can be really useful if you're not a strong runner. Or you want a bit of additional feedback about how that's going.

Taryn Richardson  15:56

Number 15. To help you become a kitchen ninja. A great gift for either yourself or you know, somebody that may be cooks for you is a really good garlic press. I'm a huge lover of the Dream Farm Gadget it is hands down the best garlic press I've ever used in my entire life. I cannot use anything else anymore. I'm like a full garlic press knob. But you may not know that you need one, but you definitely want one. And once you've used it, you will never go back to anything else. It crushes the garlic clove with the skin on so you don't have to worry about fiddling with it. You literally just chuck clove in, squeeze the crap out of it and it crushes it into your meal. And then it's called Guard Jet because it has this cute little eject button that pings that peel out ready to go and reload again, I'll drop the link to get that in the show notes and in my download for you. They're about US$50. So as garlic presses go, they're not the cheapest, but they are 100% worth it. In Aussie, they're about $70. And they do a lite version that's less than half that price, but it is plastic rather than metal. And I haven't used that one, to be honest. And I probably wouldn't either. I think it needs to be the really strong, sturdy, robust one. Because I played with fire a little bit and unlike to load you know two or three cloves in and fill it up to its max. So quite a lot of pressure to do that. So I'm not sure how a plastic wide would handle that. You might be limiting yourself to one clover at a time when I'm like full-ising it and throwing two or three in there. 

Taryn Richardson  17:38

Number 16 Is my Dietitian Approved Fitness bundle. It's like a gift pack with a run singlet, a water bottle and the Fuel Your Adventure book for $99 including postage Australia-wide. So if you're somebody in your life who's fit and active and is happy to represent the Dietitian Approved brand. The run singlet I had designed many years ago and it is my most used workout singlet in the gym running, whatever. It's super light, super breathable, and it's got silver ions in it which helps make it not smell and wicks the sweat away, or water bottles or 800 mils 27 fluid ounces. So it's a little bit bigger than a standard bidden, which is good for particularly our environment when it's hot. But what I like about them is it's got a clear strip up the middle for the coloured ones so you can see where you're at with your hydration. So often we use bottles that we can't see what's going on and I need you to have good feedback around what you've been drinking. And that helps with race nutrition planning too is being able to divide that up and see where you're at so you can keep pace with your hydration plan and the Fuel Your Adventure book you get with that bundle two which I talked about earlier. If you are somebody who is looking to layer in some real food options with your either race planning or your offseason nutrition, they were all developed by an advanced sports dietitian to make sure you're fueling well plus also getting the added benefits of nutrients with what you're putting into your plan. So if you go to dietitianapproved.com/shop you'll see that fitness bundle there. 

Taryn Richardson  19:20

Number 17. If you are looking at giving the gift of health and fitness this Christmas, then I also have a Healthy Digital Dietitian Approved bundle. It includes my Summer Salads Recipe Database collection, which has 30 salad recipes in there and at least 10 homemade dressings, which honestly homemade dressings, I don't know why everyone doesn't use homemade dressings. They're so quick and so easy and there are no hidden nasties in them because you know exactly what you've put in there. And it also comes with the Foundations of Healthy Eating mini course, which is a great little stepping stone into making sure you've got some foundations right with your day-to-day nutrition, which honestly, a lot of us don't have. So that one is all online. It's A$57. So you're saving $20 by bundling them both up. And everything is accessible on your computer or on your phone no matter where you are in the world, both of those you can find at dietitianapproved.com/shop.

Taryn Richardson  20:19

Number 18 is a Bike Fit or do Michael Baker's Bike Fit Yourself course, which is so cool. So no matter where you are in the world, you can get his knowledge and expertise to go through all the little components that you need to set yourself up for success on your bike. I'll drop the link for that in the PDF. It's a weird and wonderful one, it's hard to say. But he has given our listeners a nice little discount off that I get no kickbacks for just to say thank you. If you're looking to upgrade your bike, which we all, always or you're doing a different distance of event or you're just not comfortable, your feet are burning, your saddle hurts, your shoulders get sore, any of those sorts of things, the Bike Fit Yourself course might be a great thing to do no matter where you are in the world. Or invest in a bike fit for somebody or put that on your list for yourself. If you've never had a bike fit, you definitely want to have one. I've had quite a few in my career because things change as you get fitter. As your body changes, your position can become more aggressive. When you get more comfortable, there are lots of things that change. It's kind of like nutrition, it's not set and forget. So bike fit could be a great little gift for somebody or something to add to your list.

Taryn Richardson  21:38

Number 19 is a multitool or something that you can keep in your saddle bag, or take with you to races to fix anything on the fly if you need it. There are some cool little products around I'll drop some links in the download for you. But I don't think anyone would be against getting a cool little multi-tool to help them out with their bike, fix anything in a high stress situation. And I think you can never have too many, one at home wanting your bike saddle, one with you in your race gear bag. And that can make a really nice little stocking filler.

Taryn Richardson  22:12

Alright, lucky last number 20 is a new pair of socks, how many pairs of socks do we go through? Millions! And I love me a good pair of cycling socks, they've got to be something cool and something funky and they've got to be comfortable. But that's a great gift if you don't want to invest too much. Also a good stocking filler. And there are so many cool new things on the market. So I dropped some suggestions and some links in the download for you. With some brands and products that I guess like myself. There are some really funky new designs kicking around these days. But you could honestly get socks from anywhere jump on Amazon, go to a sportswear store. Most triathletes I think would appreciate some cool socks.

Taryn Richardson  22:56

So there you have it. There are 20 gift ideas for the triathlete. You may want them all for yourself, or you may be up for gifting them to another triathlete in your life. But go and grab that free download dietitianapproved.com/120 If you didn't catch any of those or you want some links to go and check out some of the products that I like and don't get any kickbacks for but just to help fast track you through that process. Hopefully, you can utilise the Black Friday sales coming up next weekend and get organised. Get organised with your gifting so it's not last minute and you're saving some cash in the process.

Taryn Richardson  23:35

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!