Why do triathletes need so much stuff? There’s a short answer and a long answer to this questions. The short answer is: they don’t. But I hope you’ll do me a favour and keep reading.

Between signing up for my first triathlon and lining up for the race, I acquired two very important items: a bike and a wetsuit. That’s it. That’s pretty much all you need.

But what about trisuits, running gear, silly shaped helmets, three different special gadgets and various heart rate monitors and compression garments? It’s all just unnecessary faff.

I do have a trisuit and the only advantage it has over a standard pair of shorts and a vest is that I’m much less likely to show the whole of transition my arse as I pull down my wetsuit in a hurry. If you’re more relaxed about showing your rear end to a field full of strangers, wear what you want.

If you already run, you already have running gear, if you already cycle you already have a helmet and a bike and if you already swim then those goggles and swim cap are already yours. In fact, scrap that – those extortionate race fees that a lot of triathlons come with do mean you’ll get a free swim cap that’s yours to keep. *Fistpump*

Since my three triathlons last year and because I’ve been panicking slightly about the bike cutoff times for Ironman UK, I’ve been more curious about the speed at which I’ve been swimming and cycling. Step up TomTom and their multisport watch. Why take three watches to a race when you could just take one? It’s a good question.

I’ve run with lots of running watches, and while it’s not my favourite and won’t be coming to any marathons with me, the TomTom multisport now comes out with me when I run with my beginners. It does the basic time/distance/pace thing well and has a big display that’s easy to see – even in the dark.

The watch unclips from the wrist strap and pops into a handlebar mount for the bike. Then you can set it up to show you any number of data as you ride along – I went for average speed/speed/distance. It’s quite fun looking down to see that you’re doing 20mph on your way to work but not a good idea to look down too often on London roads.

The watch can also handle getting a bit wet, so it came swimming with me too. It has a lap counter for indoor use which wasn’t much better than I am at counting laps. It kept adding a couple extra every few lengths which I saw as a pat on the back for effort but it’s not entirely a helpful one. I’ve been told that swimming accuracy is one of the new updates in the pipeline.

Despite this, I’m looking forward to taking the watch swimming in some open water when the lakes open next month and using the GPS to see quite how slowly I’m swimming round.