Long-sleeved tri clothing for heat.

While searching I did find out about arm and leg coolers, so also interested in that.  I'm interested in a solution that doesn't involve sunscreen at all.

DeSoto coolers that are wings. I don't know I have ever seen long sleeve tri tops. I know some folks who wear Under Armour stuff under tri clothing either hot or cold gear depending on the weather.

I know they make leg ones too but I've never seen a pair.

Why no sunscreen?

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=200832&start=1

My quick recommendation:

#1, there are good sunscreens that'll last a long time.  Check what surfers wear.  Use it.  And make sure you ALSO apply it under any clothing that you'll be wearing.  Long sleeves aren't 100% protection.

#2, long sleeves + sunglasses + hat (for the run) are all helpful.

#3, get a handful of sunscreen and reapply on your face/neck and your upper legs as you start running.  It shouldn't cost you much time at all.

The biggest advantage I find with the long sleeves is you don't have to worry as much about your shoulderblade area which is hard to reach and exposed on sleeveless tri tops.

I wear arm coolers for the bike that supposedly have an spf of 50 on their own.  They held up in all my long rides.  I did notice on some of my 7 hour rides that I had a slight dotted look after...which means that the spf is probably pretty accurate!  7 hours with no sunscreen and just the arm coolers left the little mesh dots (very small, like pen-tip size) exposed and those little spots burned bit I guess.  But it wasn't at all like a real sunburn.

So, yeah...the arm coolers will block most of the sun!

I can't say I necessarily feel cooler wearing them...not really hot either...but as an added bonus at least when I lived in FL they solved a huge problem for me...my arms would always be SO sweaty it would drive me crazy.  The arm coolers soak up that sweat and I don't drip everywhere!  I'll probably buy myself a second set for this season.  I definitely plan to wear them at all my races and on all my training rides!  It's dryer here but the sunscreen effect is still worth it IMHO.  And if I do get to race Kona I'm sure the sweat factor will be back.

I think they will be awesome for Buffalo Springs Lake.  I can wear them under my wetsuit and they'll be nice and wet (thus cooler) for the first part of the ride.

At Kona I'll have to put them on in transition but I still think it's worth it!

I did a few trials of heat management clothing last year at the height of summer running in temps above 110 here in Tucson. I think the warmest day I could manage may have been about 113.

I tried a number of cooling garments from several brands. I recorded speed and heart rate with a Garmin GPS to get some impression (this was NOT science) of their effectiveness.

In general I found the most effective strategy for running in the heat was to carry a half frozen water bottle, one of the types with a hand strap on it. There is a lot of vascularity in the hands so the return of veinous blood from the hands cooled by the frozen bottle in each hand seemed to help. I actually heard that from a poster on this forum- it was a good idea.

Another thing I found was a round fabric tube filled with a gel that you soaked in water then froze. You wore this around your neck like a bandana. Because it was frozen and around your neck- where a lot of blood flow passes to and from your head- it was super effective in keeping me cool. It was almost too effective- I was freezing with the darn thing on at first.

Finally, of the cooling garments I used most had some moderate perceived benefit. Some didn't though, and I just got hotter with them on. The key for every one of them was to keep them wet. When they were wet the evaporating water kept me more comfortable.

Another find I made recently was Schoeller's Coldblack fabric, a fabric that blocks UV and heat absorption. I ran in a black colored Coldblack running top on three successive days well above 90 recently here in Tucson and it seemed temperature neutral. It wasn't excessively hot.

I've done ultra-distance races in the hottest places in the world (jungles of Vietnam, Sahara desert, desert on Iraqi/Jordanian border) and used loose fitting tops to regulate temperature there, like the Beduins do. Mostly, that helps with sun.

- hope those insights help.

That would be my back.  I'm not necessarily worried about heat, I just want something that will cover almost all of the body and doesn't cook me alive.  I'm mostly looking at sun protection.

I highly recommend Pearl Izumi In-R-Cool apparel. It actually does what it claims. I have both the short and long sleeve. They also make a shrug - that might make it convenient to put on during transition.

I like mine so much, I'm ordering more long sleeve shirts for when I'm sailing in the Florida sun.

I have many tech shirts - nothing compares to the PI In-R-Cool.

So far the Pearl Izumi wings are winning.  But you can't have those under the wetsuit?  I'd wear a tech shirt over it with a tri bottom.  Also looking for leg coolers.

I'm probably going to settle on first slathering whole body with surfer water-resistant sunscreen, then putting on the wings and leg coolers.

X2 on the Bullfrog. It goes on easily and dries completely, no "slathering" mess like a lot of other products. We use it on the kids and they can go all day at the water park without burning,

Some one mentioned it already, but the Craft Kona top is really nice.  What hasn't been said is that it has a mesh "pocket" in the back of the shirt that you pour ice into.  It holds the ice in there, cooling you until it melts.  

They aren't meant for swimming. You're better off putting it on in T1 - it zips up, so it should be pretty easy to slip it on.