Yiannis Christodoulou: Racing & Training With KB

Kitbrix ambassador and GB triathlete Yiannis Christodoulou has just finished his season having collected five medals this year: a national Middle distance championship, British Super Sprint Championship, National Standard Distance Bronze Medal & British runner up, National Sprint Triathlon Championships Runner up & a Kent 10000m Bronze medal. He has also just qualified for the world champs in spring and standard distances – a different person entirely from the Yiannis of 2012, with no sporting background or even any swimming experience at all! For the past few years, KitBrix has been a major part of his training regime, and we caught up with him for some more insight.

I was first introduced to the KITBRIX by a lady I knew at my local swimming pool. She’d been using Kitbrix for a while, and I saw how easy it was to carry loads of kit and that the bag looked totally indestructible – I was hooked. Since then I have been using KB for both training sessions and on race-day. In my experience, having the best products to help you with your training is the best way to reach your performance potential, and KB has been helping me for nearly 6 years.

Honestly, this isn’t me trying to sell you this piece of kit, but a report on what I use to hit my goals on a daily basis, in training and competition. I became an ambassador a few years ago and was very proud to be picked. Now the bags were first designed for triathlons: because of the size you can keep them in the transition area, but this bag is not just for triathlon! Any sport, any activity where you need your equipment to be organised and protected, this is the bag you need.

My primary use for my KB is on race day, purely because I can store everything in the bags and easily carry them around. I use two bags for my races, joined up as a Duo, to organise all my race kit, shoes, towels, spare clothes, bike tools and so on. They are super robust and keep the rain and mud out no problem. In fact they’re almost impossible to damage; I am still using the ones from 6 years ago and they still look like new! I also carry a third one to races which I leave in the car for after the event. This one holds all my spares and tools, and contains my washing kit as well as a change of clothes. Sometimes I zip up all three when I am at races, but certain events won’t allow a bag of that size in transition. 

After the race I can put all the wet stuff in one bag (they have a waterproof lining) which makes life a whole lot easier when I have a long drive home. Only the kit I put in that bag will get wet, anything in the others is safe and dry. So this is what I use at every race and it’s easy to store things in different areas inside the bags. To be honest the bags are so easy to use and an important part of my race day. 

Training sessions also see a lot of action from my KB collection. Swim sessions in particular – again, nothing gets wet unless it goes in the wet-stuff bag. It sounds obvious but how many kit bags can do this for you? Plus heading out for turbo or gym sessions can be surprisingly equipment-heavy. Towels, water bottles, ipad, speaker – it all has to come with me, and the Kitbrix back is perfect. 

In a nutshell, KITBRIX is an ingrained part of my daily training and race life. It’s easy and convenient – who doesn’t want that?

Follow Yiannis' progress over on his Instagram.