Triathlons!
 

I know we have a handful of (competitive) runners on TFP, but I don't think I've ever seen someone mention triathlons in my 2+ years here.

I am planning on competing in my first (sprint) triathlon in mid-April. I have a lovely road bike and I'm very comfortable with the cycling.. but I'm getting a bit nervous about managing the swimming and the running. I'm not exactly well-trained in either.

So, this thread is intended to be for the sharing of triathlon knowledge and experience. Questions, race reports, training plans.. etc. I'll probably be updating this thread as I have questions/meet training milestones/compete in my first races. I'm hoping to get up to Olympic distance by late June, but we'll see how things go! The thought of swimming almost a mile is really, really, REALLY intimidating right now.

A triathlon is something I plan to do in years to come. I know when I do that the swimming is also the challenge and I'd be going for lessons to improve my stroke.

A friend of mine who is an elite triathlete tells me that brick training is a foundation of her efforts - but she is a near Olympic level athlete.

I already do bricks (spinning class to running on the treadmill, or swimming to cycling), and the boyfriend and I will be doing mini-triathlons most weekends once it's warm enough to swim in the lake. Lake swim to 25 miles on the bike to a 5k or longer run.. his transition times were awesome in his last Tri since he trained the transitions almost every week.

I've been reading up on swimming training for most of the day.. and I need to get some goggles and practice the breathing exercises, since that seems to be my biggest problem. I'm just not comfortable in the water yet.

PP,

Im a certified swimming teacher in my spare time - once or twice a week right now, but if you need some pointers let me know.

The british curriculum works on the BLABT theory in this order

Body Positition
Legs
Arms
Breathing
Timing/Technique

so your main concern initially is streamlining and making sure you have the least amount of drag working agianst you. the more stramlines you are, the faster you will go. You may have a great technique or more fitter than the next competitor, but if you're not streamlined in the water, you're going to burn out a lot faster.

although transitions are important, im not sure how serious you are taking this sport. I'd say start with working on your endurance training first, with transitions later.

I used to swim a mile 3-4 days a week when i lived in AZ.

I'm going to agree with Dlish, the form was the best way to keep from working harder than I needed to cut through the water.

You'll know you're doing it right when you start sweating while you're swimming!

I finished my first tri! It was on Friday, a dinky little indoor introduction to the sport, with the portions out of order. 2 mile run (treadmill), 6 mile bike (stationary bike that SUCKED and you were limited on gears), 250 yard swim.

I finished the run in 17:32, the bike in 18:54, and the swim in 5:35. I took fourth out of 27 women, and was off the winning woman by 1:36. YAY! My boyfriend had some amazing times and took second place out of the men. :)

They usually have the swim first in these things - you really can't drown in either of the other two legs :)

In this case, since it was indoors, they didn't want people dripping on the stationary bikes or treadmills.

Well, I've been continuing with my training!

I have signed up for an Olympic length duathlon on June 6. It's a 5k run, 40k bike, 10k run.

I expect to finish it in about 3 hours. My bike times are getting a lot faster, and if I come in under 3 hours I will be THRILLED. I elected not to do the triathlon because the water temperature will be under 70 degrees, I don't own a wetsuit, and because of the two previous points it would be my first open water swim. Not such a good combination for a race I pay to enter, so I'm going to do the duathlon instead.

Wish me luck!! I've been having a great time training and now the prospect of the Olympic length at SavageMan this September is not looking so daunting, even though I might have to rent a wetsuit for that one. :)