Morning all,
My husband has come out of his lack of exercise haze by "surprising" me with a lovely present of a triathlon on Sunday morning.
It's 500m swim, 24km bike, 5km run
All very simple and managable and I know that I can do the distance BUT.... does anyone have any tips or things that I should know before starting? I've been trying to read some threads but am getting in way over my head.
My thoughts were:
- Swim: Costume, googles, swim cap?
- Bike: Helmet
- Run: Hat
Comments
EB,
This quite to Sprint Triathlons is really good if youve not seen it before:
http://www.pirateshipoffools.co.uk/?p=467
Dont forget trainers for the run and a number belt or safety pins.
Biggest thing to remember for first Tri ....
... ENJOY
Thanks BB, that's absolutely perfect!
@Wildwill - I'll let you know how I find it after it! I'm sure that it'll be a lot of fun...
Wow, Emmy, that's quite a surprise! Which one is it you're doing?
@Sarah - I was a little shocked too. He came home muttering something about the local triathlon and that he was interested... then in the next breathe my name was put down for the sprint (he could of chosen the olympic version so i'm kinda happy about that!),
It's a local triathlon where we live in Belgium, so it's not going to be a competitive field but it should be a lot of fun. We'll see of course - i'm fully expecting him to leave me paddling in the water within the first 5 minutes!
When I first started I would wear thigh-length lycra shorts over my swim cozzie for the whole race
@IronWolf - did you put the lycra shorts on after the swim? or if you swam in them - didnt you get cold on the bike? I know that i'll dry off and am planning to wear my sports bra under my costume but thought that the shorts could be "too much"
HAVE FUN!
Most important thing is the helmet rule - your helmet must go on and be clipped up before you touch the bike in T1, and must not be unclipped until you have hooked up the bike in T2 - or you risk disqualification. And don't do a Jonny Brownlee and mount it too soon either.
Also, you will feel like you are trying to run after downing several pints when you get off the bike, but it will ease after a couple of minutes. Don't try and go off too hard though.
Enjoy it!
Emmy if the weather is like it is here currently you really wont get cold, it sounds horrid cycling in wet clothes but you really dont notice it
Enjoy !
emmy - no, I swam with the shorts on. Like Meldy said, you don't feel cold. Nowadays I use a pirate top and shorts or a skin suit from start to finish, I never feel cold.
Good luck Emmy, you'll be fine.
Which reminds me........
My very first triathlon is on Sunday 26th August at Malmesbury. I'm beginning to get nervously excited. I hope that the bike transition's not too long, as I will have to wear my cleated bike shoes.
I was always near the back of the pack but felt really good (mostly). The one thing I seemed to struggle with was heavy legs in the transition from bike to run but I think that practice will help that.
I'm not sure of my time but bike + run was 1.27. It was definitely around 1.50/2.00 mark in total.
Most satisfying thing of the day? I beat the other two guys I was with. One I overtook on the bike, the other in the last 300m of the run.... I may not have been first of the day but I felt like I won my race today!
So thank you! Thank you for your help and great advice...... Now, when's the next one?
excellent, well done! So, Outlaw next year?
Well done Emmy! Onwards and upwards now. Running "off the bike" as it's called, will get easier, especially if you do it in training. When you practice 2 sports one after the other it's called a 'brick". Swim to bike is usually easy, bike to run transition is the one you should work on. Doesn't need to be a long distance, you can do something like a 5km bike and 2km run and repeat. As you get stronger you can up the distance a bit, my favourite is 25km bike, 5km run. After you have practiced this a bit it will become 2nd nature and you will no longer feel like your legs are struggling in sand when you get off your bike.
well done emmy!
@ironwolf - thanks for the tip about bike to run transition. I've only ever done it the other way round so this time it was a little strange. I'm going to give it some practice and see how I get on.now many repeats would you start off with? 2x5 x5? Or more?
@mathschick - thank you!
well done Emmy, superb time for a first tri. I did Outlaw this year and only ever did 3 sprint tri's before doing it, so it can be done- it is the training that is the killer- especially time wise. I am hooked on tri now, I am not fast or ever going to win a race but it's the personal challenge I enjoy. As far as bricks go I do 2 a week- a one hour cycle quite hard then a 30 min run, then a 2-3 hr cycle and 1- 1/2 hour run, but that's because I am doing longer distances now, you could do a 30 min cycle and 15 min run. As Ironwolf says it does get easier, it will improve your running speeds overall too.
Well done Emmy!
Well done EB, glag to hear you enjoyed it and had a good Tri, congrats on beating your mates
Emmy, I'd just do two and see how you get on. As said above, if you move up to longer distances, you can do longer bricks. During IM training I do 3 x 25km bike 5km but I'm not suggesting you should do stuff like that - after all Chrissie Wellington's favourite workout is a fast 130km bike/30km run but that's not for ordinary mortals!
Hi, and well done Emmy. I break my own tri-virginity this Sunday coming, so I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it. It seems that none of my tri club will be there, dunno about Pirates.
Blisters - shame I am marshalling at Cotswold 113 as I would have come and cheered you on
Should I pop along to the Lakes later?
Good luck Blisters!
Good luck Blisters too...
Well, that was a good dose of healthy exercise.
The transitions went like a dream, I finished the 400 swim wishing that it was longer. The bike leg wasn't a lonely as I'd expected, and had some time trial style racing. Ran like a duck though. Having said that, nobody ran past me, and I took 4 mins out of the guy I had been chasing on the bike.
The instant results machine said that I was 7th, but then again, most of the others hadn't started at that point, and they were the fast ones.
My next race is in 2 weeks time, with a longer swim.
well done blisters!