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Triathletes???

acearchie

acearchie

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 15, 2006
3,264
104
Just wondering if there are any triathletes here?

I have turned my self into a swimmer over the past 2 years after having a nasty chest infection stopping me playing rugby at my school.

A few weekends ago my school had a triathlon and since I always keep myself in good shape I thought I would enter.

Surprisingly I managed to win it which was unexpected.

It was nothing big, just a 400m swim, 2 mile cycle but heavily up hill then back down, and a 1 mile sprint finish.

So how does everyone else fair? How do you train for a triathlon aswell? To be honest its the cycling that really let me down! I used a road back for a definite off road track! Not the best idea!

So share your stories, tips, and results!
 
acearchie said:
Just wondering if there are any triathletes here?

I have turned my self into a swimmer over the past 2 years after having a nasty chest infection stopping me playing rugby at my school.

A few weekends ago my school had a triathlon and since I always keep myself in good shape I thought I would enter.

Surprisingly I managed to win it which was unexpected.

It was nothing big, just a 400m swim, 2 mile cycle but heavily up hill then back down, and a 1 mile sprint finish.

So how does everyone else fair? How do you train for a triathlon aswell? To be honest its the cycling that really let me down! I used a road back for a definite off road track! Not the best idea!

So share your stories, tips, and results!
Click to expand...

I sprint, swim and cycle, so if the triathlon was short like this one was, I wager I would fare extremely well. I don't, however, train exclusively for triathletics.
 
What sort of events do you do then?

Im mostly a swimmer myself so if you have any times lets do a comparison?!
 
Love the sport.

Did my first Triathlon down in San Diego about 2 years ago. Was an 800m Swim, 20 mile bike, 3 mile run.

I did the swim in about 13:20, pretty average. The bike took me 67 minutes, which was crap, because I totally screwed up my swim>bike transition. I ripped my jersey on accident and my Bib came off. Took me 5 minutes to re-pin it.

The run took me about 22 minutes.

Did fairly well. Now I do them whenver I can.
 
I'd say 13:20 for the swim is pretty darn good.

What training do you do for that? I am training up for a swimathon where you have a half hour stint do swim as far as you can.

Im aiming to hit the 2000m mark but at the moment only really getting 1600m-1700m!

Originally Posted by Iscariot
I'm going for a swim on Friday, I'll do a 400m swim for time if you like.
Hey yeh would be good!
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Share your training tips too, I always find other peoples insights to training very good!
 
Id love to do a triathlon but my swimming skills are pitiful and I have almost no opportunity to train either.

I can run and bike but swimming :( not so much
 
I've been training for the Nautica-Malibu Triathlon in September for the last couple months. It is a 1/2 mile swim, 18 mile bike ride and 4 mile run. 16 weeks to go!

I have never done one before, but I have ran, swam, and biked significantly earlier in my life. I started in horrible shape and have some knee problems (hyper-extended my left knee in high school, doing the long jump of all things...) which has kept me from doing anything like this before. I should have started sooner as it is taking longer for my knees to acclimate than I thought it would and I'm loosing weight slower than I need to be. I know this is mostly my fault, but I love to eat! I started training weighing around 193. I currently weigh 178 or so and I'm hoping to loose at least 10-15 more pounds in the next couple months (I'm barely 5'10" or 1.78m). I'm already feeling the difference in how much more I can do without the extra weight. I'm sure my performance in the running will increase simply from weighing less.

I haven't had a place to swim yet and I currently don't have a bike (hoping to get one in the next couple months) and I've had to use the gym in case I experienced knee problems. I set the bike for hills in the gym and on Sunday I did the 18 miles in 47 minutes (went on to complete 23 miles in 60 minutes total). Today completed the 4 mile run in 43 minutes. Some of that was walking however since I'm still strengthening my knee. I'm most worried about getting injuring and getting set back even further. It is a constant struggle to push myself and hold back at the same time so that I can both strengthen and not be re-injured.

I haven't been this active in 12 years, and it feels great. Wish I had gotten the motivation to do this a long time ago.
 
I did one last summer. It was an 800m swimming portion, ~60km bike, and about an 8km run. I think that I did the swimming in 13:45, biking in 60:21, and run in 22:04.

The bike section went very well for me [obviously], seeing as that's one of my main leisure and exercise activities. I had to work to build up the endurance for swimming and that was pretty difficult for me as it has never been my strong point. For the running portion, I had the endurance but I had to build up the speed. When I started, I was at a bit under 28:00, so I mainly just ran in a local park doing the 3k loop followed by the 5k. I did that every day for about two months and brought it down.

adrianblaine said:
snip
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Good luck!
 
adrianblaine said:
knee problems (hyper-extended my left knee in high school, doing the long jump of all things...)
Click to expand...

I'm certainly no physio, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but many knee problems are caused or exacerbated by a weak posterior chain, specifically the hamstrings. If you haven't seen a physio and don't plan on seeing one, you could very carefully try working your hamstrings, glutes and lower back in the gym. If you are seeing or have seen a physiotherapist, please don't take my advice without running it past them.

@op I'll do the full triathlon you ran on Friday, it's a legs day anyways. I'll do it in a different order to minimize any rest I'll get from sprinting inside to my pool.
 
I have much respect for a triathletes, especially those who do the iron man races. I run just about every day, and bike a bit, but don't swim. Sometime within the next 2 years I hope to complete some sort of tri event. I tip my hat to those who already do.
 
adrianblaine said:
I haven't had a place to swim yet
Click to expand...

The swimming can really make or break your race as it can either mean you get out infront of the pack or stuck behind.

If you only have 16 weeks to go I would get swimming as fast as I can (although I don't know your ability I'm guessing its been a while?)

I think a half mile swim is about 800m so you want to be aiming for like others have suggested 13-15 minute mark!

Good Luck!

@Iscariot Wow! Good luck with that! Tell me how you do!
 
Iscariot said:
If you haven't seen a physio and don't plan on seeing one, you could very carefully try working your hamstrings, glutes and lower back in the gym. If you are seeing or have seen a physiotherapist, please don't take my advice without running it past them.
Click to expand...

I've been doing some to do that and it does seem to be helping. I went from always having knee pain to now where I only feel discomfort 10% of the time. I really should go see a physio soon though.

acearchie said:
The swimming can really make or break your race as it can either mean you get out infront of the pack or stuck behind.

If you only have 16 weeks to go I would get swimming as fast as I can (although I don't know your ability I'm guessing its been a while?)

I think a half mile swim is about 800m so you want to be aiming for like others have suggested 13-15 minute mark!

Good Luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! It has been awhile since I swam on a regular basis, but when I did swim I was a decent swimmer. Since this is my first triathlon, I'm not aiming to do extremely well, it is just really motivation to get myself back in shape which is working so I'm happy. My goal is to finish this one in 2 hours and next year I'd like to get it down to 1:30 or 1:15.
 
adrianblaine said:
Thanks for the advice! It has been awhile since I swam on a regular basis, but when I did swim I was a decent swimmer. Since this is my first triathlon, I'm not aiming to do extremely well, it is just really motivation to get myself back in shape which is working so I'm happy. My goal is to finish this one in 2 hours and next year I'd like to get it down to 1:30 or 1:15.
Click to expand...

Well then perhaps for the swimming focus on the efficiency of your stroke.

This will provide you with a good basis for your technique over the coming year and speed will come with time.

Although you may be slow for your triathlon the efficient stroke should give you more energy for the bike than just bashing out a bad stroke in a half decent time!
 
My wife and I got into triathlons a couple of years ago, but with a new kid, a cross-country move, our first house, and a new job, it's been a bit tough to get back into it.

Both of us have swimming backgrounds, so that's always the easy part for us. Triathlon training varies a lot, much of it depending on what you can fit into your day. Generally trying to get in the water at least three times a week, one long run and one long bike on the weekends, and a couple of shorter bikes and runs during the week is a decent plan. One day per week should be recovery.
 
I did my dissertation on psychological fatigue in triathletes, finished it about 3 months ago. I got inspired by their stringent training discipline and physical fitness and have been training ever since, still haven't entered a triathlon yet but hopefully soon I'll consider myself fit enough to do well.
 
Iscariot said:
@op I'll do the full triathlon you ran on Friday, it's a legs day anyways. I'll do it in a different order to minimize any rest I'll get from sprinting inside to my pool.
Click to expand...

So how did it go?
 
Pulling this up, as I'm wanting to get into a triathlon. Got my bike all ready to go so far :D
 
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