Training for your first triathlon

If you’re not a big fitness fan, participating in an event where people compete to be the fastest in three different forms of fitness might seem like the worst idea. That is not true; The triathlon world is teeming with people of mixed abilities, from young to old, fit to obese. You don’t have to push yourself to the limit and compete in a full triathlon; many people don’t even do the entire event, maybe just two of the three for fun.

Although you may now think it’s a piece of cake, don’t be too naive, it is a serious sporting event and participating without any training could put you at risk of injury or illness. The key is training, the event consists of three activities, swimming, cycling and running. Assuming you know how to run, the only thing you might need help with is cycling and swimming, there’s no point in training or participating in these events if you can’t do either, it’s that simple.

You will need running shoes, a warm swimsuit/triathlon suit, and a bike. The first two are relatively cheap but getting a bike is more serious than it seems. You won’t necessarily be able to just get your old chopper out of the garage and get it running, if you have an old bike take it to a bike shop and see if it’s worth repairing. If often it can be more cost effective to buy a new one than to repair an old one as you still end up with an old bike. The bike will need to be suitable for the event, there are triathlon specific bikes if you want to get serious, but a decent lightweight mountain bike will do. You will need to train yourself in this and learn basic accident maintenance, fixing a puncture is a must, as is a spare pump and inner tube.

If you haven’t done anything like this before, the best thing to do is start with a ‘sprint’ triathlon as it’s half the usual distance, don’t think that just because you’ve run a marathon before you’ll be able to handle it. Olympic length since you use different muscle groups and they are not as similar as you might imagine. The sprint triathlon consists of a 750m swim, a 20km bike ride and a 5km run. The people participating in these types of events are likely to be beginners as well, which will help you feel better about being out of breath.

You will need to start training early, it will take several months for your body to adjust, but if you are in reasonably good shape and already play sports, you could probably train in as little as three months. Focus on your weaknesses at first, if you are a cyclist, get used to swimming and running and vice versa. Create a training schedule, have a strict schedule of at least 1-3 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Vary the intensity of your training, focus on sprinting and power one day but distance the next, this will help your body build strength and stamina.

Gradually increase your training to a point where you are doing two activities each day, perhaps the distance of a triathlon. However you say it, a triathlon will be exhausting, so it’s up to you if you want to spend a couple of days training by doing a full triathlon and recovering for a few days, but you may not have time for this.

Eat a healthy but filling diet, you are not dieting to lose weight as the training should do it for you, but make sure you support the training by consuming adequate calories, protein and vitamins each day. This goes hand in hand with your training, but it will also eliminate any unpleasant habits from your current diet. You can vary your diet in the days leading up to your event, but consult a dietitian before anything drastic, for the event, which will likely start early, have a light, healthy breakfast with fruit. Invest in some decent running energy supplements that you should experiment with beforehand but not use for training. Lastly, take care and good luck.