Any tri athlete's out there?

I competed in my first one last august. It was a mini. 300 yard swim, 12 mile bike, and 5K run. I was next to last finishing in fron to of one man in the 60 - 64 years old catefory...........but I FINISHED by golly and my goal for this year is to break into the top two hundred. Just wanted to see if I had any buddies out there.

 

Zilla

Oh, you got a buddy here!  I haven't yet done a triathlon, but I'm currently training for one and planning on doing a few in the summer.  Having a goal to work towards definitely helps me maintain my motivation at the gym!!! 

Good luck training!!!

hey! congrats on finishing your first tri! they are sooo much fun to do. Last year was my first season adn I did 2 sprint tris and 1 olympic distance. I'm hoping to do a few more this year. I have been training a lot in the off season and I thinkthat is oging to help me shave off at least 30 minutes on my olympic time. I can't wait for the season so start again! I'm doing spin classes 2 times a week which are awesome! If you can do one, you def should b/c it will do wonders for your ride. if you ever need any advice or tips, let me know!

I completed 2 sprints last year.  This year I'm training for my first olympic, the Memphis in May.  I love everything about triatholns.  I used to run all the time and now I've found my run times going down.  I think its due to all the cross training.  Its so sad having to train inside right now.  I can't wait for it to be warmer and more daylight. 

I just agreed with a friend to do my first triathlon in October. It's half-mile swim, 15-mile bike, 4-mile run. I've been doing 20-40 mile bike rides on the weekend plus 3-4 miles on the treadmill at the gym. So I ought to be able to do this. 

My goal is to finish and be in good enough shape to enjoy it!  I'm never ever going to be fast, but I'd like to be a little less slow-like-snail. 

I'm not planning to start event-specific training until 12-14 weeks out. Til then I'll be focused on:

* building speed and hill capability on the bike

* running outdoors and getting faster

* learning to lift weights 

* reaching my goal weight (don't want to do focused training while running a calorie deficit)

Hmmm.... do folks want to do a triathlon / multiport standing thread?  People can post their event dates, goals, and workouts, and then log training schedules and check in for motivation and support.  

The other challenges and longrunning sports threads here tend to be sport-specific (running challenges, the cycling thread) so they don't quite work for multi-sport training.

i would love to keep this thread as a tri support group. there have been others but they always die out. maybe b/c it's not close enough to season but it's getting close to the start of the season. iw ill def keep chekcin in w/ what i'm doing if other people do too!

I'll keep up with the thread.  My cousin is supposed to coach me (he does tri's and is works in exercise physiology).  I'll post some of the workouts when he sends them to me.

Hey guys,

I have always wanted to try a triathlon type of event, to give me something to train for and some added inspiration to my workouts. I was thinking about some kind of Sprint event, maybe this summer. 

Do I need to get some kind of fancy bike? I love my old school Peugot road bike, but it's not very "racy". I don't really want to spend a ton of money. I'm not much of a biker, in real life.

Any suggestions? 

katyayer- if you don't know if you will be continuing w/ the tris, don't spend a lot on a bike right now. try and get one used or just use the bike you have now. my bike was about $800 w/o the clip in pedals and shoes and computer. it gets very expensive so see how you do first and if you want to keep at it, then def look for a new bike.

Hooray for tri's! I'm on my fifth season now, sprint and oly distance. I'll be doing a half-iron next year, or maybe later this season depending on how my marathon goes this spring. Let's all get out there and train hard! WOOO!

Hey, great thread!  I'm doing several half-ironmans this year, starting in June.

I loved the sprints I did last year and just felt like I could go on forever, so I'm skipping right to the longer distances.

I love to bike.  It's my passion.  I just bought a Cervélo P2C and I am so anxious for the snow to melt so that I can get it out on the road.

But, that said, it really doesn't matter what kind of equipment you're using, as long as you have a good time -- and you most likely will!

just wanted to revive this thread! see, i told you they always die haha.

i'm a little disappointed right now b/c i think i may have fractured my foot. it hurts on teh outside of my left foot, and hurts a lot more hwen i'm walking more. i'm goign to see if i can get it x-rayed next week. i hope it's okay b/c i have a 10K coming up in a couple weeks and i want to do it. but i guess if i'm going to get an injury it's best to get it now instead of in teh middle of tri season. has anyone had experience w/ this sort of pain?

ktcort, ouch!  hope your foot feels better. xray sounds good - much better to get it diagnosed and treated.  I've never had anything broken but have had a few kinds of tendinitis that takes an annoyingly long time to heal.

Today was a bike-shopping day.  I'm looking to replace my 15ish-year-old, 27lb diamondback with something lighter. 

The bike shop didn't have the Specialized model they recommended for me in stock, so I rented a Bianchi from them while they fixed a broken spoke on the diamond back.  Rode for 33 miles. It was beautiful out, and the fruit trees are starting to bloom. 

The Bianchi is about 23 lbs, lighter than the Diamondback but heavier than the Specialized and Trek models I'm looking at. And I could totally tell the difference.  The moderate hills didn't feel like hills. The rental didn't fit that well, the handlebars were too low and not adjustible, which had my lower back complaining.

And.... I was riding at 11.5 mph, up from 10 flat on the diamondback. Woo hoo! So, my guess is the Specialized or Trek will put me over 12, and some interval training will probably get me to a speed where I can do club rides. 

I've never been fast and never will be -- don't have the genes for it. My bike racer brothers got all the speed in the family.  I've been getting back into shape for the last year or so.  I've been doing running intervals on the treadmill lately, and have so far gotten speed "up" to 12min miles comfortably, 11ish at a good pace, and 9ish going hard.

Anybody other tri folk had experience starting out this slow? 

 

i didn't get a computer for my bike for a while but i started out pretty pathetically. i was over 200 pounds (probably around 220) hwen i started last year and it was quite sad. my muscles were weak and i was horrible on hills. I felt like i was going to die. but now i can ride well around 14-15 mph on leisurely rides. i have a trek 2100 i think and it is super ilght and awesome. do you have clip ins? they make a world of difference if you don't. see about getting them i fyou don't!

heh. I don't have a bike computer yet, but I map routes (after I ride) with gmap-pedometer.com to find out how far I went, and a watch to determine how long it took.  I'm using toeclips now.   I'll get a bike computer and clipless pedals with the new bike.

I'm checking out Specialized (the store recommended Dolce today), and Trek (maybe tomorrow).

Happy to hear that it's possible to go faster :-)  14-15mph would be great, then I could go on the club rides that do the routes that are similar to what I ride, 20-50 miles rolling hills. There are some slower club rides, but they  tend to be 10-20 miles flat.

I love my Cervélo...I love my Cervélo...I love my Cervélo...

Check out the pic in my profile to find out just how much!

ktcort13 -- omg, what a drag!  DH had something similar that turned out to be because of an over-supination problem.  The right shoes fixed it.  You should have seen his left foot at one point; it was totally purple and black on the outside.  At first he wondered if it was because he was always running on the incline at the side of the road against traffic, then he wondered if it was his bike shoes, then he went for an analysis at a running store and found out that he had severe overpronation.  Totally new.  Go figure.

With any luck, it might be what's happened to you...?  Ice and Arnica (in gel form) helped him a lot, along with some store-bought orthotics and shoes that correct the problem (Mizuno).

Maybe these threads die because we're all training so much?  Anyone started on their bike bricks?

And to alevin:  Yup.  I started out at 250lbs and couldn't ride the bike on the hometrainer for more than 30 minutes at a time.  My fastest speed last spring was only about 12 miles per hour.  Lots of training and consistent effort has brought me up to around 20 miles per hour and this year I want to be at an average of around 26 by June.

I hear Computrainers (or any kind of wattage calculators) are the best.  They're just so damned expensive...

The Cervelo looks gorgeous  :-)

I started weighing myself at 183 but had been cycling and eating better for a while before I got the scale so it could have been more.  One of the inspirations to lose weight was cycling. I realized that losing weight would help with hill-climbing and speed.  The new bike is a reward for hitting two milestones.  Getting to a summit on the coast range (1700 ft), and losing the first 20 lbs ("20 lbs off the rider, 10 lbs off the bike").

Wow, skinnykitty, that is amazing progress.  ktcort and skinnykitty, did you "just ride" to bring speed up, or do intervals and special speed workouts?  This may be an embarrassingly dumb question... I know how to do running intervals, but have never done intervals on the bike.  What kinds of intervals or speedwork do you do to bring up average speed on a 10-30 mile bike ride? 

The triathlon I'm doing is in October so I won't be starting bricks til June. Right now I'm working on basic conditioning, cycling and running.  Had a great run this week. I'm in the process of migrating from treadmill to outdoors.  I started on the treadmill because I was concerned about my starting weight and joint impact.  I'm up to 4 miles on the treadmill. This week I had a great 2.5 mile run outdoors, with normal pace and stride, and some intervals in the last 3/4 mile.  Once I go over 3 miles outside, I'll start using outdoors for distance and indoors only for speed. 

im not a good example of how you should train haha. i didn't follow my trainer's schedule very well and just did what i had time for. so really ti was just mileage that helped me get better. i would go otu w/ my dad who does the half ironman on a ridiculously hilled course so i could get practice w/ my cadence adn where i should be and how i should charge the hills. it helped a lot. maybe this year i can get a cadence computer. i'm really lookign forward to some great improvement from last year just b/c i'm more motivated this year and i have some experience under my belt.

Hey folks!

I started last year with a mini (300yds/11miles/2miles) and a sprint.  This year, I've got the mini again, 2 sprints and an olympic, although I'm feeling like I might be ready for a half-iron later this year, the way things are going.

I've always been pretty strong on the bike--when I was heavy, I'd still be doing 17 mph, but losing 35 lbs has made a huge difference, especially on the hills.  Now I'm a lot closer to 20-21mph.  I've made great progress on the swim, too, by swimming with a master's group--there is soooo much technique involved with swimming.

I've really been concentrating on the run, which was always my nemesis event.  Last year, my 5K at the sprint was 31 minutes.  I've worked that down to 25:34 at a 5K I did in January, and since then, I've been backing off the intensity to go for much longer runs (up to about 10 miles now at around 9:30/mile pace), hoping to build my base endurance until April or so.  My first event is in June.

I ride a lightspeed classic, but I am pining away for a Cervelo P2C very much like skinny_kitty's. Maybe I'll get it after my taxes are done :-)

hey! so glad to have found this thread. i'm doing my first tri this summer and i'm not the athletic type, so any tips for training you can give me would be great! and the support will keep me going

Im doing my first series of Tri's this year as well!..along with my first half marathon in May! Im so pumped for the season! I live in seattle so there are a lot of great one in the area! I will be ending my season with the Grand Columbian Olympic so i will need to stay really focused! Seeing that so many other people are in the same boat as i am is getting me even more excited!