Any Triathletes out there?

sven101

Good afternoon all,
I have been roped into doing an Olympic distance triathlon with some mates at work.
I consider myself fit-ish, I was just wondering if anyone could offer advice about the best way to train.

A little knowledge on equipment as well would be helpful. I'm looking for a wetsuit and a bike. I thought about a Giant Defy 2 - As I need a new road bike to commute to work on and would use it a lot anyway.

Thanks if you can help
Sven.

yesthistime

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/88-triathletes-duathletes
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/1630-triathletes-of-tomorrow

lauehorn

Good afternoon all,
I have been roped into doing an Olympic distance triathlon with some mates at work.
I consider myself fit-ish, I was just wondering if anyone could offer advice about the best way to train.

A little knowledge on equipment as well would be helpful. I'm looking for a wetsuit and a bike. I thought about a Giant Defy 2 - As I need a new road bike to commute to work on and would use it a lot anyway.

Thanks if you can help
Sven.

Good luck! I recommend getting in at least one workout of each of the three sports and one brick work (bike-run, swim-bike, or swim-run) per week. That's sufficient training to complete the race. If you want to go for time or do extremely well, you probably need to up that to two workouts of each sport per week. Add in light strength or resistance training and yoga once per week, it really helps. Search for Oly-tri plans online. There are some good ones out there.

dannyweatherly

I currently ride a Giant Defy 3, and have used it for a few triathlons and duathlons. It is a good bike for commuting and for speed riding too, as long as you have no illusions about it being a real Tri bike. Love my Giant! As far as wetsuits go, unless you are going to do a lot of these, there is no real need to spend much money on it. Most locations for tri's have a suit rental place nearby, maybe even at the expo and packet pickup. Although this doesn't give you any time to practice in it. I bought my suit at Amazon for a pretty decent price.
Training....there is no substitute for swimming. You have to get in the water to train. Biking and running are the easy part, just make sure to get some brick work in. Running after a ride takes some getting used to, but is actually quite fun.
Good luck!

batlou

I would not recommend doing it on only 1 training per event per week. That is unless you already have a huge run/bike/swim fitness base built up. A pretty fit person can finish an Olympic distance on just a bit of training but I don't think it would be pretty and if you have a competitive bone in your body you will be pretty upset.

There are lots of free plans out there for an Olympic Tri (http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/). Most would suggest no less than 3 runs, 3 bikes, 2 swims and 1 cross fit/strength per week. If you are new to swimming add in additional swims as necessary. 1500+ Meters of swimming is a lot different than racing your buddies from one side of the pool to the other.

ScotinSeattle

BRICKS! Bricks and more bricks!