Triathlons

[Stuttgart88]

Anyone here ever done / thinking of doing a triathlon?

I did one badly in 1998 (Dublin City) and a sprint in 2004 (Eton, UK). Doing Royal Windsor in June this year (Olympic distance).

[Student Mullet]

I did a sprinf triathlon 2 years ago in Skerries. It was good fun but the most bizzarly disorientating experience.

[Stuttgart88]

How come?

[drinkfeckarse]

Only ever did a mini Charity one which was relatively easy given my fitness at the time.

Swimming 500m (struggled with that as I'm a sh!te swimmer)

Cycling 5 miles

Running 3 miles (I think)

I enjoyed it, don't think I'd enjoy a proper one so much though.

[Student Mullet]

How come?I came out of the sea with that funny light headedness you get from blowing up too may balloons and spent the first mile or two of the bike swaying from side to side in between vomiting up sea water. Then, just as I was getting used to the bike, the run started but my legs still felt like they wanted to cycle so it felt like I was wearing lead shoes and I kept pounding my feet into the ground.

It was good fun but it was incredable confusing for my body. My advice is to practice putting on socks. You'd be surprised how much time that can cost.

[Stuttgart88]

I know. When I came out of the Liffey after swimming a mile in '98 I was seeing double and my legs were like jelly. I was last out by a country mile and got a sympathetic round of applause from the crowd. I recovered though, but it took me 5 mins just to yank my wetsuit off I was so tired. I wanted to beg for help. Putting on socks was tough too alright. I think my total swim to bike transition was nearly 10 minutes!

I've got swimming lessons since & expect to do the swim leg in less than 30 mins (over 45 mins last time). I did the Eton sprint in '04 and I did 400m in 7 mins.

[Drumcondra Red]

Would like to, never have though...

[Kingdom]

I know. When I came out of the Liffey after swimming a mile in '98 I was seeing double and my legs were like jelly. I was last out by a country mile and got a sympathetic round of applause from the crowd.

After swimming in the Liffey, you;re lucky that's all that was wrong with you. I know that if I was ever unlucky enough to be in the Liffey, Bupa would be hit big time.

[Stuttgart88]

Luckily it was a bit upstream, at one of the rowing clubs beyond Islandbridge. It then went over to the Phoenix Park which was a good venue for the cycle, though the run was cross country - not something I was prepared for at all.

[onenilgameover]

How long does it take on average to complete the kind of triathalon you's are talking about lads?

[Stuttgart88]

There are two common types of triathlon onenilgameover:

Sprint Distance & Olympic Distance.

There's Ironman distance too but this is for total loonies: 2 mile swim, 110 mile cycle followed by a full marathon.

Sprint distances vary. The one I did was a 400 metre swim, 20k cycle & a 5k run. I think I did this in 1 hour 20 mins though I used a heavy mountain bike for the cycle. Using a proper road bike (i.e., racer in the old lingo!) it'd be faster. 1 hour 20 mins is OK but a half-decent athlete would do quicker.

Some sprints have a longer swim: 700m or 800m.

I'm doing an Olympic Distance in June. I have 3 targets for this:

1) Just finish it
2) Do it in under 3 hours
3) Do it in under 2 hours 45 minutes. Realistically I'll be disappointed if I don't do this. I expect swim 30 mins, cycle 75 mins and run 50 mins with about 7 minutes total transition (slow transition). So that's 2 hours 42 mins.

I think it's accepted that semi-serious amateur triathlets aim for 2 hours 20 minutes. The pro's do it in 1 hour 50 mins or thereabouts.

[Real ale Madrid]

I'd love a go at a triathlon. Anyone have a list of ones taking place maybe next year?

On a similar note there were two identical twins training for an ironman version (loonies:D ) on the radio this morning. They were trying to raise €30,000 for our ladys hospital in crumlin. A worthy cause. It was on the Tom McGuirk show on radio one. Not sure if that show is archived on the rte website but very interesting to hear how much training they do!

[Stuttgart88]

This is the 2006 calendar, not sure if anything's been published for 2007 yet, but this looks like the site to check in due course:

http://www.triathlonireland.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Events2006

[Stuttgart88]

That's quite a good site actually (www.triathlonireland.com). There's a good section called "Rookies' Diaries" where a few beginners contribute a weekly diary of their efforts. Much better site than any of the UK sites I've browsed.

[onenilgameover]

Thanks for the info stuttgart88....:)

[Metrostars]

Doing a Biathlon in a few weeks, 2.5 mile run, 10 mile bike, then another 2.5 mile run.

[Stuttgart88]

Good luck. How long do you think it'll take?

[Metrostars]

Guessing 1 hour and 25 minutes.

[Stuttgart88]

Metrostars, how did you get on?

I did Royal Windsor Triathlon (Olympic Distance) on 11th June, the day of England vs Paraguay which, you may recall, was absolutely BAKING HOT over here (excuses, excuses..). However, mission accomplished.

Details below (cut & pasted from an e-mail to a mate who's about to do one but has had his training interrupted):

I had a serious hiccup or two in my training prior to my (almost) debut Olympic distance in June at Windsor.

I've been cycling 14 miles a day, 5 days a week for a year (7 miles in & out of work). This got me cycle fit. Every now & again, and then more regularly prior to the race, I'd take in a few hills in Hampstead near where I live to get in some tougher leg work.

Only twice in the whole process did I do any "proper" cycle training: a 65k cycle in Hampshire with a mate at Easter which, to my surprise, I found a total doddle. Presumably because I had cycled so many miles in the preceding 10 months, even if it was only in 7 mile instalments. I also did a 40k time trial around Regents Park 6 weeks before the race and recorded 1 hr 18 mins.

During the winter I would run less than once a month: yes, that little. In Regents Park there's a "first Sunday of the month" 10k organised by Mornington Chasers, a local running club. A truly super series of races. I did 4 of the 6 races. To my amazement I found that my cycle fitness was sufficient to get me around comfortably enough albeit a bit slowly - around 52 mins - without pushing myself & without having trained since the previous race.

Around mid-April I started adding more regular running to my schedule, once or twice a week running instead of cycling home from work, and again maybe once at the weekends. My 10k time came down to 47.5 mins by early May.

My plan was to up my mileage so I could be comfortable running 10-12 miles at a time by mid-May and then continue doing maybe 20 miles+ a week during the month. However, I got a nasty ankle injury in early May.

I haven't mentioned my swim yet. Trust me, I'm a totally sh1te swimmer. I hadn't been in a pool since 2004. However, towards the end of April I booked a series of 5 weekly 1-on-1 lessons from a local company, Swimming Nature. I gradually improved my technique considerably and equally importantly I got supervised pool time. Between these sessions I'd practise by myself but usually no more than once a week, occasionally twice.

It was during the swimming that I injured my ankle (extradinary, I know!). I hurt my ankle very badly playing footy in December 2000, and quit playing as a consequence. It's been weak & inflexible since but jogging has never been any problem. However, the constant "dorsi flexion" (i.e., stretching your toes out flat behind you) during swimming obviously triggered the injury and after a few days I was walking with a pronounced limp & started to panic. I hear that it's quite a common problem: runners have stiff ankles yet swimming requires flexibility.

I immediately got physio (something I've always been loathe to do) and this made a massive & immediate difference. However, it totally ****ed up my running plans & I ran far less in May than in April whereas I'd intended doing the opposite. I didn't stop running altogether but running was sore & uncomfortable so I did just enough to "keep my hand in" if you like. I did some minor bike to run bricks: a few times after work I'd bike home the 7 miles and immediately run 3 just to get used to it.

Was 6 weeks enough swimming time? All I did was 5x30min lessons, maybe 7 lone visits to the pool, and one 1000-1200m swim with a (much faster) mate in Hampstead Lido. I was quite tired at the end & I stopped well short of the 1500m required. However, I told myself that quitting when tired is an easy option in training but quite simply WAS NOT an option on race day.

So, come race day:

I did my swim in 33 mins. Got to say I really enjoyed it. Adrenaline & mind over matter was enough to compensate for lack of proper practice.
Did a nightmare T1 (explained earlier, but I didn't wear a tri suit & my running shirt got all tangled up on my wet shoulders...). 5 mins exactly. 311th out of 311 in my age group. That said I left T1 on 39 mins, 1 min ahead of my target.
I did a 1hr 17 min bike. Fine, perfectly decent.
Decent T2
54 min 50 sec run. Slow, much slower than my norm. But, conditions were baking hot as anyone who did the race will testify!

Total time was 2:53, a bit slower than target (great = 2:45, good = 2:50) but given the very hot weather & my interrupted running training I'm happy it was a good effort.