Triathlon noob training advice

[punkedmonkey]

I am looking for some advice on beginner sprint triathlon training - a bit of background/info as to where I am at now: I have been running since January, did a 5k in the summer at 8m43 pace and a 10k race the other week in 9m30 avg. pace (on that really hot weekend on a relatively hilly Blenheim palace course). I can quite happily sustain a 3 run per week training regime of 2x5ks and a 10-12k run.

I cycle a 6 mile round trip to work 5 times a week and can happily cycle for an hour or more at 15mph on my mountain bike with slick tires on the bristol-bath cycle track post work (i.e. minimal hills). I am in the process of buying a proper road/racer.

Swimming wise I can happily swim a 1600m in 45 minutes.

I have looked up some beginner training regimes and they seem a bit low in terms of what they are asking (especially in the first few weeks)- 12 minute runs, 20minute cycles etc.

I feel I have a relatively beginner good base - should I just maybe take a beginner regime and work from a couple of weeks in?

Does anyone have any recommendations of good training programmes (preferably free)?

Would prefer to not have to do two disciplines in one day as I am relatively busy. Can spare like an hour a day during the week, obv a bit more time at weekends.

Cheers!

 

[Garth]

Doesn't sound like you'll have much trouble with a sprint triathlon. Give some thought to the transitions.

 

[screenman]

Would it not be an idea to ask the question on a tri forum?

 

[fimm]

If you did a Sprint tomorrow, you'd finish. You have the fitness already. Beginner programmes assume you don't have that. I can't link to a suitable programme, but a website call Beginner Triathlete gets mentioned when this sort of question comes up, so that might be worth researching.

If you want to get faster... I'd look into interval training for your running and cycling. You can research that yourself - there are threads on here about improving cycling speed.

Swimming - my reaction is that your swimming is slow. I swim 1500m open water in a bit over 30 minutes and I'm a poor swimmer by triathlete standards. I'm assuming that you're swimming crawl? If so, thrashing up and down a pool WILL NOT make you faster. You need to learn about technique. If you can get some one-to-one or small group coaching, that would be a good investment, but if that isn't an option, I'd reccommend the swimsmooth http://www.swimsmooth.com/ website for advice. My advice is that you swim 3 times a week and really work on your technique.

Hope that helps. Oh, and http://www.tritalk.co.uk has a good forum if you want a tri-specific forum.

 

[Arsen Gere]

It sounds like you bitten by the triathlon bug. I was talked in to doing a sprint about two and half years ago having had to give up cycling because of knee injury. It was starting to get back to normal but I could not do long distances.

Like you I did a bit of swimming, a bit of running and the odd bike ride as a part of my recovery. But once you start to want to improve you are hooked. It's in your head that you want to get better.

IMHO the best training programme is what you can build in to your life, so it is a personal thing you won't find on the internet.
You can't get away from doing two sports in one day on some days, but you can do it without realising it. So this is how I do it.

I ride to work like you, in my case 11 miles each way. When I get home I go for a run or a swim. My run or swim is done carb delpeted because I have just got off my bike and had nothing to eat. It's also a brick, (bike to run) session. In my head I am only doing one sport.

If I want to do a longer run I leave out the bike to work and run to work instead, sometimes I only go one way, sometimes I do it both ways, that means I don't need to do a long run on a weekend.
During the summer I do a time trial on a night time after work on the bike and drop or move a swim session.
Odd occaisons I might get up early and do a short run before cycling to work, say if I need an evening free and I have not been out for a run for a few days.
I plan about 2 days off complete rest per month, then circumstances usually dictate there are a couple of other rest days for family reasons or bad weather and I don't beat myself up about missing training.

Don't be affraid to change round your training, my legs are sore from my first marathon at the weekend so I've been using public transport and swimming slowly on a night time for the past few days. Nothing to do with triathlon really but I'd never done a marathon before, so don't worry if you want to do something other than a tri.

Look at your limations and work on them. Your swim may be one, focus on that for a while, work out how to improve then move on to your next limitation but keep the base fitness in other sports going.

One rule I have is to write down everything I have done, how long, how hard, how far, how I felt and I review this at least once a week. So I know if I have skipped something. I know my weekly distances for each sport. For example I have seen my swims get better for a while then get slowy worse after I changed my routine, so I'm going back to what worked for me. I could not do this if I had not written the detail down.

Now for a bit of shameless boasting. Using this technique has got me a place on the GBR team and I am off to Eilat to race in the old farts category next April.

So if you find a plan you like, don't be affraid to modify it round your life, you are more likely to keep to it and enjoy triathlons. If you try to shape your life round a plan it will lead to conflict and frustration.

HTH

 

[fimm]

...
Now for a bit of shameless boasting. Using this technique has got me a place on the GBR team and I am off to Eilat to race in the old farts category next April.

Nice one! Well done

So if you find a plan you like, don't be afraid to modify it round your life, you are more likely to keep to it and enjoy triathlons. If you try to shape your life round a plan it will lead to conflict and frustration.

This (and the rest of the post) is excellent advice.

 

[Doseone]

Triathlon is fantastic, addictive and fun (and expensive if the bug really gets you!!)

Pretty much everything you will need to know can be found HERE

A couple of things I can't stress enough though...

Transitions - practice, practice and practice. You can bust a gut to drop 30 secs off your swim time and then blow it 'cos you can't clip in to your peddles quickly/ find your racebelt/ have pinned your number through the front and back of your t-shirt etc etc

Brick sessions - There is nothing like the feeling of "what the hell has happened to my legs" when you try running straight off the bike. It's weird but you need to practice it. Do a full intensity bike ride the same distance as you will in the tri and then go straight in to a run (good way to practice your T2) just for a couple of km. Don't overdo the brick sessions though.

Join a local club if there is one, and I can recommend tritalk as being a friendly and helpful forum.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[punkedmonkey]

This has been helpful so far, so thank you all. I'll definitely take a gander at the resources recommended...

 

[TheSandwichMonster]

Transitions - practice, practice and practice. You can bust a gut to drop 30 secs off your swim time and then blow it 'cos you can't clip in to your peddles quickly/ find your racebelt/ have pinned your number through the front and back of your t-shirt etc etc

Brick sessions - There is nothing like the feeling of "what the hell has happened to my legs" when you try running straight off the bike. It's weird but you need to practice it. Do a full intensity bike ride the same distance as you will in the tri and then go straight in to a run (good way to practice your T2) just for a couple of km. Don't overdo the brick sessions though.

This x1 Million!

I recently took part in my first duathlon (my swimming is far too rubbish at the moment for me to consider tri!), and being good at individual disciplines is nothing compared to having your transitions down, and knowing what your legs/body are going to do as you switch from one to the other. I used to do 20km bike into 3km run once or twice a week, or 5km run into 10km bike.

I found 220 triathlon magazine to be a useful source of info. I'm wokring with a swimming coach over the winter in an aim to get my swimming up to scratch enough that I can do my first triathlon next year. Oh, and elastic laces - get some for your shoes to make your transition faster!

 

[Arsen Gere]

"(my swimming is far too rubbish at the moment for me to consider tri!), "
I don't believe it. I have seen 20 mins for 400m. I have seen breast stroke, back stroke and various mixtures. I've seen bikes with baskets on the front and all kinds.

To some people it's about doing the event. A milestone in life, they can look back and say I've done a triathlon. To me that's great, lifes about doing things not owning things.

Get one done!

 

[dongo]

I'm planning my 1st triathlon (sprint) sometime next year. The Bike and Run don't concern me - I'd not be fast but I'd finish no trouble, my wife's been doing triathlons for several years and can help me to sort out what to do in transition etc. However, I can't swim a length, not with any stroke or even a combination, so I've a bit of work to do there - just done my 3rd lesson at the local pool, currently struggling to breath without swallowing half the contents of the pool, uugh.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

"(my swimming is far too rubbish at the moment for me to consider tri!), "
I don't believe it. I have seen 20 mins for 400m. I have seen breast stroke, back stroke and various mixtures. I've seen bikes with baskets on the front and all kinds.

To some people it's about doing the event. A milestone in life, they can look back and say I've done a triathlon. To me that's great, lifes about doing things not owning things.

Get one done!

Agreed. And contrary to fimm, I don't think your swimming is too slow. It's not quick, sure, but if you're a cyclist you will make it all up on the bike. Most average and especially beginning triathletes IME, are not cyclists. Sure, you should swim a lot and get some proper coaching for you technique. It will help. I generally swam 3 times a week in season this year gone and one of those was a session with coaching) and I improved from basically not being able to swim to doing 2km in 45 minutes (and being able to swim no-stop for over two hours comfortably). However...

The big, big, big thing is all triathlons until you get up to the ones longer than Olympic length (extra variants on the long course, half and full Ironman etc.) is the run, and perhaps even more importantly the transition from bike to run. I don't mean what goes on in the transition zone here, I mean the first few km of the run in which your body is dealing with the shock of moving from cycling to running. The swimming to cycling thing doesn't seem to cause any problems at all (not for me at least, and not to anyone else I have talked to). But the bike to run thing is a whole different story. In your first triathlon, you will hurt. You will get stabbing pains up your legs, you will seize up, you will feel like there is no way you are getting around this running course... for a km or two (or maybe more). Then it gets better and eventually you might even be able to reach your normal running pace.

What do you do about this? Bricks. And more bricks. And then some more bricks.

Bricks are specific training sessions for transitioning between two sports. Basically, instead of cycling one day, running the next, the nearer you get to your triathlon, the more you should be cycling and then immediately running - i.e. training your body to get used to this change - and preferably something near the same distances you will do for that event. I should say that however much you do this it will still not be easy the first time - but you will finish (and that is the most important thing).

 

[fimm]

I wasn't intending to imply that the OP's swimming is "too slow". What I was trying to do was explain that just swimming up and down won't make you faster - you need to work on technique (as you have found).

Your advice about bricks is good.

 

[punkedmonkey]

I wasn't intending to imply that the OP's swimming is "too slow". What I was trying to do was explain that just swimming up and down won't make you faster - you need to work on technique (as you have found).

Your advice about bricks is good.

Hehe - I didn't take it as such.

Swimming is definitely my weak point. Back in May I hadn't swum in over 10 years... so I was rusty at best

- also I didn't mention that the stroke I use to swim a mile in 45min is breast stroke and I currently swim in board shorts - though some Jammers have arrived today

I am definitely looking into getting some lessons/coaching. For some reason I find crawl really quite tiring - probably technique. I spent some time in the pool this morning doing some basic practice and really thinking about what I was doing and I did find it a bit easier.

It's weird coming from Running/Cycling where putting the miles in is generally a good thing to going to swimming where form and technique are a much bigger factor... Confuses my brain