When you get off the bike, use very small strides the first couple of minutes.
If you start out with the normal stride your legs will be filled with lactic acid quick or you’ll end up cramping the hell up.
I did a lot of 1500/40/10 olympic distance triathlons back in the days.
Oh remember you can win a lot of time in transition
Mort!! I was gonna make a thread asking for advice from any triathletes, and here you are! You’re an awesome guy, I really appreciate the advice.
Any advice for dealing with all the people in the water? Seems like itd be annoying to get into a groove with everyone around.
Not really I was/am such a poor swimmer, but go hard from the gun, if you’re a good swimmer slipstream one of the good ones. It’s not that bad, after a few minutes it has sorted it self. But you can get some kicks right from the start.
Use your arms as much as possible, when you’re finished swimming you wont need them anymore. If you’re good you can relax the legs a bit in the water.
Ride you bike in the speedo’s, if it’s warm you can “hide” the singlet in the speedos and when you get out of the water pull it up during the run for the bike.
If you’re wearing separate bike and running shoes, let the bike shoes sit on the pedals very open, have the helmet ready to put on. Helmet on, if you’re tough you can ride and run without socks, then one foot in the shoe, kick start and jump on the bike, put the other foot in the pedal get a little speed and first now reach down to tie the shoes.
On the final stretch to the transition loosen the shoes and right before the end pull them out of the shoes and put the feet on top of the shoes for the last 20 m.
Stop the bike, get rid of helmet (very important, you look silly starting the run with the helmet on). Put on running shoes, start out with short strides.
I’m not sure you need to eat, but a bottle of gatorade or other simple sugar on the bike ride might be good.
OHHH practice the shifts, and find out what works best for you.
All that cardio from the swings is gonna be put to good use. When’s the triathlon? Good luck man!
I’ve heard it’s a good idea to not get kicked in the face too many times while swimming
I’m getting a pair of tri shorts that are padded but not as heavily as bike shorts and quick-drying, so I just have to put on a workout shirt that’s thin and breathable. Also, I’m using running shoes for the bike ride since it’s just 10 miles on completely flat land, and definitely wearing socks, my feet sweat so much I’d be squeaking around on my insoles.
Sprint triathlon. Quarter mile swim, 10 mile ride, 2 mile run. An actual triathlon is 1 mile/40 miles/10 mile run. Just had to clarify so nobody thinks I’m that insane yet, haha. It’s July 20. Got 3 weeks.
Triathlon is just a definition of swim/bike/run
The most famous distance is the Ironman 3600 m swim/180 km bike/42 km (marathon) run.
then there’s the olympic distance 1500 m swim/40 km bike/10 km run.
Yours is close to the 1/10 of the iron man distance that is also is a very common distance.
And in the US then mentioned 1M/40M/10M unless you would have written km instead of miles in the bike/run phase.
But there are numerous distances, often the swim is quite short because most ppl don’t like the swimming part.
But it’s fun to participate.
That’s probably a good idea in duathlon run/bike/run it’s quite common, they have special pedals for designed for that.
If you get into it, you’ll end up broke it’s a never ending story about upgrades ![]()
EDIT: trishorts is a good thing to wear, I had a suit like the speedsuits for timetrials, but with the little tiny padding. So on the bike I had a belt with my number so no messing around with singlets/t shirts.
I’ll say it again if you want to be in the front of the race, practise the shifts, you can win or lose minutes in the transition areas.
I already feel like out of breath just reading the miles. Haha. Salute to those with good cardio. I miss having a resting heart rate in the 60s and below
Swam 500m in 15 minutes today. Can definitely shave a couple minutes off of that by the time race day comes around, and that should put me at sub-10 400m. Was going to get tri shorts but honestly they were like 80 bucks, so I got some TYR swim shorts that are skintight, and I bought a memory foam cover for my bike seat to pad it further for the race. What combination of strokes did you use for the swim? I think I’m gonna try to freestyle out in front of most of the pack (if possible), then breast stroke most of the rest.
Triathlon Prep:
500m swim in 15 minutes
Free Motion ab machine
70x10
110x15
110x12, 70x15
Hoist Ab Crunch, 4 second eccentric
25x10
60x12
60x12
SUPERSET
Leg raises lying opposite way on decline bench
2x10
and
Decline crunch
+25x15
+25x12, BWx10
Rope crunch
50x25
50x20
Do your abs ever cramp?
If I neglect direct ab work for a few weeks, then I honestly can barely do any weighted ab stuff without my abs cramping. So to answer your question - hell yes, and it’s torture when they do. If I don’t get into an ab stretch ASAP it lasts for a minute or longer and it’s difficult to breathe.
I’ve found myself lying on the floor in agony with my arms stretched overhead a few times.
Gotta get on your stomach into an ab stretch - eliminates it in seconds.
That is as good as the Tri shorts, the padding in the tri shorts is close to nothing.
Freestyle, the first couple of races I did was breast stroke but, I found out I had to learn freestyle. When using breast stroke you’re using legs a lot.
Split is going to just be a 3-a-week lift, so I can get in 4 cardio/conditioning days.
DC-Inspired Program: Week 2, Chest Day
Incline DB
35x5
50x5
75x3
85x9, 4, 2 ^
Dips
BWx5
+25x12, 8, 3 ^
Crossovers
7 on the stack x10
11x12
11x8, mech dropset to Press x8, drop weight to 7x8, mech dropset to Press x5
30 sec DB fly stretch
Machine tricep Extension, 3 sec eccentric
25x10
50x20
70x10, 25x10
Tri Rope
6 on the stack 2x10
30 sec tri stretch, rope behind head
Lateral Raises
15s x51
Watched some swimming videos and identified 5 problems with my freestyle stroke that I wasn’t aware of. Pulling with low elbow positioning, shortening my strokes, lifting my head slightly to breathe, breathing during the start of a stroke, and kicking too much. I’m lucky I found this with 3 weeks to spare. Now I can fix up my technique to make freestyle more efficient.
Burns less calories, less efficient is better (I say this because I suck at swimming and all forms of Oly lifting
)
Hahah yeah, in terms of a conditioning workout it’s not as effective as it was when I felt like I’d die after 5 laps but for a quarter mile triathlon swim it’s a necessity that I use my arms and don’t gas myself too much.