Anyone done a Triathalon before?

[DaveB]

I've done a few in the last 5 or six years, mostly I stick to cycling though.

When it comes down to it most Triathlons are decided on the run.

The swim may only be short, but if you are going for it it's still a bloody hard effort to swim strongly for 5-10 minutes, especially as most of the effort will come from your arms so you can save your legs for the bike and run.

The bike stage is basically about not having a mechanical on the way and maintaining your pace, go too hard on the bike stage and you'll have nothing left for the run.

The run is where it all gets decided, you have to be a lot better at swimming and biking to beat a good runner in a triathlon, especially in a sprint where you wont get the chance to build much of a lead.

If you are going to train for one part then train for the transition from bike to running, that is where it will hurt.

[b0redom]

Yes. I did the Thames Turbo sprint one earlier this year. To be honest if you're reasonably fit you should be easily able to do it. My swimming is pretty awful, and I was worried about needing to alternate between crawl and breast stroke, but there were loads of people doing breast stroke.

I was reasonably fit, last year I commuted 14 miles or so each way to work on my bike, but following a car accident I didn't do much of anything until about a month before the event. There were still loads of people finishing after me though.

Best way to do it is just have a go. Head down to the pool, time yourself in the water, then time yourself on a bike and run all back to back.

[shaunbhoy]

Listen gramps, I play squash twice a week at a high level and tennis/golf at the weekends.

Just because the courts are upstairs, doesn't make it a "high level". Special Needs Squash is still Special Needs Squash.

And Golf...........yes that really gets the old heart and lungs pumping.

That's presumably why I'm not a lardy git

No. The reason you are still a weedy pigeon is because you are

a) Too miserable to put weight on and
b) Too scrawny a little weed to ever fully develop. The runt of the litter in more ways than one sas.

That explains why you had to get rid of the Hyabusa. It was too heavy for you to get it off the stand.

[MarillionFan]

sasguru,
not all of us needed notes from mummy excusing us PE at school you know.
Some of us ex-military types have eaten marathons and half-marathons in our time, and scoffed a whole range of spuds at a very decent level. Certainly the type of activity that would have had you reaching frantically for your inhalers and/or mummy's hand.
You know the sort of thing, Kebabs, Burgers, Pizza, Icecream, etc.
That generally allows us the luxury of knowing what we are talking about. We don't all need to resort to constang tugging in our garden shed to maintain fitness, but I do.

ftfy

[Mich the Tester]

I might consider it if it really was a 'sprint' as in 50m swim, 500 metre bike ride and 100m run.

[MarillionFan]

I once did a Decathalon. Did the 100M in 6.5 seconds and 24 metres on the long jump.

Had to give it up when I hurt my fingertips.

[shaunbhoy]

I play squash twice a week at a high level and tennis/golf at the weekends.

Wonder if sg has been having a "workout" this weekend?
Makes you laugh really, just how he can even lift a Tennis racket with his physique. Built like a Sudanese Locust!
I can't think of him without getting a vision of the bastard lovechild of Mr Muscle and an East African Famine Charity's Poster Child.

[d000hg]

I reckon I'd love a triathlon if it wasn't for the running and swimming. Oh, and I don't own a bike.

[SueEllen]

I reckon I'd love a triathlon if it wasn't for the running and swimming. Oh, and I don't own a bike.

You can do team ones where you only have to do one thing.

The most difficult part in them is changing over the ankle bracelet.

[d000hg]

Maybe changing the bracelet could me my role. Or holding the towel.