Triathlon training and racing

[toastergirl]

Some people were looking for help in training for their first event.  Perhaps with the collective wisdom from all the VFF triathletes on this site we can help out fellow VFF-ers out and get through their first tri's!

Thought that this might be a better place to discuss this rather than on the running mentoring board....

Let the posting begin! 

[vfftriathlete]

Im in ill give what advice I can and can advise on racing in the UK. As an organiser participant coach and race referee.

[toastergirl]

thanks VFFtriathlete!

I don't recall ever seeing anyone at a tri race in VFF's or barefoot.  I talked to some guy wearing them at a 5K last year (way before I ever had a pair) and he said that he's done tri's in them.

My goal is to run Ironman Lake Placid in them - I am hoping I can build to that mileage by then.  I am progressing well so far on the plan that I am following now.,

[orlin03]

I'll answer any questions as well; I've done a few tris and a dozen duathlons, even making the World Championships this year. I had to finish my last tri barefoot due to my problems with shoes (that's me carrying them in the photo); I wish I would have gone with my instincts and brought my VFFs to transition. All of my races next year will be done in them! Last year, shoe-sole-shaped platform pedals with straps were becoming increasingly popular at the races, so I wouldn't be surprised if some decides to use them, wearing Vibrams from start to finish (I need a wider bike shoe anyway...)
1st and most important piece of advice I'd give to someone doing their first tri: train and race your strengths! I've seen too many people get burned out training their weakpoints constantly, only to find out they have had little if any improvement in overall time on raceday; worse, they lost their 'fun' in the middle of it all. If you're a runner, let your running shine, and you'll smile all the way through; ease your way into the other areas.

[hinogi]

I need complete guidance from zero to hero So anyone who can help me to get from rather untrained to full triathlon while managing my study stuff would be welcome. My goal is to finish a triathlon olympic distance before I turn 30 currently. Iron man distance would be a bonus It doesn't need to be some official event its just for me personal.

[toastergirl]

an ironman is a rather big undertaking - I am currently training for my second one, Ironman Lake Placid - race date: July 25, 2010!   Its very hard to manage full IM training and a full time job - its a very time comsuming commitment.  Come march time frame I won't have much of a life other than: train, eat, sleep...oh, and yeah - go to work  (gotta make money...to afford to do tri's!!) until after about July 4th - then things get easier as I will start to cut down on workouts and get ready for the race and recover from all the hard long training days. 

anyhow - a sprint distance tri is a great place to start.  sprint distance is a bit shorter than an olympic - usually around a 1/4 to 1/2 mi swim, 10-15 mi bike and usually a 5K run (sometimes its 4-5, but that's not typical).  its a good experience for your first race - start small, learn from the small races then move up.  Doing a sprint tri race as a training day for an olympic distance race is good - something that I have done before. 

What is your current fitness level?? 

[hinogi]

Please no queer units use SI units. so no miles and pounds or fahrenheit. I would describe my fitness level as untrained although that may not be fully true, but i need to develop habbits/rituals for training so better start at the begining.
As I said an ironman would be a bonus but not my actual goal. it would be pretty cool just to train towards 0,75km swimming 20km cylcing 5km running. And when i managed that train towards the 1,5/40/10. and if i managed that maybe i go for a 2/80/20 and then maybe the 1,9/90/21,1 is next and so on and so forth.
But as I said the 1,5/40/10 is the current goal i want to achive within a year so before i turn 30 Tongue if i can do better with in this year its fine to of course, its a kind of personal project of will.
I'm also willing to give feedback of my experience if someone want to do a blog or something about such a thing, I'm totally not into blogging, tweeting or whatever.

[Hawkeye]

Please no queer units use SI units. so no miles and pounds or fahrenheit. I would describe my fitness level as untrained although that may not be fully true, but i need to develop habbits/rituals for training so better start at the begining.
As I said an ironman would be a bonus but not my actual goal. it would be pretty cool just to train towards 0,75km swimming 20km cylcing 5km running. And when i managed that train towards the 1,5/40/10. and if i managed that maybe i go for a 2/80/20 and then maybe the 1,9/90/21,1 is next and so on and so forth.
But as I said the 1,5/40/10 is the current goal i want to achive within a year so before i turn 30 Tongue if i can do better with in this year its fine to of course, its a kind of personal project of will.
I'm also willing to give feedback of my experience if someone want to do a blog or something about such a thing, I'm totally not into blogging, tweeting or whatever.

Why don't you convert them yourself instead of making the poster convert from "queer" units to SI?

Since you're getting free tri advice from an American I guess you could put up with our queer units.

Personally I don't think the English system is all that queer, just different like the babylonian base 60 number system.

[ZeitHeld]

While SI is more logical, it is a real hassle to alter yourself to think in them when it's not your natural mode. In this situation, I say convert 'em yourself. It's his free advice in the format he is familiar with.

[orlin03]

On that note, lets all start posting speeds in % c and temps in Kelvin.

[hinogi]

On that note, lets all start posting speeds in % c and temps in Kelvin.

that wouldn't even be less of a probalem for me being a physicist I was actually just thinking of usability for others because only a few countries still use miles and such while the rest of the world uses SI units. But lets get back to the topic actually.

[toastergirl]

ok then...back to the topic at hand - triathlon training (and racing).

how many days a week do you have time to workout?  if you are not working out at all right now....maybe try to start with a swim, bike, and run workout each week, so a total of 3 days working out.  Then work up from there.  it doesn't matter how far/fast you are going now - just do what you can and get your body to start to adapt to structured physical activity.   its easy to want to go full tilt right away, but in the long run its better to start slow - less risk of burning-out. 

anyone else have a suggestion on where/how to start? 

[xz123]

Last year, shoe-sole-shaped platform pedals with straps were becoming increasingly popular at the races, so I wouldn't be surprised if some decides to use them, wearing Vibrams from start to finish (I need a wider bike shoe anyway...)

Could you give some more details on what kind of pedals you mean?
I'm currently experimenting with barefoot-friendlyish pedals (e.g. like the cannondale octopus) and straps (e.g. those from http://zlda.nl) because I really want to get rid of my bike shoes and train barefoot/in VFF.

Besides Parkour and strength training I've started with triathlon training a few month ago, but didn't get extremely far due to the flu, other infections and bad planning (ie trying [and failing] to balance all those sports, university and a son [as a single parent]). Bought some literature on planning and training for a triathlon, hopefully with the aid of those books I'll be able to get a working and realistic plan created soon.

My goal, of course, is an Ironman, as barefoot as possible, but there's still quite some training to be done before that becomes a realistic goal ;)

[orlin03]

   Here is an article about the platforms. After reading it myself, I think I will have to seriously consider them for next season. I think toastergirl was right: three days a week of specific training, starting now, will get you through your first tri, especially if you incorporate non-specific training as well (like your parkour and body weight training). The next step from there would be to add two brick days to your week, closer to the start of your season; I'll typically add a swim-bike day and a bike-run day, but your favorite sport should be your staple here. The bricks can be done back-to-back or seperate, and should only be half (or less) as long as your individual workouts (at this point, you'll want your individual workouts to be around twice as long as your planned race-day event, and easy-going; your bricks should be at most the length of the portion in the race and high intensity). I wouldn't raise the workload from here until you get quite a few races under your belt.

http://www.cdisports.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=8
http://www.trisports.com/pyroplatforms.html

[toastergirl]

I was actually contemplating trying to wear my VFF's inside a bike shoe - since they are like a sock; but I am thinking that I'd have to get a larger shoe.  Or perhaps for me, go with a men's shoe since they tend to have a wider width.  

I can attest to it being hard to balance training all 3 sports.  I also try to incorperate weight lifting into my training regiment - 3x per week now and 2x per week once I start competing and training more heavily.  I'd like to get in 3x per week in-season, its just not possible most weeks - there just isn't enough time.  

As an aside - for me as a female triathlete lifting takes a priority for something like swimming, which for me is a strong suit.  I am at the point that it takes so much time to invest in getting just a tiny bit faster that it isn't a good use of my training time; where as getting in a lift is super important.  As a woman, from what my strength coach tells me, is that because of our hormones we actually metabolize muscle before we will burn fat when we do lots of cardiovascular exercise - its just how we have genetically evolved.  So ironman training involves an extensive ammount of cardio - in training for IMLP 2007 I actually lost muscle mass- and I lifted at least 2x per week with heavy weights and low reps.  I also did loose some body fat too - but with the lean body mass being depleated as well, my body fat % actually went up!   So now I am attempting to lay on as much muscle mass as possible, so that I can maintain a better strength base  going into IM training and hopfully try to minimize my muscle loss as much as possible.  Men on the otehr hand can actually build muscle from a good hard hill workout on the bike/run etc....