Five Tips Triathlon Training Dos and Don’ts

Five Triathlon Training Dos and Don’ts

Here are five dos and five don’ts for training your first triathlon.

Five Dos

Train with your race gear
Train easy, increase your distance week by week
Eat and drink right after a long training
Do find someone who has done a triathlon and ask them lots of questions
Set up a training schedule from race day and work it backwards.

5 Don’ts

Don’t forget to train and focus on your strongest event. The more you train, the better you get.
Don’t be afraid to miss one training session if you are busy. One missed training session will not ruin your race. No need to stress over it.
Don’t over do. It is better to do less than more. Do more too fast will lead to injury.
Don’t over think. Triathlon might look like a tough event. It is not.
Don’t have too much gear. Keep the training and race simple. It is a swim, a bike and a run.

What to eat the night before the triathlon?

What to eat the night before the triathlon?

Before the race, this is probably the biggest question.

Here’s a few tips on how to prepare what to eat before the triathlon:

i) Practice what to eat

Other than practicing for the race day with your training gear, you should practice what you eat as well. Everyone is different and therefore you need to find out what works or doesn’t work for your stomach.

Stay away from food that is too fatty or greasy (pizza, fries etc.) or food that has lots of fibers.

Most people recommend eating carbs before hand. You can have pasta, grain or carb loaded food. If you practice what to eat before a long training day, on the night before race day you will know what works for your stomach.

ii) Hydration is king

Keep drinking plenty of fluids the day before the race. If you lose as much as 1% of your body weight in fluid, it can decrease performance up to 10% (and you will feel pretty crappy).

Keep sipping water throughout the day. Make sure your urine is clear ;).

If you are racing in hot or humid climate where you will be sweating a lot, you can take some salt as well.

For me, I tend to keep the meals pretty light before race day. White bread and peanut butter. Lots of juice. I am not a heavy sweater so I don’t drink Gatorade or other fluid replacement drinks. I will have pasta on the night before at 6 pm. If I am hungry, I will eat fruits (banana, orange etc.).

What three sports make up the triathlon

What three sports make up the triathlon?

Triathlon consists of three sports: swimming, biking and running. A participant does not stop and participant the event one after another. Triathlon vary in distance. The longer distance can last for several hours.

What is a triathlon?

A triathlon is a sport event consists of swimming, biking and running.

It varies in distance. To find more about the different type of triathlon, please visit this post on How long is a triathlon.

In triathlon, there is a transition zones. The transition areas between the swim and the bike is called T1 (transition 1). After the bike, there is a transition 2 (called T2 for short).

In almost all triathlons, the swim is taken place in open water. In most case, triathlon participants is allow to wear a wetsuit. In the bike segment, helmet is mandatory for safety reasons. Since the race is an individual performance, most of the triathlons do not allow drafting in the bike portion.

How to train for a triathlon

The most important aspect is to swim, bike and run as much as possible while learning to improve your technique. By spending the time on training, you will improve your endurance that you need for the distance. You can always find a coach or a tri club if you need personal assistance.

Anyone can do a triathlon. Even if you haven’t been active. What it takes is patience and willpower. Most of you will require a need to change your lifestyle. This is the most difficult part in preparing for a triathlon. As long as you enjoy the training, it is easy.

The question you have to ask yourself is why do you want to do it? What’s your purpose? Is it for a better healthy lifestyle? Or a challenge? This purpose will be important as you train for the race.

For most triathlon, all you need is to train 3-6 days a week. This is more important. It is to find time in our busy lifestyle. If you think the distance in a triathlon is overwhelming, it can be. There are a lot of stories and people who have been living in sedated lifestyle and decided to train a triathlon one day. So don’t feel like you are alone. Many people have started this and have completed a triathlon.

How long is a triathlon?

How long is a triathlon?

There are many distance in a triathlon. Each triathlon consists of swim, bike and run.

Here are the general distances:

Type	Swim	Bike	Run
Super Sprint	400 m (0.25 mi)	10 km (6.2 mi)	2.5 km (1.5 mi)
Sprint	750 m (0.47 mi)	20 km (12.4 mi)	5 km (3.1 mi)
Olympic	1.5 km (0.93 mi)	40 km (24.8 mi)	10 km (6.2 mi)
Long Course	3 km (1.86 mi)	80 km (49.6 mi)	20 km (12.4 mi)
Half Ironman (70.3)	1.9 km (1.2 mi)	90 km (56 mi)	21.1 km (13.1 mi)
Ironman	3.8 km (2.4 mi)	180 km (112 mi)	42.2 km (26.2 mi) [Yup that’s a marathon!]