Triathlons

Life Is Good When You're A Triathlete

Ah, living the Tri life...

No, not the High Life but the TRI Life!

What is the “Tri Life?” Let me describe it.

Continue reading: The Life Of A Triathlete

A Crash Course In Sports Injuries Suffered By Triathletes

*Warning: I am not a medical doctor. Neither am I astronaut, nuclear physicist, or a Zoo monkey handler. So, anything I say about treating injuries, flying rockets, experimenting with nuclear energy, or adopting a chimpanzee for a pet ...take this into consideration.

Triathletes are especially susceptible to certain injuries because triathlon training and competition pushes the human body to its limits.

The best way to deal with injuries is not to get them, which means incorporating an injury prevention mentality into your training.

Here are some suggestions:

#1  Make injury prevention a focus for off-season training.

#2  When it comes to swimming, focus on developing proper technique. Bad swimming technique leads to unnecessary injuries. I know from personal experience.

#3  Be sure your bike is set up correctly for your body. If your saddle is too low, it will mess with your knees; too high, your hamstring.

#4  Have good running shoes. Many triathletes have shoes fitted just for their feet, which is a good idea. Foot Solutions is one avenue; check and see if there’s a store near you.

#5  Maintain a stretching routine during the season. Here are three stretching videos: Stretching: Part 1, Stretching: Part 2, and Stretching: Part 3. To stay faithful to a stretching routine, some triathletes join a yoga class.

#6  Don’t fudge on proper nutrition, recovery, and rest.

Do all you can on the prevention side!

Continue reading: Traithlon Sports Injuries

Choosing A Triathlon Event & Training For Your 'A-Race'

Whether you’ve just decided to do your first triathlon or you’ve already done 30 of them, it’s important to identify a specific triathlon race that you are training to compete in.

Doing so gives you a solid goal to work towards, and a focal point to build your training program around.

Triathlon training is a year-round commitment with the following phases:

Base Training -- building an endurance foundation

Intensity Training -- developing speed, force, and increased anaerobic capacity

Peak -- tapering and becoming race ready

Race --  competing in your key race

Recovery -- resting the body, and preparing to begin a new cycle

Continue reading: Choosing A Triathlon Event

Triathlon Training Nutrition: Bye, Bye Big Mac

When I decided to do my first triathlon, I weighed 210 pounds.

Yesterday, I weighed in at 166. That was after a training session, so really my normal weight these days in somewhere in the range of 168 to 172.

There was once a time in life when I worried about eating too much. Now, I worry about eating too little.

Continue reading: Triathlon Training Nutrition

Beginner Triathlon Training Programs & Resources

So, where do you start to begin training for your first triathlon?

Fortunately, you can find some great online triathlon training, as well as triathlon coaching online. There are also a number of triathlon training guides in the form of triathlon training books, DVDs, and lecture series.

Here are some beginner triathlon training programs to consider when you are establishing your triathlon training plan...

Continue reading: Triathlon Training Tips

Bike Stuff For Newbies: Cycling Gear Worth Having

I mentioned earlier that there are 3 categories of bike gear: 

Must Have

A Good Idea

Would Be Nice

We covered the Must Have list; now it’s on to the other 2 categories.

Continue reading: Cycling Gear For Newbies

Tips For Newbies Getting Used To Cycling Shoes And Clipless Pedals

Cycling shoes and clipless pedals allow your feet to be secured into the pedals, so your pedaling motion can utilize both the downward push of your quads and the upward pull of your hamstring.

Like all gear, there are a variety of options to choose from.

The cycling shoes themselves have different components that allow you to “click into” the pedals such as Look pedals and SPD pedals, but the concept is the same.

Here’s some advice on getting started with cycling shoes...

Continue reading: Cycling Shoes & Clipless Pedals

Cycling Gear Every Triathlete Must Have

There’s no way around the fact that it starts adding up on the financial end as you knock things off your bike gear shopping list.

I’ve created a cycling checklist with 3 categories:

Must Have

A Good Idea

Would Be Nice

Let’s start with the cycling Must Have list:

Continue reading: Cycling Gear For Triathletes

How To Choose A Bike For Your First Triathlon

There are different triathlon distances. The most common are:

Sprint (swim 0.5, bike 12.4, run 3.1)

Olympic (swim .93, bike 24.8, run 6.2)

Half Ironman (swim 1.2, bike 56, run 13.1)

Ironman (swim 2.4, bike 112, run 26.2)

Notice that the longest leg in every triathlon is cycling, which means you're going to be spending a lot of time training on a bike.

So, the next few posts are going to explore the cycling universe.

Continue reading: Your First Triathlon Bike

Triathlete Mistakes: Tips For Making It Through The Newbie Phase As A Swimmer

I thought I was a pretty good swimmer until I joined the Masters Swim class at our local YMCA.

There I was - Mr. Triathlon man, ready to show everyone just how triathlony I was! Let's see... there was what looked to be about a 60-something-year-old man, this string-bean thin Asian guy, a woman probably also in her 60s, a couple of other women about my age or maybe a little younger, and this short pale looking dude. So I hopped in the water with my tan, lean triathlon body, ready to show the class what I could do.

Soon after getting in the water, I realized I was in trouble upon discovering that people were expected to know multiple strokes. I knew the freestyle, but that was it (other than the doggy paddle). I thought I could more or less fake the breaststroke. (Heck, I've watched the Olympics, and I can bob my head up and down in the water with the best of them.) Unfortunately, I didn't factor in our teacher being able to see down into the water to catch the idiotic things I was doing with my legs. Busted!

You should have seen what happened when she tried to show me how to do the butterfly. Thank goodness no one was taping this or it might have well become the most watched video on the Internet entitled, "You won't believe this!"

I was so glad when we finally got around to doing the freestyle. Now I was in my element, and ready to demonstrate just how fit I was. I was doing just fine until the drill when we were supposed to do 16 50-meter sprints: 4 sets of 4, with a 15-second recovery between each 50-meter sprint. I was good for about 8 of them, and then I was sucking wind in a major way!

It was humiliating! I didn't realize string-beans and older folks could swim so fast and far. I realized I had a lot to learn and a long way to go.

Continue reading: Newbie Triathlete Swim Mistakes