Tri / Triathlon / Triathlons - do they float your boat?

A guy doing the Celtman Ironman on the Winter Solstice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mklrKCsvYhg&feature=youtu.be

This year is taking too much time away from training, and I really need to do well in the summer exams, as they determine ranking and jobs, so I've swapped from 'Ironman' to half-Ironman as my goal in 2014, and pre-entered the 'Ironman' event in 2015.
This is a wise choice as I have about 12 weeks off in 2015 as opposed to potentially none before the race this year, but I'm still a little gutted.
May enter a few shorter length races just for fun, too.

Good luck on the full, Ed- with your amount of training you'll smash it.

I've just signed up to my first ever Triathlon for the beginning of April. It's almost a Standard distance, in that the swim is just 600m (indoors).

I'm fairly confident in my abilities at the moment. I can bang out a 19min 1km swim and a 45min 10k relatively easily, but I need to work on cycling again.

The question I have though is regarding kit: I normally wear a pair of jammers in the pool, would it be advisable to pull on a pair of bibs over these for transition? Or do some people swim in their bib shorts?

Trisuit?

Are you doing one locally?

You don't need bibs for the the ride - it's only 40k. Most tri-shorts have a minimal bib, where the location of the seam of more important that the padding.

Are you doing one locally?

Ringwood Triathlon on the 6th April.

Tempting... can't run for shit anymore but might be a laugh

Trisuit?

I could, but as it's my first I don't really want to spend >£50 on a suit, if I can make do with cycling in swimshorts and spend 20secs putting a jersey on.

Fair point. You can pick them up cheap on eBay though, I got one for about a tenner and it's served me well. Personally I wouldn't want to do 40km in jammers.

Think I may well do that. Are they all much of a muchness or should I be looking out for any particular features/brands?

Zone 3 are good at the value end of the scale, but I did my first tri in bibs and a cycling jersey, it was fine, and I still run 8-10k in proper cycling shorts every Saturday, I wouldn't bother spanking money on loads of kit until you decide it's something you want to do more of!

I like the 2xu ones but the cheap one I got was "descente" and was just as good really, very comfy.

Rather than going for an all out tri suit (one piece) you could just get tri-shorts. They look like your regular jammers but they have a small pad in them which should be ample for 40km.

For long distance stuff I swim in my (fully padded) bike shorts but that is under a wetsuit, I wouldn't fancy just wearing bibs for the swim.

Also pulling lycra onto wet skin is the devils own job. If it's your first ever tri then you don't need to worry about transitions too much but it's a real hassle if you are in a hurry.

Also pulling lycra onto wet skin is the devils own job. If it's your first ever tri then you don't need to worry about transitions too much but it's a real hassle if you are in a hurry.

This

Thanks for all the advice chaps.

@ewan, are tri shorts comfortable?

I always worry that with a two piece I've tear off my wetsuit only to realise I'd just broken the no nudity rule!

Ha! I've never had that problem although I have occasionally shown a bit of midriff.

I far prefer using separate top and bottoms, especially for LD stuff. I'm relatively tall and skinny 181cmish and 71kg so it's often difficult to find suits that fit both horizontally and vertically, using separates is much more comfy. You hope it won't happen but it's also a million miles more convenient if you need to visit the porta loo on the run.

Sometimes for LD races I add a pair of non-bib cycling shorts over the top of the tri shorts for some extra padding during the ride. Pulling them off at the end of the ride only takes a moment.

Just applied to join the serpentine swimming club as a ride past it everyday it seems like an efficient way of getting moar swimming in!

Currently in week 3 of a 3 week strength block of training, was talking to my coach at the weekend who said week three should be incredibly tough and I should really be feeling by this stage, I was feeling good in Saturday and was feeling quietly confident, last nights swim session was such a struggle, I was noticeably slower compared with others who I train with and today's it's walking around feels like an effort! Hill reps tonight are not going to be fun!

New bike arrives today/ tomorrow which should help motivate me to get out at the weekend, but at the moment I'm very much looking forward to an easy week next week!

They're such a nice bunch.
If Neil still swims there, say Hi from me.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-07/triathlete-injured-as-drone-filming-race-drops-to-ground/5371658

Triathletes really will crash into anything.

There have been conflicting accounts about whether Ms Ogden was hit by the drone or whether she fell and was injured after being startled by it.
I know which one my money's on.

I participated in my first Triathlon yesterday. It was an interesting experience and was a lot of fun.

My performance wasn't brilliant, but to be expected for my first. A few things I fucked up on:

• I spent *ages *in T1 - For some reason I decided to wear a tight long-sleeve base layer as it was cold and wet, but had neglected to prepare it in advance so was an absolute ball-ache to put on.
  
• Once I was on the road, after about about 500m I remembered I hadn't attached my saddlebag, so I had to turn back, adding another km to the ride.
  
• T2 went well but I started the run way too fast (at about 3:40min/km) and got a bad stitch, resulting in a 52min T2 + 10km....
  

Well done, presume it was an Olympic distance race?

Transitions are all about practice and preparation obviously you know that now, but it's tough to make those calls about what suffering you are prepared to endure to get a faster time, but it's an area where a little work can see huge gains vs the amount of effort needed to do any of the other disciplines faster!

Thanks! Sort-of Olympic distance: 600m swin, 28mile ride, 10k run.

I tried my best to really prepare my transitions, particularly T1, but the torrential rain in the morning made it quite hard to organise everything in such a way that clothing didn't get soaked while I was waiting to start. In the end, I resorted to sticking it all under an upside-down plactic tub...

I agree Re: suffer/performance balance - For example, there was no chance you'd see me putting on my cycling/running shoes without socks. I'm not that mental. Yet.
I thought I'd keep it relatively simple for my first, so I pretty-much dressed for the ride like I would for any other (with the exception of a lovely pair of bibs).