triathlon advice

uglyjohn

im looking for a bit of advice/guidance on doing a triathlon please....

basically i want to try and push myself for a specific goal and i figure a triathlon would be perfect.

in terms of fitness i swim and jog fairly regularly (although i was on holiday recently so i have kinda slipped) and when i was younger (im 22 now) i was in a cycling club and regularly cycled 50 miles or so.(touring rather than racing)

i think there is a triathlon on at the end of august, would i have enough time to train for that and does anyone know of any club i could train with around the stillorgan/blackrock area?

justsomebloke

well it depends what level of fitness are you at now i.e. how far a distance do you run and swim at the moment

maxi-twist

And which type of triathlon your going for

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triathlon

you can also do strongman triathlons etc.. which are longer.

uglyjohn

i just went for a 10k run, 53 minutes...its pretty bad but i do a hilly route and i have spent the last two weeks drinking every day. when i swim i generally do about 35-40 lengths of a 35m pool in about 40 minutes. i dont really push myself in either, i could increase the times/distances but i would like to have some concrete goal to aim for.


there is an olympic one on at the end of august, i thought that would ok.....am i wrong?

cunnins4

Here's what ya should do man:

register for the dublin tri on www.activeeurope.com and check out www.dublincitytriathlon.com (i presume it's the dublin tri you're talkin about?) it fills up very quickly afaik.

If you can already run 10k, swim 1k and used to cycle a bit you'll be able to finish it. Not in the elite group, but if you want to push yourself a triathlon's the way to do it. If you register, you're committed and that'll make you train harder. get out there, cycle, run and swim. If you want a guide for training check out www.trinewbies.com or www.beginnertriathlete.com - most of their training plans are 12 weeks or more, but you could probably pick it up at the 4th or 5th week stage. Cut out the beer, be disciplined and you can do it. you don't sound to be mad out of shape or unable to do it.

I did it last summer for the first time, i started training on the 6th of june (after my exams). Went on a 2 week piss up to greece in july. Then unplanned, i went to san diego for another 2 weeks after greece to visit my girlfriend. more beer. I came back, trained my asse off again and did the dublin tri in september. It was really hard, but i was on cloud 9 afterwards. I breast stroked the entire swim, but still came out ahead of many people in my swim wave, so don't worry about being slow. I overtook LOADS of people on the bike, but probably went a bit too hard and was too burned to put in a good time on the run.

Give it your best, sure if you have to stop and walk on the run, so be it. If you have to free wheel on the bike who cares? lie on your back in the swim to catch a breath? no one will even notice.

Or, ya could sit on your arse and talk about doing it? go out, enjoy yourself and be proud at the end of it. then next year, do it again, and do it better!

good luck!

hunnymonster

wot cunnins said. If you're already active you have time to get ready for the Dublin race. Just two things about it though. The swim is in the liffey. It's not the cleanest water, indeed someone was very ill (weils disease) I think after last year's race. The other thing is that if you haven't cycled in a while this is where to spend most of your time between now and then. It's the longest part of an olympic race and it's what really seperates the men from the boys. Have a loot at the websites for 3D triathlon club, pulse, pirana. They're the DUblin clubs that spring to mind. I know for sure 3D always welcome new people and I'm sure the same is true for other clubs. If you have any other questions ask away, I'm a tri coach.

tunney

August has some great races on.

Dublin has been mentioned - a good race.

There is Ballyronan the weekend before it, its my favourite race. Its also the National Championships this year. Swim is in a lake, bike is less technical that the Dublin course, run is nice.

Beginning of August there is Mourne - probably one of the best settings for a triathlon. Swim is in one of the most fantastic lakes around, bike is deceptively tough, run is FANTASTIC, 10km off road but on great surface around the lake.

Kenmare - maybe not for the beginners

I'm not aware of clubs based in the Stillorgan/Blackrock area. Closest would be Wicklow (based in Bray), Belpark in Templeogue or Pulse in the southside as well.

hunnymonster

I'd forgotten about Mourne. I haven't done it before but I'm entered this year. I'm looking forward to it. Reports were great from lsat year's race.

Kenmare is a half ironman race. The distances are 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike and 21.1 km run. If the distances are not enough to put people off then having a look at the bike course will. It's hilly and technical with some challenging descents (read switchbacks).

We have a second half ironman this year in Groomsport and it is on this weekend. It will be my last event in the June/July mayhem that has seen me do a marathon, half marathon, 2 oly tri's, 1 sprint tri, 200 km wicklow cycle, ironman cycle (Roth), swim accross Cork harbour and on Sunday the half ironman. Kilkee was hard work last week on tired quads. I've no idea how sunday is going to work out. Next week I actually start training my main race is in November

ali.c

hunnymonster wrote:

).

It will be my last event in the June/July mayhem that has seen me do a marathon, half marathon, 2 oly tri's, 1 sprint tri, 200 km wicklow cycle, ironman cycle (Roth), swim accross Cork harbour and on Sunday the half ironman. Kilkee was hard work last week on tired quads. I've no idea how sunday is going to work out. Next week I actually start training my main race is in November

:eek: gulp

ozchick

After 10 ten years of doing tirs, I'd suggest you start with something smaller than Olympic distance, maybe a sprint distance, if they have them in Ireland. Depends if you just want to get thru it.

You also need to practice running off the bike, there is a lot of difference in putting each leg of a tri together rather than just doing it on it's own.

Also if you just run 10km in training, don't expect 10km after a 40km ride to feel the same, try and extend your distances gradually.

It's a pretty addictive sport, having said that, I kinda retired a couple of years ago and just run and ride for fun now. I won't be attempting to do one when I move to Ireland soon, not after the pleasure of training and racing in Australia!

Have fun though, they are a good physical challenge!

daveirl

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hunnymonster

ozchick, my first triathlon was a olympic. If you have any kind of base fitness it's fine to start with this. My second was an ironman. That does take a little training. The problem with sprint distances is that the transitions and technique becomes so important rather than your actual fitness and strength.


Dave, Roughly the route the ferry takes. Cobh to Monkstown. I'm guess it was only about a mile but hard work due to the currents. Cork is one of the best places in the world to be based if you're into open water swimming. Much of it is due to the efforts of a guy called Ned Denison. He is a channel swimmer, santa barbara, alcatraz etc. He swam around manhattan island about 3 weeks ago. 28 miles in just under 10 hours. We also did one organsed by Ned that weekend from Union Hall to Glandore. It's even shorter 1.2 km. The cork masters regularly swim around sandycove island in Kinsale. It's a great swimming spot and exactly 1.5 km per loop. At low tide you can just about walk out to the island so a lot of the channel swimmers walk out with their supplies, start swimmming and do laps stopping off for food every so often. A good safe way to train. I'm hoping to move to cork full time in the next few months and looking forward to more openwater swimming.

Sleepy

hunnymonster wrote:

t will be my last event in the June/July mayhem that has seen me do a marathon, half marathon, 2 oly tri's, 1 sprint tri, 200 km wicklow cycle, ironman cycle (Roth), swim accross Cork harbour and on Sunday the half ironman. Kilkee was hard work last week on tired quads. I've no idea how sunday is going to work out. Next week I actually start training my main race is in November

You terrify me.

Odysseus

It will be my last event in the June/July mayhem that has seen me do a marathon, half marathon, 2 oly tri's, 1 sprint tri, 200 km wicklow cycle, ironman cycle (Roth), swim accross Cork harbour and on Sunday the half ironman. Kilkee was hard work last week on tired quads. I've no idea how sunday is going to work out. Next week I actually start training my main race is in November[/QUOTE]


Good stuff, you have been busy! Best of luck on Sunday.

hunnymonster

I'll sort out the blog soon but I won my age group and 2nd overall. A very satsifactory result. Pace was bang on what I was hoping to achieve by September in the run up to ironman Florida so I'm well chuffed to have reached it already. Especially as I was going into this race with tired legs.

daveirl

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hunnymonster

The first time I ever sat in a sea kayak we left from did a loop of spike and the other island (hogbolan?). If you've never paddled a sea kayak it's a very tough workout for your biceps. Being small muslces they get tired and really burn fast. I was taking it easy and just getting the hang of how the boat handled when everyone took off at a ferocious pace. There was no way I could keep with them until someone said, look right. There I was looking straight down the pointy end of a tanker. The then told me, we have to reach the red bouy (marking then end of the fishing channel) before he reaches us. There is nothing like the genuine fear of death to make you produce a super-human effort. My arms were on fire and once I cleared the shipping channel I would have quite happily cut them off! Swimming anywhere around there requires a lot of local knowledge (currents etc), cooperation (life guarding) and a fair bit of planning.