First Tri, Storys, Fitness & body

findingfitness

Hi All...

I'm a 29 year old female who plans to do her first triathlon in July all going well, and as a result i have about a million questions. I live in Mayo so the tri i have in mind is the Ballina Salmon Run. I have already started training i run, swim and bike twice a week each and i do some weight training.
I am about a stone over weight, i havent started a diet because i didnt want to start heavy training and cutting calories all at once as it was just too much to deal with. i have found though that i am eating much more healthy foods and not nearly as much rubish and my weight is staying exactly the same but i do feel like i have tightned up abit if you can understand that.

I would love to hear some stories from others like me. beginers who have full time jobs and busy lives and to hear what your first tri was like. how it changed your fitness and your body and when you noticed these changes, was there a turning point when you realised that you had lost weight or did you find that you were just eating more to compensate for the extra exercise??

Also if any of you have blogs i would love it if could follow them just to see how you are getting on. It seems to me that people dont start to share their story until they are accomplished and experienced and i feel that its such a learning curve and i would love to hear all about the ups and downs as they happened instead of years down the line.

MCOS

Hi findingfitness

Good for you setting a goal like that There a few Tri logs up, papamike, kinquez, myself and DAVE_K and not least of all hunnymonster (brace yourself before your read her log though!).

The runners also have excellent logs are are very supportive of each other and us Tri people too.

Overall its a great forum and very friendly and knowledgeable. You have come to the right place!

Best of luck

pgibbo

Hi findingfitness,
First off, good luck with Ballina. It's a great race and the athmosphere there is fantastic. Ballina was my first triathlon too. I did it last year. As preparation for it I swam twice or three times a week. To be honest, the swim won't be an issue as it is downstream so don't worry about it. The cycle is nice too, not too many hills. And the run is very scenic. The great thing was the amount of support out on the course. The locals really get behind the event.

As for training, personally I did 2 to 3 swims per week, 2 runs and 2 nights of Martial Arts. I did all my running at lunch time, so that really helped too. Otherwise my wife would have shot me! I only did 3 or 4 cycles before it. I regretted not getting more time on the bike, but that was only because I know I could have gone much faster if I had. The main thing is to enjoy the race & the training. The sense of achievement when crossing the finish line is amazing. Hard to beat those natural highs. :cool:

As MCOS said, there are some very good training logs on here and also some great advice to be got too. Best of luck with the training.

findingfitness

Thanks so much mcos and pgibbo for your replys they are much appreciated. mcos i will deff take a look at those logs
pgibbo thanks for the rundown of the tri your the first person who has broken it down like that for me i have never even seen one yet so thanks. i do plan to go and see one before the big day though lol. it really is great to get such positive encouragement.

Canis Lupus

Hey Salmon Run was my first as well. I loved every minute of it. I followed Hal Higdons trifast plan (although I added on some weeks).

I kinda started basic training in January, got into a pool and started to teach myself to swim in Feb onwards (I work across the road from my gym so was swimming EVERY day and I needed it as well).

I didn't follow the plan religiously but I gave it a decent enough bash and I was well happy with my result. You get back what you put in and it's a damn good way to start off a 'fit' lifestyle. Just don't do the tri and then sit back thinking that's that/ have a look at the calendar, book yourself into others and maybe some 10k races and never look back

findingfitness

Hi Canis Lupus

Did you take swimming lessons. im finding that my swimming is improving slowly as i only learned to swim last year and was very weak up2 this. I was thinking of getting a presonal lesson or 2 just to iron out my bad habits so im just wondering if this is a good idea. I am hoping that this tri will be the first of many and i think i will enter the womens 10km in June. Im loving the training so far but its hard to fit it all in sometimes. I am going to have a look the plan you mentioned hopefully i can use it to add a bit of structure.

pgibbo

findingfitness wrote: »

Did you take swimming lessons. im finding that my swimming is improving slowly as i only learned to swim last year and was very weak up2 this. I was thinking of getting a presonal lesson or 2 just to iron out my bad habits so im just wondering if this is a good idea. I am hoping that this tri will be the first of many and i think i will enter the womens 10km in June. Im loving the training so far but its hard to fit it all in sometimes. I am going to have a look the plan you mentioned hopefully i can use it to add a bit of structure.

I joined a local Masters Swimming Club and I have found that to be really beneficial. You should see if there are any in your area. Structured sets plus coaches on the deck to keep an eye on your technique. All that plus the group athmosphere makes it really enjoyable.

HardyEustace

I did Ballina last year and really enjoyed it.

The swim is the easiest I've ever done in my life. You literally get floated downstream. Thus if you're a weak swimmer, it's the best race to do.

To be honest, hand on heart, you couldn't really call it a triathlon as the swim is just so easy. Everyone just gets bunched together and is brought down by the current.

It's a lovely race - great goodie bag and the most beautiful run. Lots of local support.

Good luck with the training, I'd recommend getting as many swimming lessons as time/money can afford.

Have you joined the local club there? That's the first thing I'd do before anything, you'll get lots of support and they probably organise swimming lessons.

findingfitness

HardyEustace i havent joined the club there as it is a bit of a distance away so it wouldnt be practical for me. I def think i will look into the swimming lessons though and the masters class see if there is one nearby.
cheers

Canis Lupus

Sup to you regarding the swim. My pool was just across the road and so I was grinding it out every day. I just watched lots and lots of videos on youtube and paid attention to the fast people in the pool Swim smooth was a good video to look at on youtube now I think about it.

It's down to how you feel really but Ballina is pretty easy. The river will just take you down to the line. The concern is not losing your cool in the crush, minding the rocks you'll swim over and not to swim into the bridge supports (it hurts)

If you really struggle completing the distance in a pool then perhaps you could invest in lessons but it's down to how you feel really.

griffin100

Did you take swimming lessons. im finding that my swimming is improving slowly as i only learned to swim last year and was very weak up2 this. I was thinking of getting a presonal lesson or 2 just to iron out my bad habits so im just wondering if this is a good idea. I am hoping that this tri will be the first of many and i think i will enter the womens 10km in June. Im loving the training so far but its hard to fit it all in sometimes. I am going to have a look the plan you mentioned hopefully i can use it to add a bit of structure.

I got two one on one lessons starting off last May and they made a big difference for me but their really is no substitute in my opinion for spending time in the water. The more comfortable you get the better. Don't worry about the swim on the day, your wetsuit will make it much easier than swimming in the pool but do prepare for cold dark and murky water. You probably will have a panic attack as you get into the water to start (at least I did in my first one) but once you get going you'ill forget about that.

I used the programme on www.trinewbies.com starting off. It's fairly easy and you will probably find you will increase the distances suggested as you get fitter. I lost a couple of stone during the 10 or 11 weeks of the programme.

Best of luck.

bananamansgay

hi findingfitness, i did my first tri last year in kinsale. i had the guts of 4 months to train. i was training 5-6 days a week. i was pretty much average weight for my age/height and had a decent enough level of fitness from the start.

i really struggled with the swimming though, and being a heavy smoker didnt help! looking back i should have got a few lessons as i did find it very hard , but now, training for my next tri i feel alot more confident in my techneique. it also feels less pressured now the second time around, i felt last year that i had to 'hurry up and learn!' how to swim, where as now im a lot more relaxed and can concentrate on improving my stroke as opposed to having to concentrate on not drowning!

I tried to do do at least two workouts a day, run/swim/bike(spinning)/weights. I found it hard to find time to get out on the road with the bike unless it was a weekend but i did plenty of spinning classes instead. iv read on this site that people dont really rate them, but they are a good cardio workout and certainly helped my legs build up and at the end of the day its better to do 2 spinning classes a week and a good proper bike run on the weekend than just the bike run on its own.

i dont really eat a lot of junk so didnt have to cut down on that, instead i did start eatin a lot more carbs, basiclly pasta, lots of it, and snaked on bananans and jaffa cakes (carb heavy).

My body of course changed alot. i guess after a 2-3 weeks i noticed my belly reducing and after 4-5 weeks my muscle tone was getting better. i started taking whey protein about 6 weeks before the race and noticed how it helped me recover and increased muscle too.

hope u find something helpful here, if not you generally will on this forum, it was a real source of help to me....

welcome to the boards

novarapid

well done on picking your goal and working towards it. ( I still haven't entered a tri yet and its my goal this year to do one)

This site is great for advice and picking you up when your down and dont feel like training, helped me no end training for Dublin last year.

if your looking for stories of other tri people look up tritalk.co.uk, very active blog community but alot of the people are ironman distance, some interesing reading all the same.

best of luck with the training!!

kerinsp

Hi findingfitness
I am entering my first tri this may but the swim is in a pool. I can swim ok but I haven't been in a pool for years so I am getting lessons now. There were lessons in the pool last night and there was loads there. I was thinking of entering the ballina tri too. I was wondering where you got your wetsuit (Can you rent them?) and when can you enter for the race?

Funkyzeit

Failte Romhat!
General rule of thumb is don't increase your distance/time in training by more than 10% each week or you could potentially get injured.

Don't worry about the weight too much - don't forget you may actually be losing body fat but not losing weight.

Out of all the advice you will get here the most important one is.....

ENJOY IT.

findingfitness

God I cant believe all the responses thanks so much its really encouraging. I will be taking all your advice on board

kerinsp I havent got a wetsuit yet and not sure if they can be rented or not to be honest, i had planned to leave that for a couple of months before i worry about it. i dont think the entry's have opened yet for that but i will let you know when i find out.

bananamansgay (love the name by da way) thanks so much for your post its very informative and inspiring.

at the moment im going to the gym twice a week doing cardio - bike xtrainer and weights
I have a treadmill at home which i use about once a week
I Swim twice a week one of which is for about an hour and the second is much shorter as i do it after the gym.
I get out on the road at the weekend with a cycle on a saturday about an hour
and a run on sunday and im up to 3 miles easy running 10min mile.
Am i doing enough??
Oh and i do a dance class also which hopefully will help my poor flexibility lol.

findingfitness

kerinsp wrote: »

Hi findingfitness
I was thinking of entering the ballina tri too. I was wondering where you got your wetsuit (Can you rent them?) and when can you enter for the race?

The entry for ballina opens on 31st march. ill let ya know how to enter soon as i find out.

kerinsp

cool thanks.

papamike

Hey findingfitness,
Welcome to the forum. You have come to the right place in relation to getting answers to all your tri questions. I am also entering my first tri in April and have been reading posts here for the past while and there is loads of great advice here.

My tri is pool based however as I'm not sure that open water is ready for me just yet. However Ballina does sound attractive for a beginner with the downstream swim:D, Plus potential for a nice weekend away with the family, build up some brownie points.

Regarding training, there are loads more experienced people here than me but you seem to be doing ok although you don't mention what distances you cover on bike and swim. If you are swimming for an hour once a week though, a 750m swim should be no bother to you, although you did mention you'd like to get lessons. This I would recommend highly as even Michael Phelps can always improve technique. After that it would be beneficial to join a club - tri or swim, and train with a group as I've found that has really brought me along, watching others and trying to keep up makes you work harder than you would on your own.

I would suggest maybe building your cycle time up over the next couple of months also, get plenty of miles in the legs and similar with the running. Like funkyzeit says don't increase distance/time in training by more than 10% each week. Aim to do a 10k run/race maybe in May or June and train for that, you can get training programs online from a number of sources - Hal Higdon cool running etc. This will help your running no end.

Keep reading the logs here and sure maybe start one of your own...great way to keep the motivation going.

Best of luck with it