Turbomentor

Never too young or too old to try triathlon

I was awake and up before Steve this morning and so felt in the dark for my little LED light that I keep by the bed and went quietly out to the kitchen, taking with me other items to make sure that I was not too noisy so that I didn’t wake him knowing that he had had a tiring day yesterday and he his not any spring chicken anymore either. That said it has to be noted that I am not good and being quiet. My kindle in hand and my puzzler magazine in case I could not get into my book at that hour, my current read is, Sirens by Joseph Knox which is moving along nicely.

Steve was planning on doing a turbo session before going to work; if he had enough energy. My session would be later because the still new to multi sport woman, that I have been gentling quietly into my sport, sent me a message on FB last night to ask if she could come to try a turbo session again.

Like all beginners Christine has worked mostly on the things that she likes doing, things that she is good at. She is a regular runner and did her first marathon last year. She literally takes her dog out for run. Her swimming was just a bit rusty at first but she quickly built up enough stamina to get through an hour swim on her own and it took a lot of coaxing to get her to come and swim in our group. What is this crazy idea that some beginners have, that they have to reach some secret standard in their own head before going somewhere more experienced people can show you how to do it properly; not stay away and practice your faults to perfection. If help is offered; take it.

She has turned up now on a number of occasions’ and now her swimming is coming along in leaps and bounds. This morning was the second time that she had submitted herself for a turbo session. Again it was the case that she had bought herself a bike a few months ago but coyly refused the offer of advice on the bike. She is one of those people that wants always to do her best but again although she has been out for rides it is the least favourite of the three triathlon disciplines. It has been hard for me to try just to drop tips in or slip ideas in between what she thinks she should do and what Steve and I and all other triathletes know that she should do.

Main point, now that I have explained this to her kindly I can put it bluntly. Christine cannot change gear for toffees! So after today’s turbo session which went very well; she was dripping sweat at the end of it but has I think got the message about listening to her legs and my recommendation this morning was that for her next couple of rides out she find a nice quiet loop close to her home and that she just goes and plays with the gears to get used to them. Not take the bike out in the same gear that you brought it home from the shop in and not touch the changers at all. She has been using Steve bikes shoes at our house on the turbo but the thought of having your feet clipped in to the pedals out on the road is still terrifying. She has also been introduced to the pro bars. I can mention here that in my case, the moment Steve fitted pro-bars on my bike, I instantly loved them and never had any drama getting used to them at all. As to the clips on the bike shoes….. we have a way to go yet with her, since she is finding the action to release them and clipping them in for that matter, difficult. Of course she will get that hang of that quickly. We will get there in the end, it is all something totally new for her but she is a worker and does not need pushing in that respect.

This boils down to that we all need to practice; whatever it is that we are least effective with. It is extremely interesting mentoring this woman because she is exactly the age I was when I started to play with triathlon, she is one step ahead of me actually because I had never been a runner in my life (Dancer yes, runner never) until I started to regain my fitness after my fiftieth birthday. I could ride a bike but had not done so for thirty years or more and, like Christine, I could swim, but again she has the advantage because she did do some front crawl whereas I was a breast stroke/back stroke swimmer. I had to learn front crawl from scratch.

That is why we all tell anybody who gets the idea of trying a tri in their head, to go to a tri club where everybody will be falling over themselves to help with advice because we love our sport and want new athletes to enjoy it as much as we do. Make it easy on yourself. Accept encouragement and tips when offered.