Triathlon beginners advice

 

Early Beginnings

If I had a pound for every time a beginner has asked me for advice when they are racking up their bike for their first event, I could easily buy a new bike myself, because it has been such a common occurrence.

There are so many things you can say that might be helpful but I think one of the most sensible things to tell a dead keen new triathlete is to train on their bike as much as possible and add, that its best to get the miles in the legs before too many speed sessions. The biggest gain in the first couple of years is made by concentrating on the bike. If like my husband/coach Steve and I, in our own early days, you find the result sheets are a fascination, that is also a good thing and you will soon notice that the people who start to get improvement in the total time on the lists have very often made the improvement on the bike leg.

It is an area where you can work on both getting the miles in the legs and working on plodding up some nice long gradual hills. In my own opinion it is not a good idea to go out in winter when its tipping rain, just because that is on you training plan, don’t be afraid to climb onto the turbo trainer rather than get cold and wet and run the risk of sliding on wet roads.

Keep the club swim training regular.  Work out enthusiastically but learn to pace yourself, and by all means but get advice on your technique. Improvement on your swim time, is the slowest to change of the disciplines and again my advice, is to get the distance tucked in under the belt before working for more speed. That will come with the improved technique of lengthening your stroke and developing sound long axis rotation. Strong and steady rather than thrashing those arms round too fast.

Then it is wise to remember that running is the most injurious of the training we do, especially if running is fairly new in your life, it really is better to get the slow steady miles going well before working on running faster.  Never try to squeeze a session back in that has been lost through an unplanned problem. Shut the door behind you on the lost session and move forward.

Finally, try to keep your muscles soft and relaxed however you can, but to suit yourself. I like to dance, do some core strength work and I have recently taken up Qigong that is so relaxing and calming but whatever you do, keep stretched and loose.