triathlon: first thoughts

Mission: Triathlon is on folks. Well almost. There a lot of things to consider when you're considering training for a triathlon, so my mind has been buzzing all week trying to take it all in. On Monday, I convinced my good friend Drew to go to the SF Tri Club Kick-off meeting with me. Drew and I trained and completed a century together last year. He's training for the SF Marathon this year, but I'm trying to convince him to tackle a triathlon (not his first) with me as well.

The meeting was held at the Presidio Sports Basement and there was a huge turn out, probably around 150 triathletes in the making (and plenty more seasoned veterans). The club provides a bunch of awesome resources for triathletes in SF, including group rides, runs, open water swims, spin classes, and track workouts. I think one of the greatest benefits of being a member (I joined!) will be a network of other athletes working towards the same goal. It will be great to have people to answer all my questions about training. Speaking of working towards the same goal, over half the club trains for the famous Wildflower Triathlon the first week of May.

Wildflower takes place at Lake Santonio, CA which is about half way between San Francisco and LA off of the 101. It's an entire triathlon festival - everybody camps for the weekend, cooks together, and cheers on the other athletes. They offer three different courses: a shorter Mountain Bike course, an olympic distance triathlon, and a long distance triathlon (half ironman).

I've only heard great things about this race and would love the camaraderie of the club training for the event together. However, May 5th is soon, less than four months soon. And, I'm not sure my body could handle an olympic triathlon that soon. I would also love to do the Lake Zurich triathlon back home in July, since a few of my friends are planning on racing too. Ahem, looking at you Rudy, Kuph and Kevin. 

Let's just say I'm seriously considering training for both. 

After the Tri Club meeting, I went and played soccer with Drew's team. I played soccer pretty competitively growing up and through the end of high school, but I gave it up after my third knee surgery. I enjoyed playing intramural in college (Fall '08 League Champs!) and recreationally in SF. I loved getting out there again! 

Everyone on the team was super friendly! I'd met a few of them before at Beer Club. Yes, a few friends and I started a Beer Club. It's awesome. The team was pretty stoked about their 2nd win in 3 seasons (5-1 baby), so celebratory drinks were definitely in order.

On to Shotwell's - a great local (albeit very hipster spot) with a fantastic beer list. I tried a Strubbe's Flemish Red. A little sour, a lot of sweet. Nice cherry flavor with lots of carbonation. Definitely not the style I usually go for (too sweet for my taste), but I really enjoyed the added sugar post-sweatfest. In my opinion, beer is the best way to refuel (carbs + water, hello) plus beer just tastes better after a workout.

On to the main event. In my mind, there are a few main things you have to consider before deciding to train for a triathlon.

1) Know what a triathlon is

This seems easy, but I have incorrectly estimated the distances of all three legs of an Olympic distance triathlon this week. Oops. Essentially, there are four main even types based on distance: sprint, Olympic, Half-Ironman and Ironman.

"A typical sprint distance covers 400 to 825 yards of swimming, 10 to 12 miles of cycling, and 3 miles of running.

The Olympic distance, popularly known as the “international distance”, includes twice the sprint’s distance or 1.5 Kilometres (.9 miles) of swimming, 40k (24.9 miles) of cycling, and 10k (6.2 miles) of running.

The Half-Ironman distance requires 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of cycling, and 13.1 miles of running.

Lastly, Ironman distance is the longest triathlon event since it involves 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling, and 26.2 miles of running."

source

2) Assess your current fitness level and decide a on a distance or you want to aim for

When thinking about training for a triathlon, I think it's important to assess your current level of fitness and see what makes the most sense for you. I want to do something that is both doable and a challenge. I'm in pretty decent cycling shape since I ride about 40 miles most weekends. However, I don't swim or run regularly. Hence, I'm aiming for an Olympic distance triathlon, but would love to complete a sprint first as part of my training.

3) Get some gear

Triathlon websites kind of scare me. I didn't realize you needed so much stuff to do a triathlon! However, let's focus on the basics.

Swim: swimsuit, goggles, maybe a swim cap if you're into that sort of thing

Bike: tri bike or road bike (with aero bars), helmet, padded shorts, jersey, clipless pedals, cycling shoes with cleats, gloves, water bottle, flat tire kit, air pump

Run: running shoes, clothes

The biking portion of a triathlon is the largest "barrier to enter" if you're strapped for cash. A bike and all the necessary gear really adds up! I'm lucky if I leave a bike store spending less than $100. Luckily, I have almost all the biking things I will need, but I really want to buy a set of aero bars sometime down the road.

4) Pick a race
There are a bunch of great resources out there for picking a race. Trifind.com has a comprehensive list of different triathlons (and other races) organized by distance and location. You can also search for women only events, off-road biking triathlons, and triathlons for beginners. I'd also encourage you to ask your local triathlon club for advice on the best triathlons in the area or read reviews of different triathlons. A great way to find personal reviews of any race is to google "race recap" along with the name of the race and hopefully you'll find bloggers who blog about their experience with a triathlon.


5) Make a training plan

Here, I'm clueless. There is a wealth of information on the web about all sorts of different training plans of various lengths and with different philosophies. I'm planning on writing a whole post once I make my training plan, so I'll update you with more information then. First, I need some sort of baseline information before I can make a training plan for myself. 

In the spirit of determining a baseline, I decided to "kick" off triathlon training by attempting to run for the first time since September. I bought a new pair of shoes at the Tri Club meeting on Monday (20% off everything in store). The salesman assessed my gait and then had me try on a bunch of different shoes of moderate stability. It just so happens that the neon blues shoes fit best and I'm not complaining. Well, they did give me a blister today, but that was kind of expected.

My goal for today was just to take it easy and run a little bit/walk a little bit. I ended up running at 6.0 mph for about 5 minutes and taking 2 minute walking breaks at 4.0 mph. I covered a little over 5.3 miles in 60 minutes. That's pretty good for me! (Although I have to give half the credit here to Rihanna and David Guetta). There, I even took a picture during my cool down to prove it to you. 

I'm going to give this running thing my best effort. I'd be awesome to fit in two runs a week. The furthest I've ever run consecutively has to be somewhere around 3 miles, so I have a ways to go. All in all, I felt pretty good! 

As you can tell, I still have a lot of things to consider before signing up for a triathlon. So please let me know if you have any advice for first-time triathletes, designing training plans, or picking a course.


Cheers,
Jackie


P.S. Ordering tickets for this is happening today.