Triathlete wannabe

A

Alhambra

Cathlete
Hi, I'm training for my very first triathlon. I'm targeting the sprint distance. I've been doing Cathe's workouts for years and I'm trying to get the right balance of weights with the biking, swimming and walking.

Presently I'm trying to bike three to four times a week, swim once a week and walk three times a week. Swimming is my strongest sport so I'm training in it the least.

1) If anyone can give me information on speedwalking I'd be very appreciative. I've got two pins in my right ankle so running is out.

2) Which weight workouts would complement my training the best? I'm presently trying to do upper body weights one day, lower body weights on another and combined upper and lower body weights on a third day during the week. I've got all of Cathe's weight tapes.

3) What is better low weights or high weights for giving me the strength to complete the triathlon?

Thanks for your assistance!
 
Hi Alhambra,

I'm also training for my first tri. If you are feeling good with the schedule you are doing now then I think it would complement you greatly.

If you start to get too fatigued, you might cut out one weight workout. I know a lot of tri training plans call for only one weight workout a week. I also like to do weights 2x/week, and don't forget to work your core!

I switch back and forth between strength and endurance type workouts. I'll do about 4 week rotations of one or the other.

Which tri are you training for?

Andrea
 
I'm still trying to choose the triathlon. There are an assortment to choose from in Manitoba, but I don't want to invest in a wetsuit (for my first triathlon) so I'm trying to find out which lakes will be warm enough for swimming on the event day.

Andrea which tri are you training for?
 
I hear ya on the westsuit thing! I'm training for one in Las Vegas in September. It's a long wait!

Andrea
 
I hate being nervous! Eat well and drink LOTS the day before. Take something to eat with you to the race. I find I usually can't stomach anything race morning, but once I get to the race, my nervousness disappears!

Good Luck and let us know how it goes!

Andrea
 
The total swim distance was 765 m, rather than 750 m. I was swimming wide of the buoys so I figure I probably swam about 800 m at least. My swim time was 19:39. I was 9th out of the water in my age category (30 to 39). The fastest swim time in my age category was 15:09.

My bike time was 57:33. This includes both transitions. At this point I moved to 12th place. My best bike time in practice has been 45 minutes (with no transitions) so I’m fairly happy. When I started my training 11 weeks ago my bike time was 65 minutes (with no transitions) so I’m quite pleased with my progress.

My walk time was 37:06. This put me into last place (13th) with a total time of 1:54:19. My goal was to complete my first triathlon in under 2 hours so I was quite pleased. What’s interesting is some people’s run times (younger than me) were longer than my walk time so I’m a fairly fast walker.

Overall I was very satisfied with my first triathlon and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

My next one is the foilman distance in Morden on July 16th. The swim is 950 m, the bike is 30 km and the run is 7.2 km so I’m going to focus on longer distances during the next few weeks. I’ll also give myself 3 rest days instead of 2 before the event.

What’s funny is transitions which totally freaked me out before the race were no big deal…although I know I could make some speed improvements to the transition.
 
"Triathlon 101", a book by John Mora, published by Human Kinetics has some excellent guidelines on integrating weight training with tri-training. Best of luck!
 
Nice race!

Wow, you ARE a fast walker!!! Congratulations on a great race!

I just started swimming yesterday. I could only go 2 minutes before taking a break. Yikes! I swim in a lake, so have no way of measuring yards. I'm hoping to work up to 20 min. straight.

Andrea
 
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