Summer 2014 Triathletes.....in here!

[pootlebug]

I've seen a few comments about people planning triathlons for this summer, and I can't find a general triathlon thread (if there is one, can someone point me in the direction of it, pretty please!).

Thought it might be good to have a thread for general chat/tips/encouragement etc. I'm sure there are some seasoned triathletes as well as others new to it.

I did some sprint distances nearly 10 years ago, pre-kids. I was always limited by my crappy swimming though, so never anything with more than a 400m swim. But then I did an amazing swimming course in October, not planning any more babies, and youngest has started (mostly) sleeping.....so wanted a fitness goal for this year. I've signed up for a 750/20/5 sprint in May, an Olympic distance in June, and the London Triathlon olympic distance in August. Currently have no problem swimming a couple of km, but need a lot more work on the bike and run!

Come on in and introduce yourself, tell us your plans, etc.....

Eek not week!

I agree that elastic laces rock. Even if I don't keep doing triathlons (although I plan to) I'm never having normal laces in my trainers again. I have these ones www.wiggle.co.uk/ultimate-performance-elastic-laces/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&utm_source=pla&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=uk&kpid=5360504227

My new saddle is waiting for me at the Post Office - I was out swimming when it arrived today. Have been looking at start times, course map etc today (another tip....check the map for in/out of transition etc so that you have a rough idea, then double-check again on arrival). My Aquathlon on the same course last week was bloody awful but I've been doing my best to think positive and hope I made the mistakes that day instead of this Sunday. I start at the crack of dawn so planning to be home for a kip, then a pub lunch :)

Sounds like a plan Pootle! Ds is on at 3.30 on Saturday, and I'm 10.30 on the Sunday, so not bad timings.

I've got everything organised into bags esp as I'm off to Ireland for work in the morning, and have checked it all off on the kit list.

Ds and I both have practiced transition (cos I get to stuff him into his bike kit), and I did a swim/bike brick yesterday jic.

I've used loc laces for a long time as tying laces is tricky for me, so both of us have those.

Mine has a separate area for T1 and t2, so glad I checked all the details!

10.30 is very civilised! I shall be in a lake at 6.45am....

6.45? Bleurgh!

I've just got an appointment at at prosthetics/orthotics clinic to get a cycling splint made, which will make life a lot easier and hopefully less painful. I'm hoping it will look nice too - on their website they don't have any splint pictures, but the limbs they make for para tri and para cyclists are really cool

Cycling splint sounds great CMOTD. I am so in awe of you doing this stuff with mobility issues....I really don't find it easy as it is. Best of luck for Sunday

Good luck this weekend Pootle &CMOT! Have fun! (I'm saying this slurping wine - no racing fer me and I've been unwell so no workouts this weekend! Kind of a relief to have permission to stay on the sofa as I know it's only temporary!)

Ds and I did it!

It was well cute watching all the children yesterday.

Mine went well, though very hot, and I detest running on grass (I need less cushioned shoes I think as mine are v cushioned as I get sore feet on the road) - overtook some people in the pool, and quite a few on the ride.

Very well organised event - 650 children entered yesterday, and they ran absolutely on time, and I was in the pool spot on this morning

Well done CMOTDibbler and Mini Dibbler! I bet you're really proud of DS and he's really proud of himself (and his mum!) too. So what's next for you two....has it given you the bug to sign up for another one?

I was actually thankful for my 6.30am start (they brought it forward to have more in the first wave. I found out at 6.10 as I was registering....was all a bit of a rush) as it meant it wasn't too hot and amazingly I was done by 9.

The bike course measured short at around 36km instead of 40km according to my bike computer.....or at least I really hope it measured short and I didn't miss a lap. I'm not complaining as cycling isn't usually my strongest though actually today it was really my type of bike course - fast apart from one very slow bend at the turn-around, flat and traffic-free. It's not the uphills that bother me on hilly courses - it's the fact i'm too much of a wuss to do the downhills fast so it costs me time.

But I put the ghosts of the nightmare aquathlon to bed and had a good swim - just focussed on swimming at my own speed and ignoring the rest. Felt like I didn't go hard enough in the run but actually found it very very difficult to move off the sofa for the first hour I was home, so I probably pretty much did.

Well done ladies! A warm weekend for it making it harder for sure.
Fantastic. I have done precisely nothing this weekend! I feel really lazy now hearing all your achievements!

Ds has pronounced it to be great, and when can he do another. I think I'll do a local one in 6 weeks which again is pool based, but will have to search for one for him.

Brilliant format for being really encouraging for kids as you can't tell who is winning, and they made a big thing of all the kids doing fab for participating with their name read out as they approached the finish, the mayor putting their medals on.

Well done for putting that Aquathlon to bed Pootle

That's brilliant that both you and DS are keen to do another, CMOTD! It sounds like a brilliantly organised event.

Full results out now and I am very bemused to see that I was the fastest female swimmer (although to be fair one of the three ladies who beat me obviously lost her timing chip so has no splits). For swim+bike I was within seconds of the lead & 2nd place female, but both of them were faster/considerably faster runners than me. Which is all a bit odd as i'd generally consider the run my best discipline although goodness knows I cannot in my wildest dreams run 10k in the 39 minutes and something that the female winner did.

My cycling has, I think, improved....Sufferfest videos seem to have done a lot of good. Also helped that it was my sort of course.

3 weeks til another Sprint and then another 3 weeks after that until London Olympic distance.

How is everyone doing? Any more races planned yet CMOTDibbler and mini-Dibbler? And everyone else....

Chopstheduck are you on here....are you ready for team Mel C on Sunday?

Hi all

Can I join in? Have been looking for a good triathlon forum for some moral support, but all the ones I found (TriTalk etc) seem to be full of experts and talk of Ironman events... far too scary. Don't know why I didn't think of checking MN first!

I have done a few supersprint distance tris over the past 4 years (hampered by pregnancy / children as I'm sure we all are!) but tomorrow I have my first longer distance - a 3/4 oly distance tri at Dorney Lake and I am properly pooping myself.

My swim is poor, will probably end up doing breaststroke as I tend to panic & hyperventilate in a lake - so my aim here is not to be lapped on the two lap swim. Then bike should be ok, nice and steady, but 6 laps so I need to remember to count them! Then run will be slow and painful, and the run at Dorney is pretty boring too.

Impressed by everyone's training and plans, triathlon really is an addictive activity isn't it?

Meant to say as well, that I always feel a bit awkward at events where everyone else seems to be having a very social time with their other club mates and I feel like a bit of a billy...

I'm going on my own tomorrow and although DH, kids & my mum will be coming along later to support it isn't quite the same.

Maybe we could start a MN Triathlon Club?!

A MN tri club would be ace!

Good luck for Dorney Buzzing - let me know what the lake temp is like as I am toying with doing a paratri there in August, but I have nerve pain issues in cold water which is putting me off.

I haven't organised any more events as me and minicmot have been doing cycle events - an 18 miler 2 weeks ago, a very hilly 21 miles last week. DH is doing his first real sportive at 55 miles this Sunday. I'm really proud of him as at christmas he was struggling to cycle 2 miles, and now he is averaging 17.2 mph and doing 100 miles a week.

I had a fab visit to an orthotics/prosthetics clinic last week, and I'll be getting a cycling splint, and they are getting the contact details of the people that adapt the paratri teams bikes for me - they make the special arms they use on the bikes, as well as amazing sports limbs generally

22 degrees according to the email they sent to me yesterday - so wetsuits optional but not banned (I was starting to worry they might be). Will let you know what that feels like in reality tomorrow

There was a report from a tri a couple of weeks ago at Dorney saying 21.5 degrees humanrace.co.uk/news/race-reports/item/717-super-skills-on-show-at-the-supertri and it should be even warmer by August. I only have a 400m swim at Dorney on Sunday and have been dithering on the wetsuit/no wetsuit question. I think I've finally decided that I am faster with wetsuit, even allowing for removal time, so unless it's a boiling day on Sunday (not looking likely) I'll probably wear mine.

Yes to MN tri club I have thought of joining a real tri club but the problem is that I fit my training into fairly unsociable hours (mainly before 7.30am) and can't make it to the majority of training sessions so doesn't seem worth it. A much speedier friend has persuaded me that some running training would make a significant difference though, so am dithering on tri club or running club.

It sounds like the Dibbler family are all doing great sport-wise! The orthotics/prosthetics stuff sounds really positive too.

Buzzing - some people put 6 pieces of sellotape on handlebars and remove/move one every lap. Wouldn't work for me (I'd drive myself mad wondering if I'd done it or not!) but seems to work for some for lap-counting. I both count and use the cycle computer on the bike....worth doing both even if you have a distance counter in case the course runs short or long (happened in my last tri which was 4km short), or your computer dies part-way through because you inadvertently hit the wrong button (happened in the one before).
Hopefully you'll surprise yourself by finding the distance fine. I did a 750/20/5 sprint in May and an Olympic in June (my first triathlons in 12 years and the long-ago previous ones were much shorter novice distances) and found the jump to Olympic fine, albeit that the run was harder work and I felt I went too slow because I was anxious not to try to do too much too early.

As race prep goes, I really don't recommend falling down the stairs the night before! I'd only run up to find my race belt and my foot slipped on the way back down.... Bump bump bump to the bottom and one very bruised coccyx

Pootle, water temp today was 19.7 - and everyone I saw was wearing a wetsuit, albeit the distances were longer, either 1000 or 1500.

Swim went well, I breast stroked most but wasn't last out of the water, bike went well, but the run was hard! It was hot, and long. I teamed up with a guy who was also struggling and we ran / walked it together.

Definitely need to do more brick sessions, and probably get some pointers in all disciplines to make sure I'm not wasting my limited training time, if that makes sense?

Enjoy tmw Pootle, let us know how you get on.

Dibbler - I think my DD did the same Tri as your DS! I fancy having a go next year as I have only just taken up running since Jan (doing the C25k plan) and I need to lose a shed load of weight.

I have spotted a Biathlon event towards the end of the year that is only 100m/1k both of which I can easily do but have the worry about what to wear. If I don't wear any underwear I will knock myself out (iykwim) so should I wear a sports bra under my swim cossie so I have it on for the run? There don't seem to be ladies tri suits available for my huge size so would a man's one be ok to wear?

Maybe I should just forget it until I am thinner but having goals to aim for has helped so far

No, don't forget about it Dizzy. There were loads of ladies on the Sunday wearing swimming cossies, or shorts and a crop top/lycra vest for the swim, and then adding clothes for the rest.
I bought a new bra for the tri - this one as although its double lined, its not thick, and it dried well.

Did your dd enjoy the tri?

Ow on the coccyx Buzzing. Def a hot day for running, but you finished, and thats the main thing

Ouch on the stairs thing, Buzzing! I fell off my bike the day before my first tri earlier this year so can imagine....

It was a hot day to run today. Well done - it's not easy weather to up your distance.

I downloaded a (paid for) tri training plan from Sufferfest. I'd seen and liked their bike videos and I think it has really helped me improve, albeit that it has rather fallen by the wayside in the last 3 or 4 weeks or so due to other things going on - have kept training but not for as long as I was. Hoping to get back into it as soon as I've had a day or two of recovery after this race as have another Olympic in 3 weeks. But it helped me to have a specific plan....otherwise I tend to favour one sport over another iyswim. And the indoor bike training is sometimes crappy on a nice day but forces me to push myself harder than I would on an outdoor ride on my own.

Dizzy - go for it! Lots of people wear sports bras under tri suits at triathlons. I swam in my shock absorber run bra and it was fine (have since decided I can manage without for races....my boobs have shrunk due to weight loss/ training!) . Mens tri suits tend to be much more cutaway under the arms so could gape a bit (I guess not as bad with a bra under) so it would be best to try one on first or pick the cut very carefully.

I am looking forward to tomorrow Off to go and lay out all my kit...

Dizzy, as the others have said, you can definitely wear a bra either under a trisuit or under your swimming costume then add a tshirt for the run. My experience is that anything goes, for every whizz with all the gear on a £4k bike there'll be another in jeans (yes, I have seen this!) on a penny farthing (that bit may not be true...).

Particularly at the shorter distance so many people will be just like you and trying something out for the first time, as I am often told myself - however you do it you'll be faster than someone sat on their sofa.

Just had a well earned fish and chip supper, am still shattered now but super proud and scouting the web for some training plans! Pootle, I looked at Sufferfest but not sure they will work so well without a stationary bike? There's some free plans here that it might take a look at.

You're right, Buzzing - Sufferfest isn't really suited to all-outdoor biking. There are lots of plans around - I'm sure you can find one that works for you.

It was (mostly) fun today. A really nice atmosphere...I didn't feel such a norman-no-mates as a non-tri-club-member as in my other two tris - everyone was chatting and enthusiastic.

Horribly windy which made the bike tough and the run less than ideal too. My fault for saying I didn't care what the weather did so long as it didn't rain! (It didn't). Although admittedly it was good on the tailwind bit. But I hit my self-imposed target time and managed a top-10 finish so I'm pretty happy