Of course you can, the following advice may not get you first place, but it will get you home. This is not for the elite but for the regular “Joe” and “Josephine” who would like to say “yeah, I did it! I’ve done a triathlon”. Often getting to the start line in one piece is the hardest aspect of triathlons – once you get to the start line, the rest is easy……-ish!
One of the most important things to keep in mind when competing in a triathlon is make sure you are swimming, cycling and running within your own limits. It’s when we try to go beyond our limits that things go wrong and the same should be applied to your training.
If you want to complete a triathlon it is important to make sure you try to do as many of the following during your training:
1. Sleep 1 more hour a day, the best recovery is done while resting or asleep. Training on top of already busy lives will place an extra strain on you, so be sure to compensate with more sleep.
2. Eat better, try and cut out fast energy junk food/snacks and replace with proper wholesome food that will give slow release energy and the proper vitamins and minerals needed. Eat good meals early in the day and avoid late night eating.
3. Dress, eat and drink properly while training, stay warm, dry, well fed and hydrated. Your body is like a car, if it runs out of fuel is just will not go.
4. Try and train at least 3 times a week, 1 swim, 1 cycle & 1 run. Build yourself up to 1 hour long swim, 1.5-2hr bike and a 40-60 min run.
5. Keep the late nights-out and alcohol to a minimum, no point training hard during the week and wasting all the effort by staying out till 5am at the weekends and wondering why you can’t cycle the next morning. Hangovers are not conducive to quality training. Nothing wrong with a glass of wine in the evenings or 2-3 pints on a sat night. It’s good to reward your efforts …….just don’t make it 23 pints!
6. Don’t feel you need to train if you are over-tired or stressed out trying to balance family life and career with training, usually something gives, so strike the balance!
7. Enjoy the journey, try and train with others rather than on your own. It’s supposed to be fun as well you know!
8. If you get injured or strain a muscle let it recover or alternate your training so the injury is not aggravated and allowed sufficient time to recover.
9. If you get a cold or sick, mind yourself. Consult your doctor for professional advice. Don’t try and “sweat it out” – “Rest is Best” when it comes to getting better from colds/flu’s etc. Don’t start training again until you are 110% recovered. Many of us have gone back training to early only to get a relapse.
10. Try and get in at least one yoga, Pilates or stretching session a week to help increase your core strength, flexibility and help prevent injury.
11. On bad weather days (icy roads, gale winds) etc alternate your training indoors or onto suitable surfaces, run on forest trails instead of icy footpaths etc.
12. There is no need to spend €100’s on gear, just dress in layers and appropriately and have your tyres pumped up properly. But when you do buy gear, buy quality gear for both running and cycling, it is worth it. If your runners are old and worn, look at replacing them, running injuries are often due to “dead” runners and a new pair could save you lots of €’s on physio’s and they are more comfortable on long runs.
13. Make sure you enter smaller races before the big day so you have an idea how to pace yourself and know what’s ahead of you! You’ll learn more from one race than you will from months of training. Plus they are fun.
14. Bedtime reading! Go to your local book shop and get a good triathlon training book, there are loads out there. This will really help your training and answer a lot of questions.