For those of you out there that don't know about the wonderful
sport of Triathlon let me fill you in. In its basic form it is a
combination of Swimming, Cycling and Running. Usually the Swim
comes first, but I do know of one event which does all 3 in
reverse (an 'Irt'athlon!)
Like most sports the main reason I compete is for the fun of it, but having just completed my first season, not only have I become addicted, but I've been getting some pleasing results.
There are a variety of formats but they can be summerised as Sprints, Standard distance (also called Olympic) and Ironman (for the really insane!).
Sprints usually have a 750m swim, 20K bike ride and 5k run. A good triathlete will complete this in around an hour, my personal best so far is about 1:09, not too bad for someone pushing 40!
Over the standard (olympic) distance my PB is a few seconds over
2:27.
I owe the bulk of my success this year to having (a) joined a
club, and (b) met a load of other Triathletes to train with, in
particular my (our) coach John Knight. John isn't the traditional
image of a hard task master, but he does prepare four weekly
scheduals for us and these are central to my good progress this
year. It is all to easy with a multi-sport event like this to
avoid doing the bits you don't want to do, and at the same time
over doing the bits that are easy or that you particularly enjoy.
In my case I hate road biking! (love mountain biking!)
If you would like to know more there is a newsgroup on the internet called, rec.sport.triathlon. You could also follow the links below.
