Question:
At the risk of mountains of abuse, I am an absolute beginner.
I love triathlon, as a sport and particularly as a challenge.
I have never been a runner or swimmer or cyclist but I do have boundless
enthusiasm.
The only sport I ever trained aggresively for was gridiron (in the UK). I
was a wide receiver on a local nowhere team. That was over five years ago,
I'm 33 now and four months ago, decided that I wanted to train for
triathlon. I have been swimming twice weekly and training in the gym twice
weekly under the instruction of a personal trainer.
Now I need to start training to run and cycle and am looking for guidance
and/or training programmes/targets to begin.
In particular, I need to set a weekly schedule/regime for diet, sleep and
training sessions.
Can you help?
Answer:Here's a few tips on how to get started.
Choose a sprint race for your first Tri. 500m-1000m swim; 10-20km bike;5km
run
Pick one nearby and train for it. One that has good support. Ask around. Good
food afterwards a plus ( positive reinforcement ).
Swim - twice weekly is ok for starters 2000-3000m should be ok. Practice
sighting every 3-4 laps on something out of the pool. I say this as I imagine
open water training is not an option this time of year.
Bike - Get a bike, racing prefered, but a MTB will do to get you started.
You'll see soon enough what you need to get faster. 2 - 3 rides a week. One
over 40 km ( work up to this, 10% longer ride than your last weeks longest
ride. ) The rest, 15-20 km. If you are totally starting from scratch, work up
to these distances.
Run - Go run, get to a track or around the neighborhood. Run a bit, walk a
bit. Work up to the point where you run 7 - 8 km without stopping. As before
start slow, 10% longer than the longest before. Don't push too hard at first.
It gets easier as you go along. If you push too hard you'll get injured and
have to start over.
Sleep, get good rest, eat well, good balance of food ( 40-30-30 works, ask
someone will tell you ). Read the RST there's more info here than you'll ever
need to know. To start you need 5 maybe 7 hrs a week. Then you'll get hooked
and the real trouble begins..
