My first sprint Triathlon this week

Doing my first Triathlon sprint this Sunday. Have been training hard and wanted to get some of your opinion on what I should be doing this week as far as training. Shall I take it light or should I be training hard, or maybe taking a couple of days off?

 

It kind of depends on what kind of volume your training is at. Since it's your first race I'm going to make the assumption that you're not cranking out 10+ hour weeks of swim/bike/run, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Personally I'd say stick with the same training routine that you've been doing and dial down the intensity 2-3 days before the race. Get enough sleep and stay hydrated. You can take the day off from training the day before the race and then just be sure to get in a good warm up the morning of.

Have you practiced transitions at all? If you're thinking of doing anything fancy, or just aren't used to mounting your bike quickly I'd definitely suggest having a couple practice tries before you get out there with everyone else fumbling through transition.

Good luck and have fun! Feel free to ask any more tri specific questions I'd be glad to answer them.

 

Thanks, what do you think should be a good time for my first triathlon. .4 mile swim, 14 mile bike and 3.3 mile run.

 

A good time for your first is whatever you finish it in. You're already ahead of 95% of the people that are still sitting on the couch.

How did the race go?

 

It went pretty good. It was a .5 mile swim with 14 mile bike ride and 5k run. I did it in 1:40 min, but would have done better as my quads cramped on the run and had to stop for a couple of minutes to stretch it out. After that I ran at a slow pace so I could just finish. Also my transition times were slow need to work on that more as I think I could pick up 5 min just on transitions. So I think next time I think I can break 1:30. But I had alot of fun doing it.

 

Transitions are critical, especially in sprint races where the distances are short- time spent in transition is a higher percentage of the total time that you're out on the course! Some things that might help, other than the obvious advice to practice your transition technique:

Speed laces for your running shoes
A "tri suit"- tank top and shorts that you can wear through all 3 events, to save time changing in and out of jerseys, etc
Don't towel off in T1 (the swim/bike transition). Rely on "air drying" while you're on the bike
If you're comfortable doing so, don't wear socks for the bike or run legs (I can't get away with this, as I get blisters pretty easily)

It took me a season's worth of races (4 thus far) to get comfortable just having my gear laid out correctly in transition. Next year I will do some work on transition speed and practice mounting/dismounting, where I am currently pretty slow.

It's an addictive sport, though, isn't it?