My daughter, 12 years old, has been a competitive swimmer since very young and is a year-round club swimmer. She's also been riding bike with me on and off, but started riding more seriously since last month after I got her a real road bike. We rode 55 miles last Saturday for an event here in NoVA, and she averaged 15 mph with running shoes and platform pedals. I've since got her to start riding with clipless pedals (Speedplay) and real cycling shoes which she really enjoyed in the last couple of rides. Now she's interested in trying triathlon even though she hasn't been a runner other than what they do as kids in school, and the odd 5k run here and there (we did two 5k runs last year). Since I am a cyclist and never did tri myself, I figure I would post this to the forum to get some advice so I can get her started. So here are some of my questions (some are probably really basic, so please excuse my ignorance):
1. what kind of race should she start as her first race? I checked into the kids races but they appear to be more for fun than competition. So is my focus on getting her started first on a sprint tri the right choice?
2. Does she need a tri suit? Does she swim/bike/run in the same tri suit? What do you do in the two transitions?
3. If she doesn't wear tri suit, can she just swim with her regular swim suit, and then put on a pair of cycling shorts for the bike part, and then take it off and run in the swim suit? We are pretty committed to do this, so I don't mind invest in a tri suite, but want to see what other options are there?
4. What are some good suggestions for tri suits and what to look out for?
5. What about wet suit? Do you only need it when you doing swim under certain temp? I assume you wear the wet suit OVER the tri suit and take it off after the swim, right?
6. What other additional gear does she need beside the tri suit other than her current swimming stuff (goggle, cap) and road biking gears (shoes, gloves, sunglasses)? Does she need special shoes for running? And if so, what to look out for, and what are some good suggestions?
Any other expert advice would be very much appreciated.
1. what kind of race should she start as her first race? I checked into the kids races but they appear to be more for fun than competition. So is my focus on getting her started first on a sprint tri the right choice?
2. Does she need a tri suit? Does she swim/bike/run in the same tri suit? What do you do in the two transitions?
3. If she doesn't wear tri suit, can she just swim with her regular swim suit, and then put on a pair of cycling shorts for the bike part, and then take it off and run in the swim suit? We are pretty committed to do this, so I don't mind invest in a tri suite, but want to see what other options are there?
4. What are some good suggestions for tri suits and what to look out for?
5. What about wet suit? Do you only need it when you doing swim under certain temp? I assume you wear the wet suit OVER the tri suit and take it off after the swim, right?
6. What other additional gear does she need beside the tri suit other than her current swimming stuff (goggle, cap) and road biking gears (shoes, gloves, sunglasses)? Does she need special shoes for running? And if so, what to look out for, and what are some good suggestions?
Any other expert advice would be very much appreciated.