Hi - First post, first triathlon this weekend - only doing an Olympic distance. I swam through college and have run several marathons, so am pretty confident that the race will go OK - That said, I’m wondering if I should back off on training this week for a Sunday Tri. I ran 8 miles y’day (rained), planned to swim about 3500 yards today and run 6, bike 14 tomorrow and run 6, swim 3000k and run 6 Thursday, and maybe run Friday morning before leaving for the weekend. I just don’t want to be overly fatigued for Sunday. Any help and advice would be terrific!
Also, how the heck are you supposed to hydrate during the race? I think this is a pretty established tri (about 300 or so participants) so I expect there will be stations on the run. What about the bike, though? Do I just fill my own h2o bottle?
Clearly a newbie - just looking for some help from all of you!! Thanks a ton!
Since it is your first tri… You probably want to back off it so you can really enjoy it…
However, what you are suggesting, based on the background you provided does not seem to be that much for you. Maybe replace a run with a ride?
Regarding nutrition/hydratation on the bike… I think one bottle should suffice. Wether you go with water + gel or gatorade or some other options is up to you…
Thanks for the replies! The hydration makes sense to me.
I was asking if I should moderate and/or adapt my training schedule at all this week - should I reduce the mileage and/or yardage, etc?? What’s the normal thing to do? Seriously, I’m totally new at this - if I was still swimming, I’d just train right through it, since this isn’t my target triathlon. If it was a marathon, I’d obviously taper. So, I’m conflicted!!
It really doesn’t matter if you taper. You obviously have an athletic enough background that training isn’t going to leave you destroyed, and you probably aren’t fast enough yet to worry about an extra bit of power you might get from resting. Do what you want =)
The hardest thing for many of us to do seems to be taper. We train, train, train; so we naturally feel like we’re completely blowing it if we sit around and rest. However, training you do between now and Sunday is not going to increase your fitness or endurance, but it can make you fatigued. Keep the distances relatively short, and only get up to race speed for brief intervals. Race day morning you should have fresh legs and be ready to go…
I’m so glad I found this forum - this is exactly the advice that I was hoping to get, without paying the crazy prices for an “organized program”. Thank’s for your advice and hopefully I’ll be able to reciprocate sometime soon -
all sound advice so far. enjoy the race, work your stengths and remember running after biking takes a few min to get used to, so dont try and power right out of transition at race speed, let your legs come to you. in this distance it could take up to a mile before you feel like you are running well again.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that in my “transition” runs from bike to run (when training). Also, maybe I should mention that I am a clyde - 6’3" and 200 on the nose - so a bit bigger than average - not sure if that makes a difference at all or not…
Sounds like you enjoy the swim and the run but you seem to be a bit shy about the biking. i generally pull my running way back to save my legs before a race and do more cycling, but I’m a poor runner and worry more about running without pain from overuse than running for catching people off the bike. i’d say just do what makes you feel fit, but not fatigued the week before. it is always nice to hit the race with fresh legs just waiting to get out of the gate.
A note on the nutrition and hydration: depending on how fast you are, you might want to consider getting almost all your fuel on the bike. i like to use liquid nutrition since it kills two birds with one stone. Then hit a gel right before T2 and I’m sure you will be able to push through the run on water only from the aide stations. Just make sure you try your nutrition before the race to make sure it will agreee with your system.
Right - makes sense. I’ve known from the marathons that once you feel like you need a gel or some sort of fuel, it’s too late. Transition fuel sounds like a good idea.
And I’m not specifically nervous about the bike, it’s been going fine - it’s just about putting it all together. It’s like you said, do what makes you feel fit - I guess I know my body better than anyone else…
