subject: What To Anticipate From Your First Triathlon [print this page] Due to trademark restrictions on the name Ironman you'll see many longer triathlons referred to as "iron distance". For your first triathlon you should focus on the "sprint" distance. The typically sport item are that 400 to 800 meters swimming in a pool or lake, 20 kilometers of bicycling and 5 kilometers of running.
When you are taking your first triathlon, you will probably wonder how much training you should do for it. It depends on your goals but at a minimum you should train for each sport 1 time per week. If you want to feel more comfortable during the race and after the race, you can take your training for twice per week for each sport if your schedule permits. You should focus on working up to the distance of each leg in your training cycles. There are many free online resources for a sprint triathlon training plan. You also should think about which one is your strongest and which one is your weakest. Pay more attention to your weaker event when you are doing your training.
When you are going on your training, sometimes you may focus too much on your favorite event, this is one of the biggest training mistakes and you should look out. When you are going on the difficulty running, you can spend more time on doing it. But if you are good at swimming, this can be avoided easily. Swimming event is the weakest event for many people. But this doesn't mean you are not good at swimming. There are many public swimming facilities, you can choose one to training which conform to your level. You also can seek if there are any swim team which can offer private lessons. If you are really ambitious you could consider joining the greatest local swimming team. A great way to boost your swim training is to use swim fins. This will give you some added propulsion to help you stay up on the water and focus on your proper freestyle technique. You also can by virtue of some great training videos to boost your swim training.
Two important things to practice you might not have considered are running after riding your bike and the dreaded 4th event "the transition". If you have never tried running after biking it will feel pretty strange at first. Your legs will be tried of spinning circles and you force them to switch directions. Take time to practice getting off your bike quickly, putting away your cycling gear, and then putting on your running gear. In this way, it will help you to simulate your transitions during the race. It seems so simple but when you're tired and in a hurry you can save valuable time with a fast transition.
When you cross the finish line after your first triathlon, it will be the most important milestone for you. It can be a powerful feeling of accomplishment. After this you are a triathlete.
