[Closed] Triathlon tips...

Make sure he knows its for fun? Just let him go and see how he gets on

If not about time to get him down the wind tunnel and investigate the asthma situation 😉

I opened this with high hopes because I’ve got my first triathlon tomorrow. Starting with an olympic before I take on a IM in 4 weeks... Excited for something totally new, should be fun - Good luck to your son!

Wow redmist, good luck tomorrow!

My advice (only done three) is to go as quick as possible in the swim (obviously pacing to finish the distance), steady away on the bike and then just pace the run sensibly.

My third triathlon (half iron distance) it was really tempting to go faster on the bike, but glad I didn't.

Not sure I'm in a good position to give triathlon tips - I've got slower each time I race.  I'm really not a great runner but that's true whether I go fast or slow on the bike.  My advice would therefore be go as hard as he can on the bike and be further up the field when the inevitable slowness begins.

Good luck to him - great that these events are put on to get kids into sport from a young age.

Tough one!  My advice would be to suggest he backs off the swim and bike SLIGHTLY which should leave his legs a little less rubbery at the start of the run (this will be the toughest/strangest part of the event).  Also the slightly slower swim should mean that his coordination is a bit better for putting shoes on and starting the bike.

I've not done races quite this short but have done everything from super sprints (400m, 15km,2km) up to Ironman for roughly 32 years 😉

Remember to have fun first and foremost

So three contradictory bits of advice! I think everyone needs to find what works for them given their strengths.

Oh, and unless it's warm (which it might well be tomorrow), layer up on the bike! I finally warmed up on the Slateman almost in view of the finish last year.

I’ve done a few tri’s and my tactics are still basically survive the swim, smash the bike as hard as possible and then hang on for the run! The bike is my strength by some way and it’s the discipline that takes the most time so you can make up a lot of time/places against the competition if you’re stronger than most of them.

If he’s strong at swimming and cycling I’d say steady pace out on the swim and he’ll naturally be not too far off the front pace anyway, and then smash the bike. Let the run be what it is. He’ll probably be quicker than if he over thinks it and tries to pace it but that’s just my guess!

Tristar 1 - so 9yrs old. First and only advice should be have fun. He’ll learn through experience provided he enjoys them enough to do enough of them. You say he is a good biker and swimmer and competitive at both but not running. I’m guessing he is training more for those two as well. Too late for today but that needs to change if he wants to get faster. If it’s just for fun it might be worth leaving him be enjoying what he does. If you are a pushy parent and see him as the next Brownlee he probably needs to put the bike training on the back burner and join a running club.

For the adults saying, they like to ‘smash’ the bike course and hang on for the run sadly you will only ever be a mediocre triathlete for your innate ability. But if you are not at the pointy end and you are only doing it for a change of scene does it matter if you are having fun though? Of course ‘smash’ means different things to different people. Doing standard distance tri I would wind in the power and perceived effort over a straight 25mile time trail. But in a straight tt I’d be lying on the floor and regularly black out or throw up at the end so the ‘smashing’ bar was quite high for me. If most of your riding is mtb and involves cake ‘smashing’ could well involve just getting out of breath and a bit uncomfortable.  Also triathlon courses are often more tricky than a time trial course and need to be ridden more strategically.

I'm an aweful swimmer, mediocre cyclist and an OK runner.  All i can say is in the Lakesman last year i ran past a lot of people walking who smashed the bike leg.

Anyway how did he get on ?

Well, we won’t see the times for a couple of days, but ok.  He went too hard in the swim and bike posting a sub 2 min 150m swim (according to Mrs Krytons watch), a fast bike but then got a stitch on lap 1 of 2 of the run forcing him to slow.

When he got back his first words were “That was harder than I thought it was Daddy, then run was really long” puff puff pant.

A lesson there, he was up against a lot of experienced kids (this is his 3rd event) and he’s done ok in my book, finishing as well as he could.  He’s a fit young kid, but needs to pace his events.   He has swim training tomorrow at 7:30, but he’s earned some xbox after that 🙂

a sub 2 min 150m swim

So 1min 20sec/100m pace - that is pretty impressive for a 9 year old.

I hope he enjoyed himself.

Oh, results already out.  6th swim, 8th bike, 36 run and 16th of 38 boys overall.  As above, the issues on the run cost him.  Oh well, better luck next time!

Sounds like he did fantastic then, well done to him.  Really hope he had fun and you're proud of him!

Really proud of my son this weekend.  Sat down in the week we had a chat with a bit more seriousness about nutrition and pacing and a reminder on Saturday morning.   I’d talked with him about measuring his effort out of 10, so we decided 10 for the Swim, 8 for the bike, 8 for the first lap of the run and 10 moving to sprint on the last lap.

Up at 5:30, off to Cambridgeshire for a 9:00 start time.   This event felt a lot “bigger” than the prior Essex Tri with an announced 360 entrants.    Anyway off he went to sort him self out in Transition and for the first time an intermediate transition, as the pool was 150m from the bikes with a stony path between so they needed shoes.

He rocked out the pool in 8th this time - previously 3rd - and came out to the bike.  A decent transition and he was off.  At first i thought he’s gone out hard on the bike but as he came past me I heard him move up the gears and shouted to remind him to “settle” which he visibily did.   Final transistion and he came flying on to the run.  I shouted at him to calm down and he slowed.  I could see now he was measuring his pace but looking around him - I’d told him to to worry about others.  On lap two I reminded him to up his pace past the tree we’d identified as the half way point of the lap, and sprint at the lamppost.   His face went very determined as he accelerated past the tree, chased down two boys 100m in front of him and flew over the line like Bolt himself, earning a congratulary comment from the commentator.

So this time he finished 1 minute faster in 14th place of 75 male entrants, 25th of 160 all age group.  For his 4th ever Triathlon and 2nd at this distance I was pretty proud of that, and the way he’d conducted himself.  I learned later he’d been held up in the pool as the boys in front didn’t yield to the foot tapping and he held back in the snake to avoid DQ.   So there’s time to come and this was a brilliant experience.

We then moved on to a 3pm Swim gala where he swam 3 x 25m sprint events, 2 as a relay!

He slept well last night. 🙂

I'm equally impressed that no horses have been hurt in the making of this thread ..

Well done to your son

My Tip :

If you see a horse....... don't be a dick!

edit - only spotted the above post.

My Tip :

If you see a horse……. don’t be a dick!

And if you see a Range Rover pulling a horse box get off the road instantly to avoid the murderous prick. Or are sweeping generalisations from one data point only allowed against cyclists?

Not at all I'm cyclist myself ...

So 1min 20sec/100m pace – that is pretty impressive for a 9 year old.

If he's genuinely swimming those sorts of times he'd be better off concentrating on the swimming. Swimming is the worst thing to be good at for triathlon...

If he’s genuinely swimming those sorts of times he’d be better off concentrating on the swimming. Swimming is the worst thing to be good at for triathlon…

Depends - if he was good enough to be elite one day and involved in draft legal bike legs then you need to be a awesome swimmer. It's no coincidence that most pro triathletes were county standard or better junior swimmers.

Kryton. Do you watch the GTN show? Loads of good stuff on there.

Or are sweeping generalisations from one data point only allowed against cyclists?

Such as all cyclists are humourless?