How to Train for Your First Triathlon

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is David Brown, and today, we're going to talk about how to get ready for your first triathlon, so congratulations first of all, if you're embarking on this new adventure. Triathlon is a wonderful sport. However, it comes with a lot of little things, that you've got to understand and know about, before you get to that, before you get to the race day, so what's the first thing you have to do? You've got to pick a triathlon, right? I suggest if this is your first triathlon, that you do a sprint. You do something fun. There's all sorts of sprint races, all across the country, and all across the planet, and what I mean a sprint race, something that has about a half mile swim, maybe a little less. Something with anywhere from a fifteen to twenty mile bike ride, and maybe a 5k run. This is a great place to start, easy to train for, and an attainable goal. Now, when you're looking at that race, when do you want to sign up for it? I'd give yourself at least four months, probably more like six months, if you have no experience with swimming, biking, or running whatsoever. Now, if you've decided on a race, you should probably try to get a friend to sign up with you. Having somebody you can train with, is one of the most important parts about triathlon, having a support network, and if you can get just one person, that's fine, but the other thing, is maybe joining a triathlon club. Well training, that's kind of the easy part. You just got to get out and swim, bike, and run, and make sure you're following a program. How do you get a program? Well, you can look at USAT and find a coach, or if you're with that club, I'm sure the club has a coach, and probably has some sort of planned workouts that you can just show up to. That's the easiest way. No thinking involved, so you're coming up to race day,or race week, and what happens? Well, you're probably nervous, and you've got all sorts of things going on, but these are some things to expect, about the triathlon. First of all, you're going to show up early in the morning. You're going to probably have to pick up a packet, and that's what they call it, packet pick up. What happens with your packet? Well, you're going to get a number. That number is going to have to get either pinned on your body, or put on some fancy little race belt. The last thing, is you'll probably have to get body marked. What does that mean? Well, body marked means they're probably going to write with a marker on you, your number, so that's always an interesting experience, so you can go through the race. You're going to swim. You're going to come in from the swim, and you're going to come to what I call, the fourth sport, otherwise known as transition, because you're going to have to take off all your swim clothes, and put on your bike clothes, and get out on the bike. You can come back in. You're going to go on to your second transition. You have to get out of your bike stuff, put on your run stuff, get out for a run. Now, here comes the fun part. You get to run down the finish chute. Hopefully, you've got some of your friends and family there cheering you on, taking pictures, and smile, because you just finished your first triathlon."