Newbie... - Triathlon Week

ryan16 · 01-19-2005, 06:52 PM

Hey guys I am new to triathlon's. I have been cycling for a long time but have had some injurys in the past couple of years but I am healthy now and have been wanting to do tri's for a long time so this year I am dedicating a lot of time to do this.

I have a question I really want to do a half ironman but it is only 4 months away. Do I have enough time to train for this? My goal is just to be able to finish. I feel this would be a great base for some other more important tris I want to do later in the year that are only sprint and olympic distances. Any advice would be great looking forward to hangin with all you!

**daphne** · 01-23-2005, 09:56 PM

Ryan,
it depends how experienced you are in swimming and running. Although I have only done Olympic and sprint distances, I would think that 4 months is enough time to train. You need to be able to put enough volume so you can finish the race. Other members in this forum who have raced half ironman can accurately tell you what is a good training timeline. You mentioned that you are currently injury-free, but why do you want to put your body in such pain/stress and risk having any more injuries? As a fellow triathlete I would recommend to start with an olympic and then move to half ironman.

ryan16 · 01-24-2005, 11:22 AM

Thank you very much for your reply. There are some other tris I want to do this summer and I think this would be a great base to start with. I don't know maybe it is just to much to ask in this short amount of time I will need to see how I feel a month or two down the road. I notice you are from San Francisco I am just a little north of you. Are there any great tris that you are doing this summer that are local? Thanks again for the reply it took a while to hear from someone and I am really excited but don't know a lot about triathlons.

Smartt/RST · 01-25-2005, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daphne

You mentioned that you are currently injury-free, but why do you want to put your body in such pain/stress and risk having any more injuries? As a fellow triathlete I would recommend to start with an olympic and then move to half ironman.

I would echo these remarks. And obviously not knowing your running experience, I'll just say this...
One of the main problems that long-time cyclists can run into when starting tris, is that they expect they will be able to quickly train for run the distances that are associated with the distances that they can easily ride. However, recovering from running is much different than recovering from cycling. The orthopedic stress involved requires recovery times that are significantly longer than similar training loads on the bike; that's on a day-to-day level and over months of training - IOW, recover more, increase the load less. Your connective tissues are poorly vascularized, so they recover very slowly...just because your lungs/heart can handle it, doesn't mean your ankles/knees/hips can.

**daphne** · 01-28-2005, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryan16

I notice you are from San Francisco I am just a little north of you. Are there any great tris that you are doing this summer that are local?

There are plenty of tris in the Bay Area. Starting from April and until the beginning of November. My favourite is Wildflower Triathlon (half and olympic) May 1st which I am racing this year again, also there are some good sprints like UVAS in Morgan Hill May 15th. Sentinel Triathlon in Santa Cruz at the end of September is a nice olympic one. There is half ironman in Sonoma in August. Also there are series of sprint and olympic races near Sacramento from April unti August. Here the sites with the relevant info:

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