Needing help and advice - Triathlon Week

shooter24 · 10-11-2005, 07:31 PM

Hi...I am a college basketball player and I recently got interested in competing in a triathlon. I know that it takes a lot of training to compete competitively. But I am in great shape and I am interested in finding out how you go about getting a "tryout" with the olympic team. I am not even on a cross country team because of committments to basketball, but I generally run three miles in about 19:30. I swim a mile everyday and ride the bike for about an hour at a good pace. I run 4-7 miles a day in addition to strenuous basketball workouts. I have NEVER had any coaching in running, swimming, or biking, but I know I could be competitive if I had the proper training and I participated in the events that will get me noticed. If anyone out there knows what races are the best for being seen on a national level, please let me know. Also if there are any developmental programs out there, I would like to know about them. On a side note, a teammate of mine maybe representing England in the 2012 summer olympics and I would love to represent America in some fashion. Thanks for your help and optimism.

themenace · 10-12-2005, 07:22 AM

I don't know the answer to your question but my suggestion would be to get a copy of a triathlon magazine, there are a couple I know of. Have a look through them and find a contact in there. I think most of the columnists have email addresses and I'm sure the head office would have phone numbers. A little detective work will probably give you some answers. Sorry I can't be more help.

shooter24 · 10-12-2005, 10:32 AM

I appreciate your suggestions. I will try to get my hands on a magazine. Thank you for taking your time to reply!!

StormShadow · 10-24-2005, 07:21 AM

If I had to venutre a guess, I would recommend contacting a local triathlon coach (you can do a search on the internet to provide some listings, I will do some checking and see what I can find). The only problem I might see is if you want to head towards and Olympic career, I think one sport might need to take precednece over the other. I know I have a friend who qualified for the Olympics but in the process of training to go he had to give up his college swim career to focus on just triathlons (then an injury kept him from these last games). Don't let that discourage you, it might be possible to do both, I just know my friends swim schedule completely conflicted with his triathlon racing/training schedule, so he chose tri's instead. He is going to try again for the next Olympics, and is currently working to make his way back. Let me know if this helps and I can get in touch with my buddy and find out how he went about qualifying (i.e. what race, what times, and some people to be in touch with).

shooter24 · 11-03-2005, 07:18 AM

StormShadow,

Thank you so much for your suggestion. I have three more years of college basketball which will mean I graduate in the Spring of 2008. So I am looking at the 2012 games. I live in North Carolina, which as far as I can tell, is not a big triathlon state. I would appreciate any help you can give though. Thanks so much for your time.

Shooter