Do you want to get off to a flying start? Prove yourself in a triathlon in one year? Here are the best tips for triathlon beginners.
Participate in a triathlon? Me? I'm not crazy! When you hear the word "triathlon", you might think of extreme athletes who train all day to survive it.
But you know what? You can do it! Even if you work and are "only" a hobby athlete.
Because triathlon is so much more than a crazy extreme sport. It's challenging and not so easy, but with these tips, triathlon is suitable for beginners.
That brings us to the first question.
What are the benefits of cardio training?
What triathlon actually is
Triathlon is an endurance sport that consists of three disciplines: swimming, cycling and running. In this order you complete the competition. Without a break. From the water you go directly to the bike and then immediately to the run course.
The word, by the way, comes from the Greek "tria" and stands for three - that is, the three disciplines. Since the year 2000, triathlon has been an Olympic discipline.
The endurance sport is becoming increasingly popular. In the meantime, many larger towns already have their own triathlons.
During a triathlon you train fitness, strength and speed. Regular training increases your ability to concentrate. At the same time, your susceptibility to stress decreases and your brain becomes more efficient.
Even if you can't imagine it at the beginning: During the training your body releases happiness hormones. :)
Unsportsmanlike? Not anymore! This is how you get started!
What are the types of triathlon
The one and only triathlon distance does not exist. Rather, different types of triathlons have developed in recent years.
As Triathlon beginner so you have to not from the beginning huge distances behind you. You can start small and then work your way up nice and slow.
The sprint triathlon
It is also called Volkstriathlon. The distances vary greatly. However, most often it is 750-500 meters swimming, 20 km cycling and 5 km running.
Olympic triathlon
In Sydney, the triathlon was part of the Olympic Games for the first time. In an Olympic triathlon, athletes must swim 1.5 km, bike 40 km and run 10 km.
The middle distance
In a middle distance triathlon you have to swim 1.9 km, bike 90 km and run 21.1 km. The duration of the race is between 4.5 and 6 hours.
The long distance
It is the royal class of triathlons. The long distance is also known as Ironman. Here you have to swim 3.8 km, cycle 180 km and run 42 km.
So you have to be pretty fit to do a triathlon as a beginner.
Sounds absolutely impossible to you? It's not! We got tips from a pro and asked triathlete Lisa Hörbinger. She gave us the best tricks for triathlon beginners betray
This training plan will make you a runner in 4 weeks!
The best triathlon beginner tips from the pros
Lisa started with triathlons 2 years ago. Rather unplanned and without preparation she went to her first triathlon. "That's when I realized, of course, that training would make sense", she knows today :)
She has one warning right away: as soon as you tell those around you that you are aiming for a triathlon, many will declare you completely crazy.
Because even though the sports aren't particularly spectacular on their own, performing them one right after the other sounds scary at first.
A triathlon is certainly a challenge. But anyone who prepares a little in advance can manage a competition with short distances. The most important thing is the mental component - the rest is good endurance and a little technique.
This is how you can learn to jog!
1. find a realistic goal
Even before you really start your training, you should look for a suitable goal. That is, a triathlon competition in which you want to participate in a few months.
This will make it much easier for you to motivate yourself even when you don't feel like working out so much.
My tip: Choose a "Volkstriathlon", i.e. a competition with short distances, which is made especially for beginners and hobby athletes.
So you can gather your first experiences stress-free. Moreover, even with a mountain bike and normal sportswear, you won't attract astonished looks.
2. the necessary equipment as a triathlon beginner
Triathlon equipment can be incredibly expensive. Even though it usually doesn't stop at just one race, you don't need too much equipment to begin with. There are plenty of alternatives that will get you across the finish line as a triathlon beginner just as safely as expensive equipment:
- For the Swimming part a swimsuit, swim cap and goggles are sufficient.
In most indoor pools, you can also borrow gadgets like pull-booys or swim boards for your workout for free if you want to use them. - On the Bike route is indeed a road bike advantageous because it is significantly faster in terms of weight, tires and seating position, but a good mountain bike is still quite sufficient.
At Volkstriathlons there are also always participants who start with a trekking bike or even a city bike. By the way, there are also "cross triathlons", in which (usually rather on gravel and forest paths) is driven anyway with the mountain bike.
During bike training you will quickly notice whether it makes sense to invest in cycling shorts (with appropriate padding on the buttocks). For the short distance of a Volkstriathlon (around 10 km), however, they may not be necessary at all.
In this case, I would recommend simply putting running shorts over your swimsuit after swimming.
You don't need to leave the apartment for these endurance exercises!
While more experienced triathletes exclusively use so-called "clipless pedals" and cycling shoes, normal pedals and running shoes are completely sufficient for the beginning.
You can keep them on for the final run and save valuable time.
With this basic equipment you are ready for your first competition as a triathlon beginner!
This is how you build muscle while swimming!
3. start the training correctly
Bike, run or swim - what do I start with as a triathlon beginner?
To get started, it makes sense to roughly divide the training areas: The Basic Endurance is your basewithout which you will not achieve significant training success.
This is something you should work on in the first few weeks, with very loose, longer running and cycling sessions.
You'll notice that you can soon run or bike farther and more comfortably with less effort.
If you don't have a heart rate monitor, you should choose a pace for the basic workout that allows you to talk along the way.
In addition there is then the "GA2 Range" (medium pace, where you don't run as effortlessly and for as long as in the basics) and "GA3", where you reach your limits after a while.
All this has to do with the formation of lactate (lactic acid) in the muscle. While lactate is not yet formed in the basic area, it is very much formed in the other two areas - and gradually leads to fatigue.
For many beginners, especially the Swimming a great challenge. Whether you already have a good command of the crawl technique or breaststroke is (still) your preferred way of getting around in the water, it definitely makes sense to take a swimming course.
Here you will learn the basic technique, get tips from the pros and quickly notice a significant progress.
That's why you can lose weight so quickly while swimming!
If you don't want to do that, it's best to devote yourself to "video study": There are plenty of technical videos on YouTube & Co. that show exactly what you should pay attention to.
Once you've mastered the technique, you'll quickly realize how much fun crawl is - and how pleasant and "round" the motion is (compared to breaststroke!).
4. build in coupling trainings
Completing a triathlon every time in training is absolutely not necessary - and it's also a relatively time-consuming affair.
It is quite sufficient to train one sport per day - and at the same time to pay attention to the appropriate regeneration.
After a day of running training, a bike or swim session is a nice change of pace - that's exactly the beauty of triathlon, that it never gets too one-sided and boring.
A few weeks before your triathlon, however, you should prepare your body for the special strain on your muscles with the help of so-called "coupled training".
After a swim session, you switch directly to the bike and cover a few more kilometers. Or you run another kilometer or two after your bike session.
Follow-up exercise doesn't have to be long - but it will help you (and your muscles!) get used to switching from one sport to the next.
On this occasion, you should also try to "step on the gas" a little in between - even when changing yourself.
This means running to the bike after the swim, putting on the helmet as quickly as possible, and then cycling straight away. Or not taking a break after the bike ride and perhaps covering the first 500m a little more quickly.
5. get acquainted with the procedure
At first glance, a triathlon seems quite complex. And indeed, the change from one sport to the next is often referred to as the "fourth discipline".
The course of a triathlon is basically as follows: The start is either on land (participants run the first steps into the water) or as a swim start (participants stay afloat in front of a marked start line before the starting signal is given).
If there is a large number of participants, the race is often started in groups (e.g. divided into ladies and men).
After the swim you run to the transition area, where you have already set up your personal transition area before the race starts.
There you slip into your cycling or running shoes, put on your helmet, mount your race number (attached to a race number band) so that the number is visible from behind, take your bike off the rack and run out of the transition area - to a marked line behind which you are allowed to mount.
When you come back after the bike lap, you also have to get off the bike again in front of a marked line, run back to your place with the bike, take off the helmet and change (if you were wearing bike shoes before) into the running shoes.
Before you leave the transition area in the direction of the run course, the start number must be visible from the front (hence the start number band, so that you can easily pull it forward).
Now you only have to master the running course before you can be celebrated at the finish line. I promise you one thing right now: Crossing the finish line for the first time in a triathlon is something very special that you won't forget in a hurry!
When Lisa is not swimming, running, or biking, she can be found in the mountains or trying out new cooking recipes. Two years ago, she unexpectedly stumbled into triathlon as an exercise instructor for running and has been reporting on her blog ever since." www.running-liesl.at regularly about exciting info around triathlons.
Photos: Running Liesl, Lisa Hörbinger
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