So I've got this idea that I would like to complete the local Half Ironman that is held at the lake I grew up near.  When I was in elementary and middle school, I can remember watching the Kona Ironman with my brother every year and thinking it was impossible.  My brother has grown distant from the family and I've been thinking a lot about him during my training for this...I don't fully have my head wrapped around why, but this race means something to me.  I haven't signed up for the race yet because its not going to sell out and I'm not yet reasonably certain I'll be doing more than a 1000 yd swim and calling it a day/drowning (there is also an Olympic distance event that I could opt into if the swim isn't there).

The race: Quakerman Triathlon

Date September 6, 2014

Swim: 2000 yards (1.2 miles)

Bike: 57.9 miles

Run: 13.1 mlies

There will probably be about 60-100 entrants in the HIM, so not an overwhelmingly large field.  Also, its not an "Ironman" branded event.

Right now, I feel confident in the run, less so in the bike, and much less so in the swim.  I'm not trying to win this thing, just complete it.  I'm also not trying to blow the bank on this thing because I have no intentions of doing triathlons regularly.  I did purchase a "tri-suit" from Sierra Trading Post which should be here this week.

I joined a lake that has a large swimming area...probably about 125 yards across the longest part, so all my swim training will mimic the race conditions.  I took serious swim lessons when I was much younger, but I did successfully swim 1 mile when I was in kindergarten (so I got that going for me...which is nice).  I've only swam twice to try and get a feel for it, these are my impressions:

1.  When I am relaxed it feels easy

2.  I can feel a certain "panic" level that occurs when I get water in my mouth, water in my goggles, water in my nose, or when I get close to the object I'm swimming to...I feel like getting over this panic will really open the doors to being able to get the swim done

3.  I feel like I have good mechanics left over from when I was little...my hands naturally swish the water as I'm pulling, I'm extending well forwards and backwards, I know to cup my hands, I know to slice my hands into the water.  I am much more comfortable breathing on my right side than my left, but I can do both.

4.  I'm swimming in board shorts...I feel like the tri suit will make everything a good deal easier.

My last workout was:

75 yards x 8

150 yards x 4

full recovery between each

total of 1200 yards

I know this is a trail running forum, but you all are the only people I know who I can ask about this kind of stuff.  I think I would be doing my self a disservice not to ask (already have gotten some nice input from QoN and Norther Harrier...thank you!).  Mostly I want to know about the swim, nutrition while on the bike, and anything else a beginner might not know about the world of triathlon.

I have never been interested in those things, mainly because I am a poor swimmer. My swimming lessons consisted of one summer in a pool with my obnoxious, older 1st cousin (the teacher) yelling "kick your damned feet!!!" with a Virginia Slim hanging out of her mouth. Then, in Marine Corps boot camp, I had to go back to the pool with every black guy in the platoon for "re-training" on swimming. I was the only white guy in the pool that second day. I felt like it was a Jim Crow pool. I made it on day two, but it wasn't easy. In Japan, I took scuba diving lessons. I was doing fine treading water, or so I thought. Suddenly, the instructor, whose name was Jimmy Swaggart, dramatically dove into the pool and had me move to the side. He said I appeared to be drowning... I told him that I was not drowning and asked if he could just give the damned air tank, fins, and wet suit so we could dive. I have no problems as long as I can breathe.

Anyway, I can swim enough to do what I need to do, but I don't spend much time in water that is over my head. I think you would do a lot better than I would.

Try:

www.swimmingahead.com/groups/Tri-ler_Trash/forum

I think a trail run/mountain bike/jump in the lake type of tri sounds like fun!

Sorry James, I have little advice for you except to just have fun and not take it as serious as some people do.  Wear a "floaty" and dog paddle your way to the finish.

Before I stumbled onto the local trail races I was intending to start training for tri's. Someday I will move that way, maybe as soon as next year. The reason I didn't do one this year is because it is the same day as the Wilds trail Marathon that I'm doing on the 16th.  Here are some of my impressions gained from direct observation as well as reading race reports from Tri's and looking over event information.

 

1) There are a lot of Tri jerks out there. However, like trail and ultra running it is a growing sport. That means there are a lot of newbies to the scene.

 

2) One of our local ministers has been doing Tri's for several years in an effort to lose weight. He likes trail running/hiking but has horrible balance so does more Tri's then trail events. Based on his blog reports he is accepted fairly well even though he often finishes almost last and is still overweight.

 

3) Not everyone has great equipment. The pictures from our local Tri shows many people riding comfort bikes. I have picked up some people who had the misfortune to wreck on the bike portion and most of them were not in great "Triathlete" shape nor were they riding fabulous bikes.

 

4) The swim is the hardest part to train for and nail down. It is also the most dangerous as people do panic and drown. The advice for newbies is to start at the back and don't worry about your times until you get comfortable with pack swimming.

 

5) For me eating on the bike is much easier then during a run. On the bike I rarely experience stomach problems, on the trail anything over 13-15 miles and I have to be very careful how I eat and drink or I will bloat and get terrible belching. I can do a hard 100k ride and will only need 3-4 energy gels and a banana and I can easily drink anything. If you eat what you normally do when you run I would think you would be OK.  Try several bricks during training to see how your body reacts to eating on the bike then switching to the run.

 

6) I can't give any advice on training for a swim other then it sounds like you're doing a pretty good job of it. To do well on the bike I would recommend doing tempo rides if the course is flater. If it is a hilly course then doing hill repeats may be helpful.

 

Overall: If this is something you want to do then just do it. Remember, variety is the spice of life. Since this is your first time don't worry about performance just worry about having a good time. I'm sure I'll think of some other things but right now I'm at work and kind of distracted.

 

Oh, remember to keep us posted on how it goes for you.  That way I can learn from your mistakes  .

Need to address a few things here jamezilla from like I said yesterday, actually doing about 25-30 of them.

1   Triathlons were huge back in the late 80's and early 90's then took a real drop off similar to running and are now having a resurgence similar to the running curve. Back then it was a lot more sprint distance events. In Wi we had no full IronMan events and only 1 half IronMan.  Actually that's how it was everywhere.  My reference to triathletes being jerks is not meaning the newbies. They probably bring much fresh blood and attitude. The jerks are the experienced gear heads.  And anyone who has done a few will tell you that the tri crowd is full of jerks. It is a completely different type of competitor than a road run/race and especially a trail event.  Hopefully enough newbies can affect some change.  Now in saying that I'm not saying don't do one, just saying to be prepared for that type of atmosphere.

2 & 3 I hope I wasn't implying that if you don't look a certain way or have the right gear you will be tied to a post and stoned. You should see some of the folks doing the Madison IronMan.    Just trying to convey the general tone of triathlons. Again it's a different crowd.

4 I don't want to sound like the person who gave Queen the swimming advice but... the swim portion is the most overrated and stressed over portion and it really is the simplest and shortest time wise and an example here- in a sprint triathlon I would do a 400 yd swim in a little under 7 minutes. That was middle of the pack. The fastest swim times would be 51/2 minutes. Big whoop. You are down a little over a minute and if you didn't shoot your wad in the water you'll gain that back real quickly if you focused your training where you should be and that's the bike. Period. It's all about the bike in a triathlon. And your ability to get into a good running stride as soon as you get off the bike.

Also starting in the back won't help as the next wave will be on you in a matter of a couple minutes. Triathlons start in waves to spread competitors out on the course.  The next wave. Those are the guys that will swim right up and over you like I mentioned.  All I'm saying on that is just be ready mentally for when it happens because it will. Did I mention there are some jerks doing Tri's.  And also like I said, do what you have to do. When someone would swim over me I would grab their leg and pull them right back. Stops them right in their tracks so to speak. It is a foamy frothy water situation. You will get kick inadvertently and  maybe even have your goggles knocked off. Most of it is inadvertent. There will even be some apologies being said out there.

When I used to train for these I was in a masters swim program and one day a week was a free for all swim with us swimming over each other in the splashing and  aerated water that won't float you as well. Gets you ready for race day. 

5 I can't give advice at all on eating. I think Mandy is spot on comparing it to a long run but the whole eating thing is so individual I'll leave that one alone. Hopefully you won't be out over 7 hours.

6 OK- this is where I'll contradict myself  somewhat. While the swimming is overrated and from a cost/benefit analysis training is better spent elsewhere you still have to train. You need a lot more swimming. Woefully short right now for doing a 1.2 mile open water swim. Even to just survive it and be DFL out of the water you need more swimming. Like I said yesterday you have to get thru the water smoothly enough that it doesn't drain your energy and affect your 2 more important disciplines. You don't have to be fast but you want to be efficient. Smooth and energy conserving conscience.  Remember--swimming is one sport where you can hammer and mix up your workouts day after day. Go watch kids at the local swim club and see how they just hammer things. So since you are doing over a mile in the open water you should be getting well over a mile each training session and those sessions should include plenty of hard intervals transitioning to a rest stroke and back into a full crawl.

My last piece of advice is what I touched on yesterday. The ability to get running after totally shredding your legs on a race pace bike effort. Everyone will be doing a death march at first. You will feel like hell. Expect it and welcome it. If you train for it you will be able to start striding out quickly and passing a lot of people in the first few miles. That my friend is very good for your morale.  You need to practice it. it is miserable and difficult training but it is invaluable.

This panic thing you talked about, is there anybody you can enlist to swim with you like I mentioned my training was.  A little contact and thrashing waves and froth. You have to get ready for that.

And I'm not sure of how your biking or what your biking experience and background is. I do know despite saying you just want to finish that your competitive juices will start flowing. You will find a cadence out there that works and you will want to let 'er rip. Spend enough hard miles on the bike so you'll have a feel for your redline.

So if you are still awake after reading this I wish you good luck, good training, and have some fun. You may even get hooked a little. They actually are fun.

P.S.-- Practice peeing in the water while swimming. Not as easy as it sounds.   And you are gonna be in the water a bit.

I have a little more time to respond now. For those interested, I went into depth on a few swimming things in another user group not to long ago.

You can read it here. (you may need to join the group. Don't let Braco scare you away)

That post focused on some of the basics of swimming that I think get overlooked.

I will agree that the swim portion of the tri is probably feared a little to much (overrated was the term). It's true. No one has ever won a traithlon in the swim, but plenty of people have lost in the swim

jamezilla, since you mentioned that your mechanics are pretty sound, I won't go into much depth on that. I am a huge advocate for hiring a coach or getting some stroke improvement lessons. Even if you think your technique is sound, it never hurts to get an expert opinion about it. Swim coaches (especially masters and club coaches) have a great ability to see and correct minor deficiencies in strokes. Swimming is all about efficiency and any defects will not only slow you down, but they'll waste energy that could be useful later on in the race.

In swimming, efficient=fast. Watch any of the world class events, it looks effortless. not a wasted ounce of energy.

You mentioned you're comfortable breathing out of both sides. Don't feel bad (or think there's anything wrong) if you only breathe out of one side during the race if you're able to. I heavily favor my right side as well, but can do both.

I also wouldn't sweat the distance so much. 2000 yards isn't that far and you've got a few weeks to transfer some endurance. The first time I got in the pool after an extended break a few year back I had issues with 500 yards. Three weeks later I was up to 3000 with out breaking a sweat.

Tri swimmers don't kick much at all. I'd suggest a 2:1 ratio (kick to pull) to save your legs for the bike and run.

I would suggest working on a few things for the open water swim.

In addition to a decent breast stroke, I'd work on a decent side stroke and a modified front crawl with a frog (breaststroke) kick. I'm firmly in the "freestyle (front crawl) is the fastest because it's the most efficient of all the swimming strokes" camp. I wear out faster at race pace doing breaststroke than I do freestyle. Backstroke can come in really handy as well, especially if you need to catch your breath for a while.

I would not recommend doing the butterfly at all, unless you want to really psych out the other competitors 

The other thing that will be key is a solid "heads up" or rescue (that's what I grew up calling it) freestyle stroke. Being able to spot the buoys on the go in midstroke will give you a great advantage over anyone who can't. You'll be able to swim a straighter line and not get any bonus yards. The hardest part of that stroke is the transition from head down to head up (there's a potential for a lot of wasted energy), but with a little practice, it will come.

As far as peeing during the swim, slow down. It's much easier if your going slow.

I seriously entertained the idea of doing a triathlon years ago. As I got more into running, that idea has gone farther into the background.

I've realized that I would be in the top 10 coming out of the water, and then I'd get passed by half the field during the bike and the other half during the run and finish dead last. (My running's gotten much better. I'd only get passed by 1/4 of the field during the run)

Good luck. If you have any questions specific to swimming, I'd be glad to help.

Hopefully DC trail will chime in too (I think it was DC who qualified for the Olympic trials a while back. if it was someone else, my apologies)

Hopefully DC trail will chime in too (I think it was DC who qualified for the Olympic trials a while back. if it was someone else, my apologies)

As much as I wish that was me, I think it was AT and/or his kids.  Unfortunately, I was never that good, but I did spend the first 20 years of my life in the pool and now have 'encouraged' my kiddos in this sport (they love it, really, so I'll add my two cents..

Your instincts and Harrier's remarks about needing more and longer training are spot on.  Don't worry about speed, just get over your panic/discomfort with water in the mouth, ears, goggles, etc.  More time in the water will help this.  Practice clearing your goggles is this is an issue, however stopping and slowing down will allow others to swim over you, as NH said, and this might add to the likelihood of panicking.  Pick your poison, I guess.  And as compared to many sports, swim gear is relatively simple and less expensive.  Don't cheap out on bad goggles.

While I called it the  'old lady freestyle' because it allowed the biddies to protect their hairdo while swimming, Birdwell's suggestion about mastering this style along with normal freestyle is where I would second you spend your efforts in training.  It sounds as if your breastroke and backstroke are solid enough for 'rest' breaks,  so focus on free, time and distance in the water.

Does the tri host practice swims?  Or does another tri near and convenient to home or work have any?  Or the lake you joined, do they have group practices?  If so, swimming with others, ideally in open water, will be your best practice.

Good  luck!

Well it looks like your swimming is already advancing big time. Very impressive.

I have a question though. Living in the lake states I don't think I have ever heard of buying or joining a lake like you described. Is this like a man made small lake for recreation activities on private land or is that how things are done in areas without much public water access? It sounds like something I would have to do if I didn't live in this region just to get my water fix.