It’s hard enough dedicating your time, body and mind to achieve great personal success in one sporting activity, never mind three. So how do you push yourself towards making sure this is your best triathlon yet?
It doesn’t matter where you are starting from or what your sporting background is because triathlon – that’s swimming, biking and running events – gives you the opportunity to do your best as you gain experience.
My guest blogger brings you six top tips for triathletes.
Start your preparations early: With three different events to concentrate on, you want to make sure that you give yourself enough time to properly prepare for competition. You could join a local club and train with similar minded athletes or enlist the help of Livefit, trainers who specialise in sports, for a tailored plan towards triathlon success.
Train smart: Three sports place big demands on most people who have busy work and social lives. Plan out your days so you have a clear idea of what your week of training looks like. This also gives your mind some time to prepare for the days ahead.
My advice would be to keep every day different to avoid training boredom and also to spread the load of the exercise. For example, swim one day, bike another, then run later on in the week.
You should also familarise yourself and your body with the set up of a triathlon. Double up some training sessions to include a swim then a bike ride, or a bike ride then a run.
Race smart: On race day, make sure you have all the right kit in the right place. You’ll be wearing a swimming costume or trisuit and wetsuit, goggles and swim hat but the rest of the kit needs to be in the transition area/s.
T1 is for your bike, bike shoes, mandatory helmet and any other cycling kit you’ll require. T2 is for your running gear.
Make sure you have tried transitioning from swim to bike and bike to run. There is no point wasting valuable minutes in transition areas.
Mind over matter: With three sports in one event it can be easy to become overwhelmed. If you have trained smart you should be able to stay calm. Tell yourself you have put in the training and now you simply need to go out and do the race.
A useful technique to overcome any negative energy or doubt is to talk to yourself (it’s not as crazy as it sounds). What you tell yourself impacts on your way of thinking, and more importantly the way you perform. Research has shown that positive energy and thoughts affects the quality of workouts, performances and results.
Enjoy the race. Pic credit: Wiki Commons
Enjoy the day: After all the months of training and hours of sweat and tears, you want to at least make sure you enjoy competing. If you’ve prepared the most you can, put in the hard work, pushed yourself and followed the tips and advice given to you, you’ve got every reason to have the best triathlon yet.
Give yourself a break: It is often overlooked but recovery is as important as training. With all the intense exercising you’ll be doing, your body will give up on you if you don’t give it enough time to recover and could lead to injury setting you back even further.