Hi! Hello... and Help

General
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Hi,

First post, couldn’t find an intro thread so thought i’d Start my own.

New to the world of Triathlon. In fact only ever run a half as my most energetic accomplishment. My aim is to take part (not compete you’ll notice) in my first Sprint Tri in early 2020. My challenges will be huge, mainly due to my current fitness. So I’m looking for advice. I’m no natural runner, good on the bike, can swim… overweight by about 3 1/2 stone.

Plan is to build my base fitness and skills up till Christmas then follow a plan up to comp day.

All constructive comments welcome.

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Welcome. My advice is to build slowly. As you are overweight I would hold off with too much running at the minute as that will put a lot of strain on your joints. Focus on the bike and swim for now till the weight drops.

I’m currently about 4 stone overweight so wont give any advice on losing it.

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Thanks for the welcome.

Running will always be my weakness. I am capable of a 5K at 33 mins average. Although not tried it after a swim and run.

I’m joining slimming world with the wife, its worked before for me. But i need to start looking at it as a lifestyle change rather than a diet.

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Hi,
Only thing I’d say about weight loss is that if your increasing your training ( Bike and swim to begin with) dont over do the cutting of calories. You’ll need to fuel your training, and a significan calories deficit will leave you feeling tired, and at increaesd risk of injury. Fasted rides work for some people so worth a try if your trying to shift fat…
I’d recommend using and app like Myfitnesspal, to monitor your calorific intake, monitor your calories burned through training and then look at a small deficit. 200 cals a day for example.
Other than that, you know the rest. Eat lots of veg, drink less beer, healthy fats etc…
Good luck.

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Welcome, I joined here before my first. I’ve now done 2 sprints 2 Olympics and a HIM.

You’ve got the right attitude on building base fitness over winter. Try get to a swim session as they’re so much better than solo swimming. Most Tri and swim clubs are pretty friendly places.

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I’m quoting one of the other members here, can’t remember which but: swim a bit, bike a bit, run a bit.

You don’t need to over analyse it at this stage, and as iWaters said, take it easy on them runs.

You’ll be fine! :+1:

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Hello Tri2Hard, I see you are in Wiltshire. Lots of good sprint triathlons not too far away, and a really good tri club in Salisbury… it is not at all elitist and generally has a number of members who are / were in a similar position to you.

Why don’t you have a look at Ferndown Tri a Tri in October, it may be something to get you motivated over the winter.

I started triathlons 4 years ago (age 43), and was around 3-4 stone over weight, but reasonably fit. In a moment of madness, with no training or background at all, I entered the Osprey Sprint Triathon, in Weymouth, in October 2015, I actually entered it on the day. I was overtaken by a lady on a rusty Peugoet racing bike, and quite a few mountain bikes, but overall I did OK, but was pretty instantly hooked.

I joined Salisbury tri club, I bought a turbo trainer, and a Garmin 910XT Triathlon watch, My brother gave me his old TT bike (which I turned into a road bike with drop handlebars), I started running Parkrun and doing a mid week run. By Christmas I had dropped from 95kg to 85kg

By March I was down to 80kg. I entered the first race of the season, the Mad March Sprint Triathlon in the New Forest, I did much better than my first Triathlon and was even more hooked. At Easter I did a Parkrun PB of sub 25mins for the first time. I also bought my first proper bike from ebay.

That first season I entered, Ringwood triathlon, New Forest Triathlon, 2 Weymouth Triathlons, Bustinskins (the tri club in Weymouth) run loads of Triathlons, a Triathlon in the US (when I was on a business trip), and finished the year with the New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon. I ended the season at 75kg (more than 3 stone down form 12 months previous).

I am now a pretty good long distance triathlete. I recognise that not everyone is willing or needs to embrase triathlons to the extent I have done, however, it is a very welcoming sport, and a sport that I personally find immensely rewarding.

I would invest in these items:
A Turbo Trainer - get a direct drive trainer like a Tacx Flux, mid range is fine it doesn’t need to be top of the range.
A Triathlon watch, a Garmin 735XT is very good, a 935XT is brillian, but expensive, a 945XT is unnecessary
A subscription to Zwift over the winter

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Hiya Tri2Hard and Welcome to the community

I would add to the above great constructive help by adding that if you feel any niggle or pain, listen to your body. Don’t overdo it and end up being injured, there’s nowt worse than not being able to train.

Good luck and keep us informed of your journey.

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Thanks for all of the replies so far, its great to see a forum so welcoming.

All great bits of advice. Time to change my life style, I need to find time to train as well. That will be my biggest challenge.

I had contemplated a sprint this year, but it may be an over commitment due to a busy schedule already :joy:.

I have a question tho something I can’t work out. Wetsuits and Tri suits. Is the general thing to wear a Tri suit / style under the wetsuits? It may sound silly. Sorry.

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Yes to wearing a tri suit under a wetsuit, more aimed at saving time when coming out the water. If you have access to one it’s worth thinking about but if not then consider just wearing swim gear and getting changed into normal clothes in transition if possible.

The vast majority of things triathletes do aren’t essential so don’t worry about feeling like you have to spend money on kit etc for your first one, triathlon is largely advertising. It really can be as simple as swim a bit, bike a bit, run a bit at first until you know you enjoy it, then you’ll have more years and races to enjoy building up collection of lycra.

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I would echo this… it is the story of my second season in Triathlon

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Haha, so true!

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Also a plus one for avoiding injury or fatigue. It’s one of biggest things that stops beginners adopting a new lifestyle. We enjoy something new and dive in, then get tired or injured and stop and never get going again. As with any new habit it’s consistently doing something so it stops being just that you want to train to finish your race, but enjoy exercise as part of your health too.

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Most of the stuff we need is not essential, but never tell your other half that this is the case.
@Tri2Hard welcome!

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Thanks again to those who replied.

I don’t usually need an excuse to buy new stuff. Well thats what the wife says anyway…

I’m looking forward to starting some training. Now the bank holiday weekend is over (ish), off to join the gym this week. (Mainly as it has a pool to start swimming properly again.)

The quest to understand wetsuits is on.

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Given that it is the end of the season, lots of ex-demo wetsuits likely to be for Sale, Huub Outlet is a good place to start. Good deals will probably appear in a month or so

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Trisuit is what a lot use to cycle/run in. Wetsuits are needed to keep you warm enough in the water when it’s below 23C.

The normal way a race works is you swim in wetsuit, strip off and you’re trisuit is already on underneath so you’re good to go on the bike without using time for changing.

As for wetsuit sizing - well good luck, it’s all a bit of a mystery. Get to a shop and try some on, if they feel comfortable it’s probably too big. End of season should be able to pick one up off fleabay or discounted from suppliers. If you’re currently overweight and think you may lose some now that you’ve started tri, then definitely buy cheap because then you can flog it when you slim down.

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