Just getting ready to start a 2 year plan to complete a full ironman triathlon. Wanted to see if there were any members of our community that were/are tri-athletes. Or if anybody has good advice on one of the three disciplines. I'm a decently strong runner, but am completely starting from scratch on biking and swimming.
I used to do the military pentathlon however this only included running and swimming as two of the five competitive events.
Training regime: I worked up to the UK squad running once every two days and a swim every 3 or 4 but I was told that I needed to up this to get to serious contention. Basically, a short 5 mile run in the morning and then a slower paced longer run at night - really takes your endurance up to pro level. I went from a half mile swim to 5 miles a day - always after the first run. The guy who got me into the competition used to do a 15 mile run carrying a backpack with 5-10 kilos of sand.
The routine worked - I was doing 125 miles a week and swimming around 20-25 miles too. I'm not a fast swimmer - it was my most hated element.
Clothing: at least two pairs of good running shoes; get them from a proper sports shop where you get weighed and your running style checked otherwise you could do a lot of long term damage to knees and ligaments. Nowadays I would recommend 3 pairs - use them alternate days so the impact absorption soles have time to recover.
Eating: high carbohydrate diet; you will need lots of stored up energy. Drop the chocolates, sweets, butter and sugar as soon as possible and work on potatoes / pasta etc then get yourself some trail mix for when you are going to do your second run of the day. If for any reason you stop working out or are going to - do it slowly and drop your food intake proportionately. All those carbs will show up otherwise.
Warm up / warm down: get used to spending as long warming up as warming down after exercise, if you're running upwards of 70 miles a week then you can burn inner fats around muscles and do damage.
High visibility: you'll be going lots of places, traffic needs to see you as far ahead as possible so invest in high vis clothes and put strips on your kit.
Good luck and keep us informed of how you get on!
