First Triathlon

Giddy wrote:

I'm doing my first triathlon on saturday and I have no real frame of reference as to what would be a decent time.

Its a 400 swim, 16 bike, and 5k run. Pretty standard sprint i believe.

a bit of background on my current shape. I can swim Ok for about 10 straight minutes, so i'm assuming that will be my worst event considering i've been doing open water swimming and i don't really know how far i've been going.

I've been biking around 15 - 20 miles right about 19-20 mph solo and not really cranking, but high spinning in the first disc.

and i've been doing 6 mile runs around 7 minute pace..

I'm shooting for about 1:25 or better. Is that terrible or not, like i said, I have no frame of reference, and any tips to make things go better would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

You shouldn't be too bad of an age grouper if you're old and a girl. If you're a guy you might want to find a better use of your time.

I suggest you ask this either on a triathlon specific site or on the triathlon forum of a running site that HAS triathlon specific forums. There you will likely get a serious answer. Here you will mostly get children looking to practice their insults.

1:25 isn't terrible, though it sounds to me like you can probably go faster than that. although- are you sure its 16 mile bike, not 20k (12.4)? 20k is the standard sprint bike distance. if it really is 16 miles, then 1:25 is decent. At a normal sprint tri near where I live (20k bike, 400 swim, 5k run) the top guys are normally right around 1:00 (that is at altitude with a pretty tough bike section) So not at altitude, with a 16 mile bike, and probably a little easier bike, the top guys would probably go between 1:00 and 1:10 maybe, so 1:25 would be ok, though I think with the swim and bike you've done (400 shouldn't take you more than 10min) you can probably go faster than 1:25. You could probably go 1:20 or faster I would think.

Figure at least 12 mins for that swim, hard to say how fast you are with what info you've given. 20mph for 16 miles, 48:00, add in a few mins for transitions..so at least 63:00 plus whatever you run a 5k in..remember that your legs may be a little dead in that 5k, so it won't be like a regular road 5k. Don't overdo it in the water such that you put yourself into tremendous oxygen debt, or your bike will suffer. Better to go at a sustainable pace on the swim, then hit the bike hard -- it's the longest leg -- hopefully you've done a brick or two and won't feel the horrible leg burn when getting off the bike and onto the run.

Most of all, just enjoy it. There will be guys there who can race damn close to 1 hour on a course like that (6-7 mins swim, 35 bike, 17-18 run). No sense in trying to keep up with that.

Does most people that entire sprint Tris have serious bikes? I wouldn't mind doing one for fun, but my bike is an early 90s hybrid type bike. It doesn't have road wheels or anything. Would I look ridiculous trying to do a sprint with one of these.

I did a few on a mountain bike, got hooked, bought an entry level used bike for a few hundred bucks, got even more hooked, bought a $1200 bike that has lasted me forever...

I've seen people competing in sprints on old huffy's from the 1980s. You'd be fine on whatever.

Thanks for all the info, its greatly appreciated and actually makes me feel a bit more confident.

I've always been a runner, with a 5k pr of 14:58, but that was a few years back and i'm probably around a 17:30 guy at present.

The bike is 16 miles, and the swims i've been doing i've estimated at right about 400 meters and have been taking me around 8:30 - 9 minutes to complete.

I'm not really trying to pound one out here, but i do expect my competitive side to come out a bit and hopefully will do a bit better than my expectations.

Last night i did a 20 mile bike averaging 19.8 mph and followed that into a 2.5 mile and have been getting used to that transition, which sucks donkey balls.

Again, thanks for the tips!

You should do well in your first tri. For the swim, if I were you, I'd start in the back of your heat on the outside corner to avoid some of the chaos your first time out. And don't hammer too hard on the bike. Many athletes over do it on this segment and pay hard on the run.

You'll have to write back and tell us how you do.

Don't put too much stock in your swim time. Swim courses are usually off, and you don't want to psych yourself out by thinking you'll finish in 8:00 -- only to finish in 11:00, because it's 600m instead of 400m. You can gauge your position in the race by how many bikes are left in the racks when you get out of the water. If you can maintain 20mph on the bike, I think you'll do well. Save a little something for the run, it's always motivating to be picking people off towards the end.

hey your training is great you probably even break 1h10 - 1h20 if you keep that pace. (training or it isn't to hard to keep those paces in training)

Good luck i hope you'll enjoy the sport. I'm totally in love on it.

Not a swimmer or tri-guy but that swim time strikes me as horrible. I can average 30 minutes a mile and I do not even swim regularly. I don't see how 400 meters should take more than 7 minutes unless you are including transition.

It depends on the course and how things are laid out. Sometimes you are in with a lot of other swimmers and you can't really swim as fast as you would in open water or in a pool (the real fast guys get out front into open water quickly). In a longer swim things spread out, but in 400m, you could be jostling with folks the whole way. I typically finish in the top 10% of swimmers but I never worry about the time. The courses are always off.

I asked one RD how he measured and he said he could hit a golf ball a certain distance on land, so he'd drive one out into the lake and have the guys mark where the ball hit, and that was the same distance.

MarathonMind wrote:

Not a swimmer or tri-guy but that swim time strikes me as horrible. I can average 30 minutes a mile and I do not even swim regularly. I don't see how 400 meters should take more than 7 minutes unless you are including transition.

To be honest, i really don't know how far i've been swimming. I have a little lake in my condo complex and I swim accross and back, and if i feel good I continue for an extra few minutes. The best i've done across and back is 7:30 and i think its close to 400 meters, but i don't really have a way of measuring it.. however swimming is my weakest of all 3 as i've only been swimming about a month and a half.

I'll post back saturday afternoon and tell you all how it went.

Giddy wrote:

I'll post back saturday afternoon and tell you all how it went.

no, thats ok, you dont have to. How conceited and self absorbed does one have to be to have a desire to tell a messageboard the results of your own race? It doesnt matter if two lone dorks requested you to do so or not. That fact that you want to is sad... but very typical of a triathlete. You will fit in well with your new crowd.

That fact that you need to come on here and pass judgement and tell anyone what is sad is in fact what is sad. Maybe you need to get some help or just grow up.

Take it easy on the swim. Maybe just like when you practice. Hammer the bike but try to taper when it's close to the end, so that you will strength to finish the 5k. It depends on the temperature of the event. Finally it boils down to your willingness to finish.

Goodluck!

MarathonMind wrote:

Not a swimmer or tri-guy but that swim time strikes me as horrible. I can average 30 minutes a mile and I do not even swim regularly. I don't see how 400 meters should take more than 7 minutes unless you are including transition.

Damn, what does that say about me then? I swim 2-3 times/wk and a mile takes me about 50 minutes.