how short was this damn triathlon in Austin?

haha, the swimming and biking just got them warmed up good for the 10k

Tri's are all short, the 'sport' is a joke!

Triathlon has no formal course certification requirement. The theory/culture is that everyone is racing the same distance so being off does not matter.

I think differently, but that is the answer I got from several triathlon officials. To me it makes it hard strategically if you are pacing for a 10K and it turns out to be 9K. I pity the guy who just misses as he/she closes thinking he has time and runs out of course.

Actually, there are somewhat standard course distances.

"Sprint" - half mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. The distances in sprint triathlons vary the most.

"Olympic" or international -- 1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run.

"Half Ironman" - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run

"Ironman" 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run.

Riding the bike makes men impotent. Cramming that little wedge of a seat up your ass is gay too! Who likes that? Just go for a run.

notriguy wrote:

Cramming that little wedge of a seat up your ass is gay too!

That's why I don't use a seat. Just the pole.

?

who cares? wrote:

Tri's are all short, the 'sport' is a joke!

So am I to assume that running a marthon after swimming over two miles (in open water) and biking over 100 miles (at 21-22 mph) is no problem?

I've never done a marathon. Are they that easy

Lets break it down.

Swimming 2 miles in a wetsuit is easy.

Cycling 112 miles is easy, half the time you're coasting.

Running a marathon is hard, there are no flotation devices or parts you can coast. Its you and the road.

Geddit?

El Segundo wrote:

Lets break it down.

Swimming 2 miles in a wetsuit is easy.

Cycling 112 miles is easy, half the time you're coasting.

Running a marathon is hard, there are no flotation devices or parts you can coast. Its you and the road.

Geddit?

Have you done any of these things?

The best description I have heard for an Ironman is that at the start of the run, your legs feel like they do at the end of a marathon. In other words, you start the marathon with dead legs.

If you are coasting half the time on a bike, you are not going to make the time cut off. Swimming 2. 4 miles is not "easy" wetsuit or no wetsuit.

How many IronMan tris have you done El S?

I have done exactly zero but I will have to say that the 112 mile bike ride is not easy coasting or not. Also, swimming 2 miles in open water, wet suit or not, is an experience most will never accomplish. I can't even imagine jumping off the bike (after having peddled it for about 4 hours or more) and running 26 miles hard. I train with several iron-guy triathletes and the amount of time they put into training dwarfs even the most hardcore runner. Nothing like a 3 hour ride on the weekend followed immediately by a 2+ hour run. Not for me, thanks. But I'll never ridicule what they do or wonder "how good they might be" if they only ran. The guys who do it well are machines and anybody who can do it all has a lot of guts.

El Segundo wrote:

Lets break it down.

Swimming 2 miles in a wetsuit is easy.

Cycling 112 miles is easy, half the time you're coasting.

Running a marathon is hard, there are no flotation devices or parts you can coast. Its you and the road.

Geddit?

Swimming 2 miles in a cross current, in chop, with several hundred other swimmers is not easy. Even in a wetsuit.

If 112 miles is coasting half the time, then the other half must be up hill. When I ride, I never coast. Up or down hill. And if the course is flat, you probably are dealing with a headwind (halfway, if you're lucky. I've gone on long rides with a headwind 100% of the time) BTW, drafting is illegal in triathlons. It's not a 112 mile club ride we're talking about. It's a 112 mile time trial.

Oh, and there is no rest between the three segments of a triathlon. The clock is running the whole time. Seasoned veterans will attach their cycling shoes to their bike beforehand and put them on while riding. The time it takes to transition from the swim to the bike and from the bike to the run is a skill in and of itself.

I swam from 2 km from Angel Island to Tiburon in the SF bay last fall. I wore a wetsuit.

I finished in 31:42. It was not easy.

These are the facts:

1. White collar guys have no respect for blue collar guys and vice versa.

2. Running is a blue collar sport. All you need to buy beyond the entry fees is a pair of shoes, a pair of shorts, and a shirt.

3. Cycling/Swimming/Triathlon is a VERY white collar sport. In order to be competitive you NEED a good bike, you NEED a wetsuit, you NEED a place to swim, and the entry fees are INSANE.

4. Running is a national sport where races happen everywhere.

5. Triathlon, and to some extent Cycling, is a regional sport where races happen mostly on the coasts or Florida.

The above 5 reasons is why some runners and some triathletes/cyclists won't get along.

I think if anyone here has a life "to do list" finishing an Ironman and running a 100 mile trail ultra should be at the top of the list. In our realm of sport(endurance) those are the hardest things to accomplish.

White collar vs Blue collar wrote:

These are the facts:

1. White collar guys have no respect for blue collar guys and vice versa.

2. Running is a blue collar sport. All you need to buy beyond the entry fees is a pair of shoes, a pair of shorts, and a shirt.

3. Cycling/Swimming/Triathlon is a VERY white collar sport. In order to be competitive you NEED a good bike, you NEED a wetsuit, you NEED a place to swim, and the entry fees are INSANE.

4. Running is a national sport where races happen everywhere.

5. Triathlon, and to some extent Cycling, is a regional sport where races happen mostly on the coasts or Florida.

The above 5 reasons is why some runners and some triathletes/cyclists won't get along.

Good points.

However, I'm not sure about how the "blue collar/white collar" thing really pans out.

The thing about triathlon is that it's great if you don't really excel at any one of the three sports, but are in otherwise top condition.

In a bike race or time trial I'd get creamed.

I'm ok in an open water swim, but a masters pool meet would cause me considerable humiliation. Dead last in every heat would not surprise me.

And running is my "achilles heel" (no pun intended)

But I can manage to have an overall finish in the front third of a sprint triathlon and a good chance of winning my division. And that's now. I've only been training for a short while.

As for equippment, I don't have a really expensive bike, and I don't own a wetsuit. A lot of triathletes don't use them in order to keep transition times low.