Family Fitness Magazine

Are you looking for a fresh family fitness challenge? Each issue, Nicola Joyce will give you all the information you need to try a new sport. This issue… Triathlon

For some people, one sport isn’t enough. For others, even two sports aren’t a challenge. These people are triathletes. Triathlon is a multi-sport which combines swimming, cycling and running into one event. You might think it sounds tough, but the truth is that if you can swim, bike and run a little, you’ll be able to get round one of the shorter distances of triathlon.

What attracts people to triathlon is usually one of three things: the training is fun and varied, the risk of injury is minimised due to this variety and it’s a great excuse to buy lots of new kit. Whatever category you fall into, you’ll find it to be a fun, social, challenging sport with plenty of scope. It’s the fastest-growing sport in the UK, with new clubs and races springing up every season.
So, how should you get started?

To complete a triathlon, you need swimming kit, a road-worthy bike (and helmet), and running shoes. That’s all! If your triathlon is taking place in open-water (with the swim in a lake, river or the sea as opposed to in a swimming pool), you’ll need to add a wetsuit to your kit-bag. But hopefully you can see that you really don’t need much in the way of gadgets to get going

You need to be able to swim (front-crawl is best, breast-stroke is allowed but might make you unpopular with the swimmers next to you and backstroke is discouraged as it looks too much like the distress signal of waving), ride a bike confidently on the road and then run.

There are a variety of distances, the standard and most common ones being:
Super sprint: 400m swim, 15km bike, 3km run -
Sprint: 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run
Olympic: 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Long-course: 1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run
Ultra distance: 3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km run

If you’re starting from square one, the best way to train is to do two sessions of each discipline per week. Ideally, you’d use one session to build distance and the other to work on your pace. It’s also important to do brick sessions: that’s cycling and then running. This gets you used to the peculiar feeling of running “off the bike”. We’ll leave it to you to find out exactly what that feels like!

Here in Wokingham we have plenty of indoor pools, with several open-water swimming locations and Hampton Lido not too far away. We can easily head out into the nearby countryside for great bike training, and choose between running in town or going a little further into surrounding green areas for our runs.

There are plenty of races within driving distance of Wokingham, including some which are specifically tailored to families and children.

“Triathlon is a fantastic sport for the whole family”

John Lunt of Human Race Ltd (which runs events for all ages), says “Triathlon is a fantastic sport for the whole family. Most parents already know the benefits of going swimming and cycling with their children so doing a triathlon is a natural progression.

At Human Race we try and make triathlon fun so the whole family can take part.

As well as children’s triathlons (8-16yrs) and scootathlons (4-8yrs) we will also be holding toddler fun challenges for the little ones (2-4yrs).” Keep an eye on the events calendar for events that will be perfect for you and your family at www.humanrace.co.uk

In fact, we’re lucky to have loads of triathlon resources around us. We’ve listed some local resources (previous page), but there are many more. Get in touch with us if there’s anything you’re looking for and we’ll do our best to help!

Thinking of taking the challenge or already a seasoned triathlete? Post your comments and let us know your thoughts! Next Issues Take the Challenge: Open Water Swimming!

Related articles > Take the Challenge | Mountain Biking > Wokingham Half Marathon Stories