Top 5 Things to do for Your First Sprint Triathlon
Prepping for your first triathlon can be both nerve wracking and exhilarating. Don’t be that person that wants to tackle an Ironman or 1/2 Ironman for their first triathlon. It’s best to get a start with a sprint triathlon. It will enable you to fully understand how your body will respond to all 3 events at race pace: swim, bike, run. Here are the top 5 things you can do to prepare for your first sprint triathlon.
1. Know the course – wether this is by reading reports, looking at the detailed descriptions on the events website or seeing the course in person days before hand this can give you the power to visualize the critical segments: an important climb, a tricky descent, a critical corner. That kind of awareness helps you check off that issue so you can flow smoothly through race day.
2. Extra rest during the nights prior to the event – the night before the race can be loaded with anxiety and an athlete many only sleep in fits and starts. By adding an extra 30-60 minutes of sleep to each night in days prior to the race will take the pressure off that night before the big day
3. Gain confidence through reflection – look back over the past weeks of training and a dozen bits to be proud of – your longest ride, longest run, consistent days of training, days you kept up with or beat a training partner or a time that you have for your favorite route. Even things that seemed like problems can be viewed as confidence builders: that time you flatted and learned a bit about repair, the side stitch you got and worked through, etc.
4. Go “over duration” – make a rough assumption of how long the whole race might take you. Figure the swim in a worse case scenario, maybe 3 minutes per 100 meters. Do the same longest-possible-time for the bike and run – bike at 10mph??? or a run/walk combo at 12min pace. For a typical sprint (400yd swim, 10mi bike, 3 mile run) that’s 12 minutes for the swim + 1 hour for the bike + 36 min for the run + 10 min for transition (5 min each) and you’ve got about 2 hours of race time. Now, give yourself a bike workout in the weeks before the race that is over 2 hours long and you will have confidence being able to go the duration of the race.
5. Race Morning Warm up – When you wake up on race morning, over dress right away. Dress in layers and over do it so much that you have a light sweat going while on your way to the event site. That’s “warm up” part A. Then get the cardio system very awake with a short run of 6-8 minutes. The first half can we a run/walk but the second half needs to have some brief moments (perhaps 30-40 seconds) where you are going harder than race pace. This will get have you fully awake and race for the start signal.
That about sums it up for the top 5 things you can do for your first sprint triathlon. Trust us. This stuff works!