Tips for Your Second Triathlon

This article came out of our forums, where a member asked about these areas for improvement.  

 

By Coach Mark Sortino
TeamMPI.com 

 

 

 

 

If the water and air are warm enough, I would recommend you put a tri-shirt on with your tri shorts (or a one-piece tri suit) under your wetsuit. Although you may be a bit cool starting out on the bike, you'll warm up quickly and save a ton of time in T1 by NOT having to put on dry clothing on a wet body.

 

 

 

I do like some form of feedback on the bike for new athletes. While a bike computer would fill this need, a more economical choice would be a GPS wrist watch that you could wear for the bike and run (or even the swim, bike and run - depending on the make and model). The best out there now is the Garmin 910. While you have lots of options on customizing the view, the most important information is current speed and average speed. For experienced athletes competing at a higher level, I don't recommend any device on the bike or run for a sprint or olympic distance triathlon - you just need to go as hard as possible!

 

 

 

 

This all depends on many individual factors: were you in shape before the race? Did you have any nagging injuries? Was there a great amount of travel involved? In most beginner scenarios, just a few days of lighter training is all you need to recover for a Sprint. At Team MPI, we believe strongly in active recovery, so a light 45 minute to 1 hour spin the next day is a great choice. Continue with your regular swimming. But if you're very fatigued, take a day off completely and truly rest. As you gain experience and conditioning, you'll be able to continue normal training within a day or two.

 

 

 

 

If you are using a road bike with the standard road bike bars, I would recommend you consider purchasing "clip-on" aerobars. These can be found for around $100 and you can install them yourself. While it will take a few rides to get used to, it will be well worth it for the tremendous advantage of being more aerodynamic. Certainly, as you gain more experience you may opt to purchase a triathlon bike, but until then, this is a great economical choice. If you could see a triathlon bike fitter, he/she would be able to adjust those clip-on aerobars for maximum comfort.

 

 

 

 

At Team MPI, we recommend you try and swim a minimum of three times a week in a pool. If you could add an open water swim to that, you'll begin to see great improvement. However, not everyone can get to open water, so I recommend you talk to local triathlon clubs or state/national parks to learn what areas are available in and around you. When you do go swim, determine what you will "sight" off of to navigate and create a point-to-point or triangle course that you can repeat for as many times as you'd like. Our focus in practicing open water is not speed, but rather learning to swim straight, breath correctly, gain comfort in the water, sight and navigate and becoming more proficient at swimming with a wetsuit (if the water isn't too hot). When you do go swim, for safety I recommend you swim with an additional person or have a friend paddle with you in a kayak, SUP or canoe/raft. Additionally, always wear a bright colored swim cap so that boaters can see you in the water. 

 

 

 

 

The easiest and often most aerodynamic bike water bottles are called aero bottles. These are typically attached between your aero bars or to your frame and have a straw protruding from the top - thus not requiring any grabbing of bottles. You just lower your head and drink through the straw. I would also recommend that you simply practice drinking from your bottle on every ride.