Power lifter becoming Triathlete

First off, welcome to BT!!

I too used to lift on a regualar basis, mind you not a power lifter by any sort but I could lift more than all the female in my gym and most of the males too. When I started doing triathlons I had to reprogram my muscles, if you will, to think more endurance and less about pure physical strenght.

It can be done and I still lift on a regualar basis, mostly due to my job. Just because I'm female does not give me special privilages when it comes to lifting my share.

Anyway, after four years of racing I'm still bigger than most people (fat by most peoples standards until they see me lift). You can do it, your times will improve as you put in more time with the different sports, just like lifting.

A HIM is not out of the question at all at the end of the season! Keep up the great work and we here at BT will be here to answer any questions you may have.

Good luck!!!

Diets......that seems to be a more personal thing.

I'm not a picky eater and I really didn't change to much about my diets. I did decrease my protein a bit and increased my complex carbs for my longer workouts. Since I still lift I need the energy to do all four sports but getting the diett spot on is a bit of a problem. I think you have to figure out what foods you like and which one's you don't then you can start to put them in your diet.

A good friend of mine is on the semi professinal power lifting circut and our biggest difference in diet is the protein factor. Seeking the help of a nutritionist would help you greatly.
Hope that helps.

Welcometo BT! In the distant past in college I too was a powerlifter, but its been a long time.  I dont think you need to do anything special to transition to tris -- just gradually work at the training. 

To be blunt, at 250 lbs, body weight will be a big factor on the run, even if you dont have much body fat.  Be sure to give your joints/tendons/ligaments time to adust to the new regimen.  I assume you'll be dropping weight over time, so you'll naturally get faster and have more endurance just from that.

Diet is a very individual thing.  If I were you I'd experiment with it to see what works for your body.  But generally, you want a bit more fat and carbs and a bit less protein than the standard powerlifting diet.

Good luck and enjoy the ride!

I came from a similar background as you. I'll just echo what others have said, get into the routine of taking your time, slow and steady, and build up the endurance. I've found that the muscle mass helps in some respects, but in a lot of the sport, it really isn't an advantage at all.

I also did a HIM last September at 225lbs. Very doable. I'd recommend signing up so you have that goal in mind as a constant reminder.

Regarding diet, I don't deviate too much from basic discipline. Have carbs so your workouts dont suffer too much. Don't develop a weird diet. Just eat as healthy as possible and keep your calories in the 2k range. The added training will take the weight off very quickly.

I was in the same situation as you albeit I was significantly older when I got out of powerlifting...

I'm 6'1" and when I decided I wanted to make a change I was around 255...

The one thing to think of is whether you will quit lifting altogether or just change up the way you lift... For me I switched from heavy lifting with max sets of 4-6 reps to 12-15 reps, minimum...The key is to keep tone as the cardio begins shaving off muscle...I'm down to one session per week doing all bodyparts using resistance bands, a set of 25 pound dumbbells and a bosu ball...

As for the HIM, totally doable (I did mine at 240) but as someone else mentioned, the weight you're carrying is significant and the force you generate with your footstrike is somewhere around 2.5 times your bodyweight, so it's critical you listen to your body....Being a lifter you're conditioned to pain but pain in your feet, knees etc., isn't the pain you push through...

Good luck, triathlon is an awesome sport....And if you think you were fit when you could bench 300+ pounds, wait until you experience swim, bike run and the fitness level you achieve there...Very cool.

Welcome.

With the job and night classes, everyone has something. So work with what you can. Basic concepts won't change. You just might do things on different days than the next guy. And for morning vs later day, whatever works best for your schedule. I've been more morning heavy and more evening heavy at times. Made no difference. Just whatever works for you towards getting in decent workouts.

It depends on what your goals are.  If the goal is to complete a triathlon then it shouldn't take long at all...If your goal is to achieve a certain time, then the goal will depend on how your training goes which will depend on your weight, recovery, diet, the training plan itself, esssentially everything..

I can answer specific questions from my perspective but need more direct to understand "how long did it take" or "how long will it take."

Fire away...

Welcome to the fold!     It appears that so far everyone has given you some great answers to your questions.   I used to lift exclusively and decided to change from just lifting heavy things to getting into triathlons.    That was 6 years ago.  I now lift 2 days a week and do tri training 4 days a week (I take a day off per week).  I still lift pretty heavy and have over the last 2 years incorporated drop sets into my routine to help with muscle endurance.

One thing that I noticed about myself is that over the years I have learned to have good form in the water and not muscle my way thru the water.  If you can get your form down for the swim the strength that you have in your back and shoulders will be a great asset.  I outweigh all my tri training partners and they all are still faster than me on the run and bike (although I am starting to catch up), but, when it comes to the swim...

Enjoy your training and have fun with it. 

Honestly I'd say focus on getting a few sprints and maybe an OLY in before even contemplating being competitive (in any distance let alone a HIM).  I think experience will help you develop your training program, nutrition, rest days, optimum # of hours of sleep per night etc...

There is so much more to long course stuff that is beyond S,B, R that I'd actually recommend you put HIMs a year or two out...Just my opinion...

You're young at 24 and have many years ahead of you to develop in triathlon should you choose to.  Before putting pressure on yourself to achieve certain times, placement etc., go out and do some events, take notes on what went well, what didn't and then start planning how you will make adjustments etc...

Please don't interpret any of this as negative, you can do whatever you put your mind to, I'm just trying to pass along some experiences I've had from a similar background..

Take a look at results for past years of races you are considering. In many you will be able to filter for your age group. Results can vary quite noticeably by course. Maybe half an hour or more for very flat to rather hilly ones. Or for other reasons.

Do get some of these in. Having some race experience will go a long ways. They also double as hard workouts. Even though the race lengths seem quite different, the sprint to HIM is more alike in that they work very much the same energy systems. You're just operating at a different effort level within that.

The short course racing will help you learn how to train and pick up more speed that's related to this. That tends to develop a little faster. Then over time you will gain more fatigue resistance to be able to hold speed better for the longer events. Especially if I saw your age correctly as mid-20's, you may be able to push yourself a little more often on some things and recover well.

I used to play football in college and was a heavy powerlifter. I did was purely a short burst/fast twitch individual. Powerlifters will not do well with endurance sports initially. It was very difficult for me to run 1 mile, let alone after biking and swimming.

You have to look at what you want to get out of tri's, du's or whatever event you choose. If this is something that will take place as a fun cardio, do it with your friend and enjoy it. If you truly want to get into the sport, you will need to trim down and get more exposure to each discipline. Focus on the sprint tri's and short du's, they will best fit your build initially. As an old powerlifter, the bike came easy to me...but the swim and run were not easy. I just put in a ton of time running and swimming and saw steady improvements. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a swimming coach or team up with someone you know who swam in high school for tips.

Good luck! I hope you stick with it!