Three Things I Learned by Doing My First Triathlon
By Anna Petr
A couple weeks ago, I did my first triathlon! For those of you whom I don’t know, my name is Anna and I joined the Green Events team a couple months ago to help with social media, newsletters, etc! I have worked at Runners Roost and Rocky Mountain Multisport for about a year and quickly fell in love with the running and triathlon community in Fort Collins. I am a student athlete competing in cross country and track, so working at Roost and Green Events are choices that make a lot of sense for me!
My journey into triathlon started when I was struck with a long and drawn out achilles injury last January. Since then, I have been supplementing my training to various degrees with swimming and biking. I really fell in love with cycling! I love how far you can go on a bike and how much you can see. Swimming, not so much, but I definitely got better at it which is rewarding! It was a fun and challenging way to train after a frustrating year of feeling like I was very limited in my ability to train for running alone.
I decided to sign up for the Loveland Lake to Lake Olympic distance triathlon. I had heard great things about this event and was already a fan of the bike course because it was a little longer than usual and relatively hilly. My main concerns were that I would freak out during the open water swim, my bike would have mechanical issues, or that my achilles would disagree with my decision to race a 10k. While I was definitely unprepared, like pasta that’s not quite al dente, it was a fun experience and no catastrophes took place!
I did learn quite a few things during the race, I really had no idea what to expect! My longest races last typically 20 minutes at most, with the strategy being pretty straightforward. Run fast for a relatively short amount of time. No transitions, no fueling, hardly any gear required.
Here are a three main takeaways I would pass onto someone who is about to do their first triathlon!
- Get comfortable with open water swimming
Before I considered doing a triathlon, the biggest thing that held me back was open water swimming. As someone who doesn’t really care for swimming or open water… This sounded nightmarish to me. Once I got comfortable with swimming, which, for me, meant getting in the pool three to four times a week, I knew I had to take the plunge into open water. I went to Horsetooth Tri Training to try out open water swimming. It was especially helpful to have other people around me and a route laid out for all the swimmers, which is really similar to the layout that most triathlons have. Learning how to swim with other people and figuring out sighting techniques was something that I absolutely needed to feel comfortable for race day! This opportunity to swim in open water is so unique and helpful, I highly recommend you check it out! Having a wetsuit in the beginning of the summer was really helpful for me, so I definitely recommend trying one out before your race to check that everything feels good. Rocky Mountain Multisport does rentals and provides wetsuits to try on at The Horsetooth Tri Training series! Overall, I would say if you’ve practiced open water swimming, you will be ready! My best recommendation is to start on the outside of the pack so you don’t have to worry about people coming up from behind or trying to get around the people in front of you, especially if you’re new to triathlons. Worse comes to worst, you can just swim slowly or take a breather if things get overwhelming in the water.
2. Practice transitions and prepare your gear
My next tip is to prepare for transitions and pack your bags the morning before the race. I thought nothing of this until I was packing up my backpack last minute the night before the race. It was then that I realized I had lost my goggles the day before. Luckily, I knew Rocky Mountain Multisport would be at the race, ready to help me out and prepared for people inevitably forgetting one of their pieces of gear. While this ended up being a simple fix, it caused unnecessary stress and would have been easily avoided if I had packed my bag earlier in the day to make sure I had everything I needed. Transition was not quite as stressful as I had imagined. The only problem was that it felt too easy and I was worried that I had forgotten something, so I took more time than needed to double check that I had everything I needed for the next discipline. Whether you decide to practice or write down the steps you need to take in each respective transition, I would’ve found that really helpful for shaving off a couple minutes!
3. Push yourself more than you think you can in each event
My final piece of advice is to ask of yourself more than you feel you have to give at the moment. Maybe this is just something I experienced as a first-time triathlete but in each discipline I felt that I needed to conserve some energy because it’s a long race. In reality, I think that I would’ve been able to push a little more while swimming and riding! While this may not be the case for everyone, I felt better as I got further into each discipline. When I first hopped on my bike after getting out of the water, I felt very out of breath and wondered if I would be able to continue with that effort. As I rode on longer my breathing steadied and my legs started to shake out the swim as I dialed in on the bike. Similarly, as I got off the bike and started to run, my legs felt like they were filled with lead and that my pace was a minute slower than it actually was. As I turned around at the halfway mark, my legs had recovered as I called on different muscle groups and my form returned to normal. I think that a big part of getting better at triathlons is just racing them, finding where your limits really are.
All this being said, my first triathlon was very difficult but a super fun and unique experience. One of my favorite parts is that it feels like there are so many ways I can improve. There are many parts I have yet to come close to mastering and I choose to be excited about that!