Triathlon

I'm really into triathlon, as all my friends know by know. This is also the most active part of my web site. I'm writing these 'training updates' which list what races I'm doing and when and where I messed up etc.

2006	This year I focus on art, therefore there is very little to report. But as I finally did my first race, I have a little update...
2005	A new year. And due to my workload, very reduced plans. But maybe I can finally finally get that first marathon under my belt...
2004	A super busy year with all the course work I'm doing. But I'm having big goals for that year too. Well, I had big plans, but read for yourself what became of them...
2003	I planned to do my first half-ironman in 2003. Did I achieve that goal? Check for yourself!
2002	2002 was a great year for me. I got a new bike and I finished my first Olympic tri. And my first half-marathon. and, and, and.
2001b	What did I do in 2001 after that first triathlon?
2001a	From the start to my very first triathlon.What an adventure!

Things I learnt about Triathlon (stuff beginners might find interesting or even useful? I need to update this some time, though)
Photos?
- Davis, CA triathlon (my first), 6/2/2001
- Tri for Fun #3, 8/18/2001

What is a triathlon?

A triathlon typically is a race consisting of first a swim, then a bike ride and then a run. There are a number of variations of such multi-sport races: Duathlon is typically biking + running (formerly called biathlon but renamed because of the confusion with the skiing + shooting event). Recently I saw a 'quadrathlon' (I have no idea if this is a real term). It consisted of a swim, a bike ride, a run and then another bike ride. There are also races that consist of 2 runs and a bike ride. These are called duathlons.

There are a couple of standard triathlon types:

Sprint 0.75 km swim, 22km bike ride, 5km run (my goal in 2001)
Olympic 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run (my goal in 2002)
Half-Ironman 1.2 miles swim, 56 miles bike, 13.1 miles run (my goal in 2003)
Ironman 2.4 miles swim, 112 miles bike, 26.2 miles run (yes, that's a marathon) (we'll see about that later ;) )

At the 2000 Olympic Games Triathlon was for an Olympic discipline for the first time. Of course, the distance was the Olympic distance (DUH!). To give you an impression of how incredibly fast these athletes are, here are the winning split times:

Women: Brigitte McMahon, SUI: 19:16 (Swim), 1:05:14 (Bike), 35:13 (Run), 2:00:40 Total
Men: Simon Whitfield, CAN: 17:56 (Swim), 58:54 (Bike), 30:53 (Run), 1:48:24 Total

What is so great about Triathlon is that you have to be pretty good in all three sports to be successful. You could be lightning fast on the bike, but if you cannot swim you'll come out of the water either so late that you can forget it right away, or you are so exhausted that you cannot bike any more. Or you could be a super marathon runner, but after riding a long distance on the bike your legs will feel very funny at first... Till you get into your real running shape again you might have lost so much time that your running advantage is zero... And there are the transitions in between which are almost a 4th discipline. An interesting sport!

No, you typically don't run through a mud pit in a triathlon. This photo was taken at the "Muddy Buddy" race in 2002.

Over time I bought a whole stack of books more or less directly related to triathlon. Here is a selection with a few comments. I hope somebody finds it useful.

Getting started

J. Mora: Triathlon 101 -- Essentials for Multisport Success A good beginners book

D. Scott: Dave Scott's Triathlon Training My first triathlon book. A good read and a complete training program but maybe a bit dated.

J. Friel: The Triathlete's Training Bible This is the book about tri-training that I saw recommended most frequently on newsgroups, Web sites etc. I've spent quite a lot of time with it and I think it's a pretty good book.

Books about training methods etc.

R. Sleamaker, R. Browning: Serious Training for Endurance Athletes I've gotten recommendations for this one from several people. SERIOUS is an acronym. It stands for Speed and drills, Endurance, Race/pace training, Intervals, Overdistance/long, slow distance, Uphill intervals, Strength/resistance training. This book taught me a lot about how to train effectively and how to train towards specific goals.

D. Benardot: Nutrition for serious athletes From this book I learned a lot as well. While nutrition is not that important at the distances I'll try to tackle at first, it's good to know about these things right away, like about the importance of hydration (knew that before), and why 'more than enough' of a good thing (for example vitamins) can really hurt you.

E.R. Burke: Precision Heart Rate training One of the first training tips I heard was: "Get a heart rate monitor" I did that but from the manual alone you'd never figure out how to best use it in your training. From this book you can learn some of that. For some odd reason all heart rate monitor books I've seen appear to be written terribly (this one is no exception). But the information is there. And they are better than the manuals that come with the devices. Those are simply deadly (especially the Polar ones)

A.L. Mattes: Active Isolated Stretching Looks interesting, but I haven't really read it yet. Instead I started doing yoga in 2002. I have a couple of yoga books, including one specifically for runners.

Lance Armstrong and Chris Carmichael: The Lance Armstrong Performance Program Nice book. I didn't do the performance program but the book contains a lot of other useful information on bicycling, I thought, and also covers some training basics (like heart rate training).

Gale Bernhard: Training Plans for Multisport Athletes A very useful book if you don't know how to plan your training. These plans seem to all have appeared in Triathlete magazine over the years. Typically they publish a training plan for an Olympic tri every year some time in Spring.

Books about the individual sports

T. Laughlin: Total Immersion Total Immersion is a swim training program (workshops) that's very popular with triathletes, it seems. The key idea is to make your body more streamlined in the water and to reduce drag, which helps a lot as water is so much denser than air. I didn't read the whole thing but just borrowed a few tips and workouts.

S. Tarpinian: The Essential Swimmer This was my first swim book. I learnt a lot from both of the swim books, but none of them can really replace a coach, I found - especially in swimming!

Marianne Brehms: The Fit Swimmer A collection of swim workouts. Alternatively: just join a masters swim program.

Runner's World Complete Book on Running This book helped me getting started with running. A good beginners book, I'd say. Covers how to start running, what to look for in equipment, nutrition, stretching, injury prevention etc. etc. etc. For me a good intro to running was critical, because I had some serious back problems not too long ago and I was scared that running might make them worse. Fortunately that didn't happen (and I partly credit this book, because it tought me to really take it slowly, how to stretch, what problems to watch out for etc.

Jeff Galloway: Galloway's book on running, 2nd ed. This is a very useful book on running and Galloway is a great teacher. He has guided tons of people towards running their first marathon injury free (a very important point in his program). A lot of this info is also on his web site: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/. He has also a book specifically on marathoning.

Other

Brad Kearns: Can you make a living doing that? Mostly an entertaining read. Brad tells about his adventures as a pro triathlete.

Jim Taylor: Prime Sport -- Triumph of the Athlete Mind Once you start getting a bit mental about your sport..

Joann Dahlkoetter: Your Performing Edge See above. Just kidding. These books talk about the importance of psychological training and the proper mindset if you want to make progress and -- gosh -- win. It's a lot about motivation, drive, coping with obstacles etc. etc. A lot of the material in these two books does not relate only to triathlon or even just to sports but could be used in everyday life...

Getting started
J. Mora: Triathlon 101 -- Essentials for Multisport Success	A good beginners book
D. Scott: Dave Scott's Triathlon Training	My first triathlon book. A good read and a complete training program but maybe a bit dated.
J. Friel: The Triathlete's Training Bible	This is the book about tri-training that I saw recommended most frequently on newsgroups, Web sites etc. I've spent quite a lot of time with it and I think it's a pretty good book.
Books about training methods etc.
R. Sleamaker, R. Browning: Serious Training for Endurance Athletes	I've gotten recommendations for this one from several people. SERIOUS is an acronym. It stands for Speed and drills, Endurance, Race/pace training, Intervals, Overdistance/long, slow distance, Uphill intervals, Strength/resistance training. This book taught me a lot about how to train effectively and how to train towards specific goals.
D. Benardot: Nutrition for serious athletes	From this book I learned a lot as well. While nutrition is not that important at the distances I'll try to tackle at first, it's good to know about these things right away, like about the importance of hydration (knew that before), and why 'more than enough' of a good thing (for example vitamins) can really hurt you.
E.R. Burke: Precision Heart Rate training	One of the first training tips I heard was: "Get a heart rate monitor" I did that but from the manual alone you'd never figure out how to best use it in your training. From this book you can learn some of that. For some odd reason all heart rate monitor books I've seen appear to be written terribly (this one is no exception). But the information is there. And they are better than the manuals that come with the devices. Those are simply deadly (especially the Polar ones)
A.L. Mattes: Active Isolated Stretching	Looks interesting, but I haven't really read it yet. Instead I started doing yoga in 2002. I have a couple of yoga books, including one specifically for runners.
Lance Armstrong and Chris Carmichael: The Lance Armstrong Performance Program	Nice book. I didn't do the performance program but the book contains a lot of other useful information on bicycling, I thought, and also covers some training basics (like heart rate training).
Gale Bernhard: Training Plans for Multisport Athletes	A very useful book if you don't know how to plan your training. These plans seem to all have appeared in Triathlete magazine over the years. Typically they publish a training plan for an Olympic tri every year some time in Spring.
Books about the individual sports
T. Laughlin: Total Immersion	Total Immersion is a swim training program (workshops) that's very popular with triathletes, it seems. The key idea is to make your body more streamlined in the water and to reduce drag, which helps a lot as water is so much denser than air. I didn't read the whole thing but just borrowed a few tips and workouts.
S. Tarpinian: The Essential Swimmer	This was my first swim book. I learnt a lot from both of the swim books, but none of them can really replace a coach, I found - especially in swimming!
Marianne Brehms: The Fit Swimmer	A collection of swim workouts. Alternatively: just join a masters swim program.
Runner's World Complete Book on Running	This book helped me getting started with running. A good beginners book, I'd say. Covers how to start running, what to look for in equipment, nutrition, stretching, injury prevention etc. etc. etc. For me a good intro to running was critical, because I had some serious back problems not too long ago and I was scared that running might make them worse. Fortunately that didn't happen (and I partly credit this book, because it tought me to really take it slowly, how to stretch, what problems to watch out for etc.
Jeff Galloway: Galloway's book on running, 2nd ed.	This is a very useful book on running and Galloway is a great teacher. He has guided tons of people towards running their first marathon injury free (a very important point in his program). A lot of this info is also on his web site: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/. He has also a book specifically on marathoning.
Other
Brad Kearns: Can you make a living doing that?	Mostly an entertaining read. Brad tells about his adventures as a pro triathlete.
Jim Taylor: Prime Sport -- Triumph of the Athlete Mind	Once you start getting a bit mental about your sport..
Joann Dahlkoetter: Your Performing Edge	See above. Just kidding. These books talk about the importance of psychological training and the proper mindset if you want to make progress and -- gosh -- win. It's a lot about motivation, drive, coping with obstacles etc. etc. A lot of the material in these two books does not relate only to triathlon or even just to sports but could be used in everyday life...