If you're about to enter your first triathlon and you don't want it to be as spectacular
a disaster as I had in my first race, stick around and I'm going to tell you the three
biggest mistakes I made and how you can avoid them,.
During my first two years in triathlon I made just about every single mistake that you could
make: too much, carb loading, not enough training, bad training, improper training, bad swimming,
not enough swimming, it was terrible and I looked like an idiot race after race after
race.
My very first race was a try-a-tri that last 39 minutes.
And in that 39 minutes I made just about every single mistake that a rookie triathlete could
make.
These three mistakes are the easiest ones that I could have avoided and here's how you
can avoid them.
The first mistake that I made happened long before the race, and it happened when I bought
my first bike.
I thought that I was going to be a genius and just buy a basic road bike, strap on some
aerobars.
Here's the problem with that, when you pay full retail price for an entry level road
bike nobody wants to buy it because it doesn't have any features two years later that everyone's
looking for.
So when I tried to sell it, it wasn't happening it was basically worthless.
"Hey man, you want to buy this bike?
I've only used it for two years."
"I don't know, maybe, how much you want for it?"
"Well I paid $1500, for it.
It's pretty much brand new."
"I'll give you five dollars."
You're much better off doing one of a few things: one, just use whatever you've got,
it's ok to use a mountain bike, or a hybrid bike, or whatever bike your buddy has that
you're allowed to borrow for your first race.
Or if you actually want your own racing bike, just get something off of Craigslist, or Kijiji,
or a buy and sell.
Don't pay a lot for your first bike, and don't pay retail because it's not going to be long
until you realize that you want something better, and you want to be able to resell
that thing for somewhat close to what you paid for it.
Nobody's going to the Olympics in your first race, your just getting into the sport.
Don't be like me.
Second mistake that I made is I think the biggest mistake of any first time racer.
The night before the race I thought that I needed to carb load:
"Eat two pounds of fettuccine alfredo, I've got a race tomorrow of course I need to do
that."
The morning of the race, I thought that I needed to carb load.
"Race starts in two hours, I better get down this entire box of Rice Chex."
During the race, which lasted thirty nine minutes, I thought that I needed to carb load.
"Water.
Gatorade, yep.
Energy gel, yep.
It's a thirty nine minute race.
Yep, I need some carbs, I'm cramping really hard."
And how did that end up, not very well.
Your first couple triathlons are probably going to be shorter races that last maybe
one to three hours, you don't need to be piling on five pounds of fettuccine alfredo the night
before because you gotta make that go away somehow, and if by the time the race comes
around you haven't got rid of it, you aren't going to have a very pleasant time getting
to that finish line.
It's gonna hurt.
You actually need to eat a hell of a lot less than you think.
I'll throw a link up here and in the description below for another video that I did that'll
guide you through how much you need to eat the day before, and how little you need to
eat the morning of and during the race.
The third rookie mistake that I made in my first race was thinking that if I swam a lot,
and I biked a lot, and I ran a lot I was going to be able to swim bike and run.
And I did zero, ZERO, bike and run brick workouts.
Terrible plan.
That moment when you hop off the bike and all of a sudden you have to start running
again is one of the worst moments of any first time triathletes lives.
Because your legs turn to jelly.
"Of the bike starting to run and AHHHHHHHHH!"
This one's a really easy one to fix, in the weeks leading up to the race maybe do five
or six brick workouts where you do a bike followed by a short run just to teach your
legs how to turn themselves over.
If you don't do this, it's your own funeral and you;re going to be doing the frankenstein
walk for the rest of the run.
We want to have fun in triathlons we don't want to suffer through them.
Again, I'll throw a link up here and in the description below to a video that I put together
about how to get the most out of your brick workouts.
Those are the three biggest beginner triathlon mistakes that I made in my first race, probably
into my second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth race.
It took me a long time to figure out this sport.
So I hope that you take this advice, apply it to your first triathlon if you're just
getting into the sport.
And I hope that you have a much more pleasant time than I had in my first race.
Good luck with your training and getting into triathlon.
It's a fantastic sport.
And kill your next A-Race.