Heather: It's the GTN show. Welcome back. Can you remember your first triathlon? Or
maybe you haven't done one yet. If so, you're in luck because today, I'm going to be sharing
some of the things that myself and the rest of the team wish we had known before we stood
on the start line of our first event. We've also got plenty of your photos, race news,
and tri news to share with you. [music]
Heather: Hindsight is an incredible thing. Just imagine if we knew what was coming up.
That's why I am delighted to share with you today, the things that Mark, Fraser and I
wished we had known before we went and did our first triathlon. For me, it's not actually
that long ago and I can still remember. The first one I want to start with is the swim
factor. Open water swimming in a mass group is unsurprisingly incredibly different to
pool swimming. If you do all of your training indoors, you can have a little bit of a shock
when it comes to open water. I'm not trying to put you off here, but learn from this and
make sure you get some practice in, beforehand. I was a little bit ignorant to this when I
came from a strong swimming background, and just thought I'd rock up to my first triathlon
and swim in a group. It was a little bit of a shock to the system, to say the least. Also,
practice with a wetsuit because it does feel entirely different. If you haven't done open
water before, you'll be pleased to hear that a wetsuit makes everything feel different,
but actually, a little bit better and a little bit easier because you do float that much
more easily. Again, practice with that, and swimming in groups. Maybe at the moment with,
obviously, social distancing, you can't quite get so close.
Before you do have a race, if you've got one coming up later this season, then try to get
some practice in swimming in some groups, or at least getting a friend swimming right
in front of you or beside you, so you just get that feeling of being close together.
It's something that pool swimming doesn't replicate. We've also got the good old jelly
legs. You might have practiced and done loads of training in swimming, cycling and running
separately, but when you put them together, it's a little bit different, going from horizontal
in the swim to suddenly running to your bike, and then getting onto the bike is a really
odd sensation. It's worth practicing that beforehand.
It's not so easy maybe to practice the swim to bike, but just practice coming out of the
water and trying to jog across the car park, or wherever it is you are swimming just to
get that idea. Then it's the bike to the run that really gives that more longer-term feeling
of jelly legs. You will be pleased to know that it does feel really, really odd to start
with, but that feeling does improve. If you start, you're running your triathlon and you're
thinking, "Oh my goodness, what am I doing?" it will get better. Also again, back to this
one practice will help. Brick sessions aren't fun, but they will pay
off, and even if it's just a mental preparation of knowing what to expect, and it also helps
with physical preparation. Your legs will just be slightly more adapted to it.
Lubrication is key in triathlon. This was one that I didn't know. Having done all of
the events separately, I didn't really have an issue with garments rubbing. Add to that,
especially in long distance events, some sweat, maybe lake water or even worse, sea salt water,
then it's amazing how wearing one garment for three different sports can add areas of
chafing that you just never expected. Any areas that could potentially even give
you the slightest of rub, I would recommend putting some lubrication on there, whether
it's your shorts, your top, even your feet for when it comes to the run for your trainers,
that just needs protecting. It's better to be safe than sorry, and you want to be, obviously,
comfortable when it comes to your event. Now on to kit and, obviously, it's one of the
problems with triathlon. We do need a lot of kit and it can be quite daunting. You don't
have to have the top level kit, but you do have to have kit that's working.
Thoroughly check everything beforehand, especially your bikes. You don't want any extra stresses
on the day with things breaking or going wrong. If you can have spares or things like goggles,
then again, that just takes away any potential problems that might happen on the day. It
means you're ready to deal with anything. Comfort is key in triathlon and something
that put me off the sport for a little while. Because I used to train with some triathletes
and I'd see them going out for a run from the pool, or running around the pool in their
swimsuits. I just thought, "I am definitely not riding a bicycle or going for a run in
my swimsuit." However, you don't have to. You might have seen the Olympics and thought,
"Oh my goodness, that's what you have to wear." You'll be pleased to hear that whatever distance
you're doing, you can actually get changed between each discipline if you prefer. Tri
suits have come a long way and they're a really comfortable garment that's flattering, and
you can find one to fit you. To start with, if you're just going to do a racing, you're
not sure if you want to invest in a tri suit, you could either maybe see if you could borrow
one. Again, you can change into different parts for the three disciplines, especially
on longer distance races, you'll see that happening more often.
The final two points that I didn't really realize is triathlon is such a community sport.
If you're really nervous going to your first triathlon, then do not worry because the triathlon
community is just there to look out for each other. That's one thing that I certainly was
pleasantly surprised at my first event, as everyone was just really happy to help and
give any advice. Just ask, let people know you're doing your first triathlon. They'll
be delighted to give you any advice and welcome you. Finally, that feeling of endorphins you
get after each event, I really didn't expect to have such a great feeling of accomplishment.
You'll be pleased to hear, if you have done one triathlon, that doesn't end. It's like
an injection of endorphins. That's why I think our sport is so addictive. Anyway, that's
mine and the team's experiences. If you've done a triathlon more recently, or done your
first triathlon more recently in the last, or can remember anything distinct from your
first one, let us know in the comment section below. Hopefully, we can share that to others
who haven't yet done a triathlon, or maybe have just done one or two, what they could
learn or be prepared for in the future. You do that in the comment section below.
[music] Heather: On to Tri News now. I know there's
been some incredible challenges and fundraising attempts during lockdown. Obviously, we can't
cover them all, but there's another recent one that caught my eye is 10-year-old Jonathan
Collacott, who is targeting to cover 480 kilometres in the form of a triathlon to get himself
from his home-- This is all virtually, obviously, from his home to Paris in France. He lives
in Windsor in the UK. He's already gone about the run to get him to the coastline. That
was a total of 150 kilometres of running. He's been doing this since April.
He's then swam already 34 kilometres to get across the English Channel. He did this in
open water swimming without a wetsuit, doing sessions between one and a half and two and
a half kilometres, which I think is just utterly incredible. He's currently cycling 290 kilometres
to get the rest of the way to the capital of France in Paris. He's doing all of this
to raise money for the children's charity, NSPCC, and then when I last looked, I think
he'd raised over £1000. Great work by Joshua. That open water swimming is what's impressed
me the most. Anyway, moving on to racing news. IRONMAN
VR, you might have noticed had a little hiatus, a little break this weekend. They've had two
weeks off, but they are back with the next block of eight weeks, another eight races
of IRONMAN VR. There's a few changes. They're doing it in two blocks of four weeks at a
time, and this is for the championship series. Within this, each four-week block is going
to be highly regulated, because athletes will be able to earn slots for the 70.3 World Championships.
As a result, all the races will be either Olympic or 70.3 distance.
A slightly more relaxed format, if you're not trying to qualify for the World Championship,
there's the IRONMAN VR Classic Division, that's basically the same but without such strict
rules. You can do it with your equipment that maybe doesn't fit those rules, and also on
your own platforms if you want to. Then finally, there's the VR Challenger Division, which
is again, more relaxed level, but it's still community-based and you're doing an event
each week. Moving on to some news, it's all related or
brought about thanks to Challenge Roth, which sadly didn't happen but would have been last
weekend. One athlete who was planning to race there as his final ever race was Luke McKenzie.
He has instead announced his retirement after 27 years of competing in triathlon, 23 of
those as a pro, an incredibly impressive career with several victories to boot. We wish him
the best of luck with his future ventures. We're still going to see him in the triathlon
community, but just a shame he didn't get to go out at Roth in style. Like I said, no
doubt we'll see him around at events. It isn't just Luke McKenzie who was missing
Roth, Jan Frodeno put up a post just rethrowing back to the race from previous years, and
saying what an epic environment it is, and just really what triathlon is about. Lucy
Charles and Laura Siddall also putting posts up over the weekend, and I think a few others
as well. It just shows how athletes are missing the racing, but also missing that community
side of things. Others are getting ready to race. Kristian
Blu and his fellow Norwegians have started to change their focus now on actually tuning
up, and they've been doing their first ever swim, bike and run replication race already.
Just getting the mind into that different set of rather than just doing the training
in separate disciplines, and taking it further than a brick session. It looks like they are
getting ready. Kristian says here, "Seems like European Championship will be at the
end of August, and the Norwegian team will be ready." We look forward to seeing them
race, if that does go ahead. We've also got the Super League event starting
again soon, just for the pros at the end of this month. It's quite exciting to see some
of that coming back very soon. Someone, though, who's probably rather relieved that this season
is taking a little bit of a slower start is Sebastian Kienle. You might have seen on his
social that he has broken his collarbone. However, he's not hanging around. He's already
got his eyes back on getting in the saddle. He's on Zwift and already training hard. He's
got enough physio tapes to keep him in there, keep everything in check, I think. That collarbone
has been plated, so he'll be able to get back soon. but we wish him well too.
[music] Mark: Now for the race news. I'm going to
talk us through the latest virtual race news from this past week. We did not have any Ironman
virtual racing this week. It's had a week out due to commence again next week. Also,
the Super League Triathlon series has come to a close but we did have the Z Pro Tri-Series
which certainly filled the void because it was extremely exciting in this finale. The
final round of this latest four-part series in which riders could collect points towards
a GC standing, it's General Classification standings. Not only do they get points from
their finishing place but also from intermediate sprints.
Now on the men's side, it is Lionel Sanders that has been leading that quite convincingly,
although he's not actually won a race to this point. He's just been obviously very tactful
and collecting those intermediate sprints. James Cunnama was also in the top three although
unfortunately he had a technical issue leading into this race and could not take part. The
race itself it was Lionel Sanders, Alistair Brownlee, and Antony Costes that quickly established
a gap on the rest of the field. Alistair seemed very keen to push the pace
and put the hurt on but unfortunately, he also suffered a dropout or some sort of technical
issue. It seemed like Lionel took that opportunity, pushed on, dropped Antony Costes, established
a bigger gap yet again. He took the win by about a minute to Antony Costes. Then in third
we had Kenneth Vandendriessche. On the women's side, well it was mainly more
Lucy Charles-Barclay and Ruth Astle that also gained a gap quite quickly on the rest of
the field. In typical Lucy fashion, she also pushed on, dropped those to at around seven
and a half K. Teresa Adam came storming through passing both Melanie Maurer and Ruth Astle
in hunt of Lucy. That gap came down to around 30 seconds at one point but in the closing
stages, Lucy pushed on again and pushed it out to around 39 seconds. Teresa Adam taking
second place and then Melanie Maurer in third. Let's run us through the final standings for
the Z Pro Tri Series. On the men's side, it was Lionel Sanders that took the overall standings,
Antony Costes in second and Mike Phillips in third. Just a shout to James, still in
seventh place despite not actually having a finishing place or any points in the final
race. Then on the women's side, it was Teresa Adam that took that win so well done to her
for pushing on as well and taking that second place in that final race. Lucy Charles-Barclay
in second and then Jocelyn McCauley in third. [music]
Mark: Now, I'm going to take a look through some of your fabulous photos that you guys
have been sending in to us and at least stay tuned until the final one of these because
it is pretty darn cool. The first one from Peter from Brighton, this is his Trek Emonda
ALR 5 with some modifications propped up alongside the fence. He said, "when I was exploring
in the wind, it was so strong while I was taking this shot, it blew the bike over."
If that was this weekend I know what you're on about because it was flipping windy.
He's got, if we zoom on in here, some Q rings one there, some Token wheels, he's got a rear
hydration system which I must say extends very far off the back of that saddle. You
must have to reach around a lot for that one. We've got a bento box on there. Then hey,
I see what you've done here. You've got bar tape on your aero bars which matches your
frame. Good work there, looks very nice. The next one from Stephan from Hatfield and
he said, I've got this bike on the cycle scheme program which is a Norco Indie 2019 model.
He said he was just on the IRONMAN VR12. Finished with the time of 5:41:57 229th out of 442
in his age group which he is understandably very pleased with because that is a very good
go. He's been struggling with injuries but he's just resorted back to his original position
on the bike and he is good as Larry. Brilliant work there Stephan, well done on that finish.
The next one from James and this is from Vancouver in Canada. He sent through his pain cave.
He said in the summer, it gets so hot in here, it turns the pain cave in to what he calls
a cook nook. A bit of advice here because I have a similar issue where my pain cave
is which is the kitchen, get a couple of fans because it makes a world of difference. Maybe
three if you can and open that window as much as you can. Maybe just get rid of the windows
in the summer. Yes, that looks like a brilliant little designated pain cave or cook nook as
you call it. Finally, we've got this. A pretty darn impressive
one. This is from Devendra and this is from Pune in Maharashtra in India. He said he signed
up for Ironman talent just before lockdown was announced. He said this set up got him
through and he's managed to get his training in. He's got this treadmill, he's got a Wahoo
Kickr Core, I believe there with the Trek Emonda SL5 on there, he's got a rowing machine
and some sort of I think that's a crunch machine, I'm not too sure but it doesn't stop there.
If you're not impressed enough by that and the floor which is incredible we have this,
his gym which well, you've got everything you could ever dream of there. It appears
he's a very big Liverpool fan. We've got the liver birds up on the wall there. Also, if
you zoom in, we've got a little signed, I don't know who it's been signed by, it says
you'll never walk alone which is obviously the Liverpool slogan. I'm very impressed.
We'd love to know more details about that so please, get involved in the comment section
below if Devendra, if you're watching this. Yes, please do. Keep sending through all your
pain caves. You can find the link for that uploader on screen right now or in the description
below. [music]
Female Speaker: It's now time for caption competition. Last week we had this photo of
Sebastian Kienle grabbing his water bottle. We've got three runners up and a winner. The
first one up comes from James Simmons with such Kienle attuned senses, Sebastian didn't
even need to look at the road ahead. Cian Moloney Coach's report says, "Strong pull
and exit, but legs are still sinking." Yes, you'd hope that you wouldn't be in that position
in the water, wouldn't you? David Bannister, our final runner up, did nobody tell him there
was no baton in a tri relay? The winner this week goes to Ian Moffatt.
He'll be winning a GTN cap with this caption, "Clavicle surgery went well but there were
some side effects." It's even the same arm actually, Ian so very observant of you. Congratulations,
if you get in touch with us we'll send you a GTN cap. Now, for your chance to win a cap
next week, we have this photo of Peter Siddle the former Australian fast bowler who is training
for triathlon during lockdown. Make sure you share any of your suggestions with us.
That is a conclusion for this week's show. There's still plenty of videos this week,
including one I'm quite excited to see. It's Mark coming up with his ultimate triathlon
shoe. Now, I'm not sure how serious to take that one but one that is a little more serious
coming up later it's five ways to test your aerodynamics. If you are into your running
at the moment, you will be pleased to hear we have restocked our shop with our running
t-shirts so check them out. The link should be on the screen any time soon.
[unintelligible 00:17:06] links on the screen, find that globe to subscribe. Give us a like
if you've enjoyed this video. Before you go, a couple of videos you might like to take
a look, one is how to carry your phone when running. You can find that just down here.
If you've been having some problems with your feet, taking maybe your new pair of trainers
or something you want to know how to look after your feet, listen to tips from Mark
just here. [00:17:26] [END OF AUDIO]