Hey what's up guys Taren here today we're going to break it down to the very very basics
of triathlon and explain each of the Triathlon distances stick around so if you or a friend
have been thinking about doing a triathlon you might be wondering what distance to do
today I'm going to walk you through each of the Triathlon distances who does them how
long it takes and how to approach them the first and the shortest distance which lot
of people start out with is called a super Sprint or might be called a try a tri these
races are really really short, like really short this is what I started out with and
it really only takes in between about 40 and 60 Minutes the distances for this vary a lot
depending on the course but typically they're in the neighborhood of around 300 meters for
the swim maybe 13 kilometers for the bike and about three to five kilometers for the
run this is an excellent way to get into Triathlon and if you're starting from athletic background
at all I would definitely recommend starting with one of these types of races the next
longest distance to called a sprint Triathlon Sprint's are still short but they're like
normal short this is a 750 meter swim a 20-kilometer bike and a 5K run Pro triathletes are doing
this in around 52 minutes and the average age group athlete might take about an hour
20 minutes to an hour 30 minutes going up to about 2 hours this is a very good distance
to start out with as well because it's over fairly quickly you never get too far away
from the finish line so there's always people to help you if you need if you're thinking
about becoming a more competitive age group triathlete Sprint triathlons are very good
place to build your speed from I ended up doing Sprint triathlons for 3 years just to
build that base of really fast speed and I found that it helped a lot you don't have
to worry about nutrition and Sprint Triathlons and this distance is nothing to sneeze at
it's very difficult race to do because it is so quick your lactic acid really builds
in your body and it's up painful just not quite like beat your body down painful like
an Ironman it's painful in a different different way youth triathletes actually race this distance
and if you see the looks on their faces you know that this is no Cakewalk the next longest
distance is an Olympic triathlon Olympics just like a normal distance to me olympic
triathlons are a 1500 meter swim a 40K bike and then a 10k run this what you see in fittingly
the Olympics Pro triathletes are doing these in about an hour and 49 minutes the average
age group athlete might do it in about 2 hours and 40 minutes going all the way up to 3:45
almost 4 hours in some cases an Olympic distance Triathlon is still not a bad place to get
started in the sport because an Olympic distance Triathlon is getting a little bit longer than
those short distances you do have to worry about things like nutrition proper pacing
race strategy wether you go harder in one sport or another but then the nice thing about
the Olympic distance Triathlon is that your body has a lot of time to settle into each
sport so in some cases let's say you get off the bike and you're not feeling very well
and your body is cramping as you start the run you've got enough time to turn that around
and actually have a really good run if you can settle your body down and get into a nice
Pace so there's the opportunity for disaster but also the opportunity to fix problems if
they come up this distance of Triathlon is certainly one that you have to train for it
it's a lot harder just to go and enter it without training at all but it's right on
the edge of being able to get through it coming and cold the next longest distance is a half
Ironman or a 70.3 because it's 70.3 miles very sneaky branding half ironmans start getting
a little bit longer the total distance for a 70.3 half Ironman is a 1900 meter Swim a
90k Bike and then a half marathon 21.1 kilometers Pro triathletes will be doing half IronMans
in about 3 hours and 45 minutes and age group athletes can take probably in between five
and six hours on average this is where cutoff times start coming into play you have an hour
and 10 minutes to finish the swim five and a half hours past the start of the race to
finish the bike and eight and a half hours past the start of the race to finish the entire
race that's very generous and not a lot of people should ever have an issue coming into
that cutoff time this is the distance of triathlon where you really have to worry about the preparation
before you get to the start line all that said a lot of people that I talk to the step
up to the half Ironman distance absolutely love it they say it's their favorite distance
of triathlon it's probably the longest distance that you can go and still make it a race it's
not nearly as acutely painful as the Sprint and Olympic races it's painful in a different
way more in the aspect of managing your body making sure that you don't beat yourself down
But it's about as long as you can go in a race effort while still incorporating some
of the logistical issues of nutrition and training and Strategies it's fun in a sick
and twisted way the granddaddy of them all which has inspired many an M-Dot tattoo is
the Ironman distance race Ironmans are pretty long this is 3.8 kilometer swim a 180 kilometer
bike and a full Marathon 42.2 kilometer run it's horrible just horrible distance Pro triathletes
are now doing this distances quickly a seven hours and 45 minutes and the longest amount
of time that you can take because he got booted off the course if you don't finish it by midnight
is 17 hours that's right some people are doing a triathlon in the entire amount of time that
most of you are awake throughout the day this varies a little bit from race to race but
age group athletes are given about 2 hours and 10 minutes to complete the swim about
8 hours and 10 minutes to complete the bike about six hours and 30 minutes to complete
the Marathon the Ironman distance race is what you see on TV this what's held in Hawaii
at the Ironman World Championships in Kona this is a Big Kahuna of the races there is
a huge amount of planning that goes into racing and Ironman Triathlon as far as nutrition
getting to the race training for the race preparing for the race paying for the race
qualifying for the race registering for the race packing for the race acclimatizing for
the race and that all happens before you even have to worry about surviving the race so
there is an incredible amount of preparation that you have to get into and if you're doing
the Ironman distance Triathlon as your first race you crazy man that you might be thinking
that I'm done incorrect there are more distances of Distances of triathlon I gotta read these
out to a double Ultra Triathlon a triple Ultra Triathlon quadruple Ultra Triathlon a quintuple
Ultra Triathlon Deca Ultra Triathlon a Ten Days Triathlon a Double Deca Ultra Triathlon
and a triple Deca Ultra Triathlon these races are really far I'm gonna tell you about the
triple Deca Ultra Triathlon it's a 114 kilometer swim 71 miles a 5400 kilometer 3400 mile bike
ride and a 1260 kilometer 780 mile run seriously who's doing this I'll tell you was doing this
Marc Antoine-Buhold he's a Canadian by the way props it took him a 1800 and 9 hours 53
minutes and 32 seconds that 75 freaking days there you have those are the triathlon distances
and some of the nuances with each one of them if you've got any questions about them that
I haven't answered because I kept it really high level and skimmed through it as quickly
as I could by all means ask me in the comments below or hit me up on social media Snapchat
Instagram Twitter and Facebook it's all at A-Race Taren otherwise as always happy and
hard training and kill your next A-Race!