begin triathlon at any age or fitness.
There’s no set or standard way to start triathlon and one of the great things about our sport is you can start at any age.
Personally I had a background in elite level swimming and running from a young age before I took up triathlon at 19, but many people start as children and increasing numbers of people take it up as a challenge much later in life.
As someone who has competed in triathlon professionally for nearly 20years and has been to 3 Olympic Games, my training and goals will look quite different to the first time triathlete but there is lots of common ground too.
We are all just trying to get as fit and fast as possible, with the time we have available to us, whether that’s 30hours a week as a professional or 5hours a week fitted around work, childcare and other responsibilities.
"We are all just trying to get as fit and fast as possible, with the time we have available to us."
Distance and time to train
As I'm putting together this beginner's guide to triathlon the first thing I would suggest thinking about when starting to train for a triathlon is the event that you would like to do.
Triathlon distances range from super sprint (400m swim, 10km cycle, 2.5km run) right up to long distance, aka Ironman (which is a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle, 42km run).
That’s a huge difference in distance and also in the time needed to train for each event.
Once you know which event you would like to do you can work backwards from the date of the event to work out how long you have to train for it. If you come from a relatively inactive background, it is definitely possible to complete a super sprint triathlon within a couple of months, but for an Ironman you may want to give yourself significantly longer than that, likely upwards of 6months to get ready for such a huge physical - and mental - challenge.
Personally I started at sprint distance (750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run) but my favourite distance is the Standard distance (sometimes called Olympic distance) and this is the distance I have spent most of my career training for.
The best place to start looking for an event is to go to the British Triathlon website and use their event finder to find something near to you or over the distance you are interested in.
From there you will either be able to enter directly or be taken to each events own website. You will also need to buy a membership to British Triathlon or purchase a Race Pass which essentially gives you a license to race.
Motivated to train
Once you have a race entered it can feel a bit daunting knowing that you have committed to something but it’s also often really helpful for your motivation to have an event you are working towards.
For me that was always for major events like World Championships, Olympic Games or Commonwealth Games but it doesn’t matter the level of the event - having a goal to work towards can be incredibly powerful and rewarding.
I would recommended trying to link up with friends or a local triathlon club (again, a quick search of the British Triathlon website will show you where your nearest one is) so that you have people to train with and help push you, motivate and keep you accountable.
It’s a lot harder to skip a session when you’re tired if you’ve agreed to meet up with someone. Perhaps most importantly, it’s much more fun with other people! I know that personally I have had many, many days where I felt a bit miserable and unmotivated, turned into great days because of the people I met up with to train.
There is no question that I met most of my closest friends through the sport of triathlon so I have many happy memories of pain shared, tough sessions completed, ridiculous training ride experiences or moments of uncontrollable laughter.
I’d also recommend looking for a coach. A coach can help you plan training around other areas of your life, highlight key training sessions, advise you on your equipment and nutritional needs and help with your goals and motivate you at tougher times, to name just a few of the perks of paying for a coach. Of course it is an expense many can’t afford so at the very least I would recommend looking online for, or purchasing, a generic training plan to use as a guide and then trying to do as much research as possible online to fill in the gaps.
equipment needed to start triathlon
Talking of expense, triathlon equipment isn’t cheap, but there are ways to do triathlon on a budget too.
You will need a bike and helmet, a trisuit and a wetsuit and a pair of running shoes as a bare minimum, but those things can be borrowed, hired or purchased second hand.
eBay and Facebook marketplace are always a great place to start! I wouldn’t recommend investing in expensive equipment until you are sure this is a sport you want to continue investing your spare time into long term.
Then feel free to burn through your hard earned cash on that beautiful carbon bike or super fast and flexible ZONE3 wetsuit!
