Jake Vita: My First Triathlon in 90 Days

September 20, 2023

90 days to get myself ready and in shape for a sprint triathlon? What could go wrong? Somehow though, I’ve managed to get myself into this situation after taking a little step back from the road/crit racing that I have been doing for the last few years…

It started when my girlfriend, who is a triathlete, recently offered me a free ticket to do a sprint triathlon in my hometown of Brighton and Hove, to which I initially laughed and said “No way!” after having spent the last 3 years mocking her for the ankle socks, peeing on the bike, and the fact that she runs and swims, instead of just rides a bike… Fast forward a few days and I am confirmed as entered into the Brighton and Hove Sprint Triathlon, having done no swimming since I was in secondary school (which was at a PE level of technique to get me through the odd sports day) and no running in the last 3-4 years after last doing “5 for 5k” during the pandemic.

As a kid I had trained a fair bit on the bike, moving from competitive climbing to cycling at 11 years old, not to mention the mandatory sports my boarding school had me doing 6 days a week for 7 years, including Lacrosse, rugby, cricket, cross-country and more. After quite a few years I found myself racing at a high level on the track up in Manchester, frequenting training sessions with the GB lads and coaches. Sadly though, after a family loss, I moved my efforts away from cycling, to boxing, of which I spent 6-7 years competing at a regional level here in the UK and at a national level in Germany whilst living out there. The pandemic, however, led me back to my roots of two wheels, and now… to triathlon!

The first step in tackling this new endeavour was to reach out to people that knew more than me, and to tap into all the info I could possibly get… My TikTok feed since has become just swimming technique videos and David Goggins telling me to go for a run and to “carry the logs and the boats”

I reached out to a few brands initially, to muster up some support and also a pool of knowledge to tap into; and not only did ZONE3 get back to me, but they were incredible in offering up not only a partnership with the kit but also people that I could ask and learn from too – which has been truly invaluable.

So far, I am about 20 days into this journey, so ¼ the way through until the big day, and I am genuinely really enjoying the multi-discipline nature of this training, albeit very time-consuming! I have only ever done one sport at a time, whether it be Track Cycling as a junior, Boxing through my 20’s, and then back to road cycling very competitively at 25. 100% the hardest bit so far has been the swimming, due to it being so heavily technique based, but I am making sure I am giving my all when it comes to learning and taking on board feedback. Really excited to report back soon and update on the progress.