Triathlon Basics

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Lesley Williams
 

Lesley Williams has competed in many triathlons, from “mini” triathlons all the way to the grueling IronMan competition.  In addition, she has run five marathons worldwide, including Antarctica!  She is also a member of the Los Angeles Triathlon Club.

Triathlon Basics

Lesley Williams, IronMan triathlete, teaches you how to train for a triathlon, including what triathlons are and the various types of triathlons, all the gear required, training and nutrition tips, gear and safety tips for each event and the all-important transitions, and what to expect on race day.

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Transcripts

Leslie Williams: Hi, I am Leslie Williams, a triathlete and I am teaching you how to train for a Triathlon. Want to go over a little bit of general information about what a Triathlon is? It is swim and then a bike and then a run. A Triathlon always starts with the swim and then you would run through transition area and you get on to bike, you do the bike segment and you come back to the transition area and go out on the run and then you hit the finish line. Very very fun event. There are different kinds of Triathlon, one of the most popular kinds is the International or Olympic Distance that is a 1.

5 km swim, a 40 km bike and a 10 km run. Anything less than that is referred to as a Sprint, there is no set sprint distance, anything less than an Olympic Distance. There is also the Half Iron Man and that is a 1.

2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.

1 mile run, then there is a Full Iron Man also referred to as a Full Triathlon and that is a 2.

4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.

2 run also known as a Marathon. There are several different kinds of Triathlons, there is On Road which is probably the most popular kind of Triathlon and there is also Off Road Triathlon which is commonly referred to as an XTerra and those have slightly different distances. There is the Sport Distance which is 500 meter swim, a 15 km mountain bike ride and a 5 km trail run. There is also the Championship Distance which is very similar to the Olympic Distance in the On Road Triathlon, that is a 1.

5 km swim, a 30 km bike ride, mountain bike ride and a 10 km trail run. There are also a lot of benefits to Triathlon that dont necessarily happen on race day, you do a lot of training you are going to get really fit, you are going to need a lot of other really great people who are outdoorsy and you want to spend time with them. Triathlon is a very, very social event and you get a lot of benefits out of that and it's a really healthy culture to get involved in. Next we are going to talk about how to take the race and how to train for the race that you have chosen.

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