The Day Before Your First Triathlon

As I sit here on the eve of my first ever triathlon, I am experiencing a mixture of feelings. Mostly I’m excited and restless, a bit like a kid just before Christmas. I have paid good money to enter this event and trained hard for months after all and it’s nearly time for the off. I’m also pretty nervous and my bowels have taken on a mind of their own! Will my training have been adequate? Are my goggles going to fill with water right at the start and ruin the entire swim? What about getting in and out of transition areas successfully? There are so many unanswered thoughts running through my head. A bit of reading online though suggests that this roller coaster of emotions is pretty normal on the run up and especially the day before you first triathlon. Let’s explore how you should best spend this day.

Time To take It Easy

The day before your first triathlon is no time to cram in a last training session. You’ve left it way too late if you still feel this is needed. Instead you should have had an easier week and a taper leading into the event. After researching taper weeks intensely, I have lowed my training time for seven days, but maintained some of the intensity just to keep me sharp. Other than a thirty minute easy spin on the turbo yesterday, the previous two days have been very easy indeed.

I’ve also tried to stay off my feet whenever possible, which has actually been quite enjoyable. Being on the teacher summer holiday at the moment has helped with that of course!

Recon The Course

If you’ve got the day free, then you might want to visit the location of where the event will take place. This is especially easy if it is fairly local to you like mine is.

I have received the information pack, but still felt cycling the route, seeing the transition area and where I will swim and run would help. It did.

Riding the cycling route was particularly helpful. I now know the terrain of the course, the varying road surface and where to ease off and push hard right on the first lap. I wouldn’t have known any of this without visiting and may have gone too hard on the first lap.

For me personally, the cycling leg is probably my strongest and where I will make up most time on other competitors. Knowing the course beforehand and checking the bike one last time has put me in the best position to perform well.

Complete An Opener Session

This can be done on the recon ride or even on a turbo trainer if you so desire. There are of course very mixed views when it comes to activity the day before a race. Some insist you should do nothing to arrive as fresh as possible, while many others claim that a short session with a few efforts thrown in can prime the muscles for what is to come.

As a keen time triallist for many years, I always tried to complete an opener session before a race. For me at least I always seemed to go better if I’d done this compared to if I’d not. Make of that what you will. It is up to you what you decide to do and I guess you could experiment with both approaches over different events to see what works for you.

Check Your Kit

I decided to write down everything I needed and then laid it out on the floor in front of my race bike. You don’t want to forget anything of course, so it’s worth checking it and then checking it again just to be sure.

In short, here is the equipment I will be bringing with me for my first triathlon tomorrow:

• Race bike with two water bottles attached.
• Giro Aerohead cycling helmet.
• Cycling shoes with socks to change into.
• Calf guards in case I want to use them.
• Track pump to inflate tyres to the correct pressure at the event.
• Tyre levers, CO2 inflator and multi-tool just in case of a mechanical emergency.
• A spare inner tube in case of a puncture.
• Wet suit
• Swim hat
• Goggles
• Tri suit
• Race belt
• 4 gels and electrolyte tablets for fluid.
• Protein bar for recovery straight after the event.
• Garmin Forerunner Watch to track pace on running.
• Garmin Edge on the bike to track speed and power.
• Lubrication stick to apply before putting race suits on.
• Sunglasses to put on for the run.

I hope that is everything I could possibly need. You always worry you’ve forgotten something, but that should do it.

It is worth also just checking the state of your tyres and bolts on your bike today too. Much better to have that all sorted now rather than rushing it in the morning or even worse finding out too late when out on the course.

Nail Your Nutrition & Hydration

This is very important if you want to be competitive or at least go as well as you possibly can during your first event. Even sprint events are likely to use a fair bit of energy and this only increases as the distances do. My first event tomorrow is an Olympic distance and so I expect to be out on course between 2.5 and 3 hours. That’s a greater duration of time than when I used to race fifty mile TT’s. You need to be properly fueled. I’ve done lots of reading about myself and found this article particularly useful. Feel free to check it out.

Get To Bed Early & Try To Relax

Easier said than done if you are feeling anything like I currently do. You are likely to have an early start though, so it’s worth getting to bed a bit earlier if at all possible. It probably won’t be too much of a problem if you can’t though. I found when bike racing that adrenaline alone would keep me going. A big crash if it happened always occurred after the event. You’ll be fine.

Some Final Words…..

Best of luck to you if you reading this the day before your first triathlon. I wish I could travel a day into the future to guarantee you it will all be fine, but honestly it will be. Even if something does go a bit wrong, it’s your first try, so mistakes are inevitable. Just enjoy the experience, soak up the atmosphere and learn lots along the way. Time to smash it up……