The many disciplines of triathlon

When I tell people I’m a triathlete, they always ask the same questions:

1. How many disciplines does triathlon have?
2. In what order are the disciplines?
3. What are the distances?

They usually get the first one right. It’s 3, from the word ‘tri’. And they also know that it is swimming, cycling and running.

The order of the disciplines is more of a mystery to most. People often think you end with swimming. I think they argue that since you’re wet, you probably won’t do any sports after that. Anyone who has done a triathlon knows that this is not very logical.

Running, for example, is very simple. You just put on your shoes and go. So there is a practical reason to end with such a simple discipline. But the main reasons are safety and physiology. Running is the hardest on the body and can really stress your legs. Cycling after that, and certainly swimming in open water, would not be the safest way.

Then there is the question about the distances. Often it’s thought that there is only one distance (Ironman). However over the years several distances were created:

Besides the above listed there are a few other distances like youth triathlon, which is mostly half a sprint, and 2/3 triathlon (1,5km swimming, 66 km cycling, 14 km running). Personally I like the 2/3 distance, but you don’t see it very often.

Most common are the Sprint and Olympic distance. In practice, they are the easiest to organize, and best trainable when you do a lot of other stuff in your life. Like working. I blogged about this in 2019 when I did one of my first triathlons.

The Olympic distance is a bit of a strange distance, it’s not really a quarter of an Iron Man, but the Olympic committee made the swimming distance longer and the cycling and running distances a bit shorter to make the time each event takes a bit more balanced.

Really a decathlon?

When you tell people what distances you do, there are two kinds of reactions. One is, “Wow, are you doing a sprint, how in the world can you swim 750 meters and then do two other events”. The other reaction is “Are you doing only half a triathlon? When are you going to do the ‘real’ distance?”

Often, Olympic distance sounds more impressive than half triathlon, just because they hear the word half. My own experience is of course a bit different :)

Then there’s something people don’t normally ask because they just don’t know. It’s the fact that triathlon, despite its name, has more than three disciplines:

1. Transition: In a competition, you have to transit from one discipline to another. From swimming to cycling and from cycling to running. When you get out of the water, sometimes still a bit dizzy, you have to run to the transition zone, take off your wetsuit, put on your helmet, run with your bike out of the transition zone and get off the bike. Riding in the transition zone or getting on the bike without a helmet will result in immediate disqualification. All organizations are very strict about this. Whether transitions are taken very seriously depends a bit on your ‘race mode’. As an amateur I usually take it easy, but the pros jump on the bike and put on shoes while riding. There are a lot of tricks that save a lot of time. It’s really a discipline on its own.
2. Rules and preparation: Triathlon has a lot of rules to keep it fair and safe. It’s not like running where you just put on your shoes and go. The last triathlon I did (Challenge Almere-Amsterdam) had a 62-page athlete’s guide. It has all the rules, like how to transition or keep your distance while cycling, how to register, where to put your bags, the course, aid stations and so on. Preparing everything before the race is an art on itself and I’m always unsure if I’ve forgotten something. That’s why I always have two swim goggles and register the day before if possible.
3. Finances: I have found triathlon to be a very welcoming sport, no matter what level you are at. Most triathletes know what it takes to do it and are very supportive. So not a lot of gatekeepers in the sport. What can put people off is money. It’s just not a cheap sport. Sure, the first time I raced I just took my dad’s classic road bike, but that is not common. Especially for the Iron Man distances you can easily see bikes for 10 thousand Euros. And then of course you need running shoes, goggles, a wetsuit, a trisuit, and several shirts and shorts for summer and winter training. Then there are the races themselves. Sprints are usually doable and cost around 50 Euros, but Iron Man can easily go up to 500 Euros.
4. Training: A lot of the distances, even the sprints, are just too long to do untrained. I see it a lot in running where people run a 10k or 10 miles relatively untrained and then “die” untrained. In triathlon I rarely see that, most are well prepared. Training can be fun, but you need a good weekly plan that you can easily find on the internet. The trick is to keep a good balance between the disciplines and to combine training from time to time. Before I started triathlon, I couldn’t imagine doing several sports in one day, but when your body is well trained, you are more capable than you think. It just takes time, a lot of time. But you can be very flexible, especially when you do individual training. I trained mostly on my own, except for open water swimming for safety reasons. How you train is up to you in the end. Race day is coming.
5. Diet and nutrition plan: One thing I really underestimated was food and drinking. For shorter distances, like a sprint, it’s not that big of a deal. You can eat relatively normal during the training week and don’t need to eat during the race. For longer distances, such as the Olympics or Ironman, a healthy diet focused on endurance becomes more important. You also need to train eating and drinking. When you are running for hours, your body needs to be hydrated and you need a lot of sugar. Some triathletes are very serious about that. I also made a nutrition plan, but I also just eat a Mars bar and some salty crackers to not just drink iso and eat gels.
6. Fitness: One discipline I kind of forgot about and found out the hard way was fitness. I found out when I went too fast too soon and injured my knee. Triathlon is an endurance sport, and running in particular puts a lot of stress on your body, feet, ankles and knees. You can prepare your body by training in zone 1 (low heart rate) to get your body used to it. It’s also recommended not to increase the time/distance between weeks by more than 10%. However, it will also help to do some strength exercises and work on your core stability. Not only will it improve your athletic performance, but it will keep you injury free. I’ve been injury free for 5 years now.
7. Take care of yourself: Even if you are injury-free, high-intensity training and racing can take a lot out of your body. You will be doing your body a favor by taking good care of it. The most important thing is to eat the right things. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat something like ice cream, but workouts are like building a solid house. Every time you eat the right thing, you add a solid brick to the house. Eating something bad doesn’t make the house fall over right away, but too much can make it shaky. Then you add things like massages and taking care of your feet. And sometimes a mental break by just relaxing and forgetting about triathlon for a while.

Together with swimming, cycling, and running, I already came up with ten disciplines. The name decathlon however is already taken.

I hope with this blog I have given you a little bit of the knowledge about triathlon. As I was writing this down, it did occur to me that triathlon has quite a lot of disciplines. Don’t let it scare you though. Yet you can start very small and not much is required. Fun, at whatever level you do, should always be the foundation. So go for a swim, a ride or a run, and enjoy the road.