Here are a few tips for athletes that are new to triathlon. Of course, nothing beats actually doing a triathlon but there’s a few things to think about. There may be one or two tips that established triathletes would find helpful. Some of these tips have come from the Brownlee brothers. Others I have just learnt along the way. I think the most important thing to remember is at our club level this is an amateur sport. It is important to enjoy triathlon events and not to regard them as a job of work. For me a triathlon event was like Christmas Day.

1. Put loads of talcum powder in your cycle and running shoes. This will help you to get wet or sweaty feet into your shoes.
2. Use the cuffs of your wetsuit to cover your watch and timing chip. This will help you get off your wetsuit easily.
3. There are many special products on the market to lubricate your wetsuit and to stop chafing. You can use lots of body butter on your skin before you put on your wetsuit. It is very cheap, and it is water based. So, it will not harm your wetsuit. It will help your wetsuit move into the best position for swimming and will make it easier to remove in transition.
4. Tuck your zip cord into your swim hat. This will make it’s very easy to find the cord. Also, it makes it much harder for someone to accidentally pull it down at the start.
5. Get in the water early enough to warm up properly.
6. Don’t be at the very front of the wave before the start. Better to be in the middle where you can catch and draft another competitor for a while and the overtake. Think catch up, draft, overtake.
7. When you have put your wetsuit on, ask someone to pull up your wetsuit at the back towards your neck. This will give your shoulders more room to move easily.
8. In the last 100 metres of your swim think about where your bike is in transition.
9. As you exit the water put your goggles on your hat and unzip your wetsuit. As you run, take your arms out.
10. Put your bike into an easy gear as you rack your bike. It will be easier to pedal as you exit transition.
11. Use elastic bands to hold the pedals in a horizontal position. It will be easier to get your feet on the pedals and the pedals will not be flapping around as you run with your bike out of transition. This is especially useful if you already have your cycle shoes clipped to the pedals.
12. Put your helmet on the handlebars of your bike and put your glasses if you use them inside your helmet. This will ensure that you put your helmet on before you touch your bike. Don’t forget to fasten the helmet strap.
13. When you mount your bike on the racking, have the bike pointing in the direction of the exit.
14. At home, practise running with and mounting and dismounting your bike.
15. This might sound counter-intuitive but take your time in transition. Yes, you are in a race, but you need to do everything right first time. You do not want to be called back because you haven’t fastened your helmet for example.
16. If you wear socks, then use old stretched out socks that will be very easy to put on.
17. Use a brightly coloured or distinctive towel in transition to put your kit on. Layout your kit in the order that you will use it.
18. Similarly, some triathletes use distinctive bar tape on their bikes so that they are easy to find.
19. Have your bike serviced before a big event. That will be worth a couple of minutes.
20. Have a large plastic box at the far end of your towel to throw things like your wetsuit in.
21. As you are coming in to T2 on your bike select a lower gear to spin your legs and hopefully move some lactate. This will help prepare your legs for the run.
22. Put some ice cubes in your drink bottles. This will help keep your drinks fresh.
23. On the run, at a drinks station, take two cups of water, one to drink and the other to pour over yourself to cool down.
24. Some triathletes have a spare tube, levers and pump on their bikes or have some foam.
25. Take a spare tyre and tube with a pump and tyre levers with you to the event.
26. And above all ENJOY IT!