Any XTERRA Triathletes here?

Welcome to XTERRA! Which races are you planning on doing?

Do a ton of trails on the mountain bike. The better you are on a mountain bike, the better the race you will have. Sometimes folks jump into XTERRA without having ridden a mountain bike, and never want to do another race again. The XTERRA race itself is not the place to learn. If you have a local race series for mountain biking, consider doing some of those in addition to training rides in preparation for your XTERRA.

On a road bike you can coast and spin your legs and pace yourself easily. On the mountain bike you will need to get used to having your heartrate constantly spiking as you climb technical hills, get up over rocks, etc. It takes some getting used to.

Same thing with the trail running. Get out there and do some trails to get used to looking far ahead, negotiating rocks, etc.

For training, I follow one of the BT Olympic training plans, but substitute the longer rides and runs for mountain biking and trail running. I'll still do some of the rides on the trainer or the road, but the majority is on the trails.

Good luck!

Xterra tris are fun!

The biggest thing is the bike portion. Even if you never run trails, you could probably still run and be fine. The bike, not so much. While it was the funnest part of the race for me, it was definitely an eye opener. to get good, you have to bike trails.

good luck and have fun!

Thanks for all the responses, so it seems like I've got a good idea.  It also seems that the winter of spin classes is actually good for the MTB.  I don't ride on the roads so I do plan to put in a lot of trail time and even expect to make a trip to the location to test out those trails.  I've only been riding a few years, but I've put in a lot of hours on the bike during that time, and usually run a lot with my fiance so I figured I'd tri out an XTERRA.

 Other question.. if your starting fitness is better than the beginner oly plan, just start at my current minutes/mileage and increase from there?  At least for the bike and run blocks since I'm already swimming almost 2.5k on my long swims, but that's with rest between segments, warmups, kickboard etc...  Should I just work on improving my pace and reducing rest time on the long one?  From what I hear that's plenty distance. 

I'll be doing the Ex2 XTERRA in Flintstone MD

Oh yeah. I should also mention the people who design some of the XTERRA courses are crazy. What would normally be considered insane in a road tri is perfectly acceptable on an XTERRA course.

Fallen trees blocking the trail (like, oh, a dozen)? Climb over them. This is XTERRA.

Rainfall raise the water level of the lake, flooding the trail run course? Swim the trail run. This is XTERRA.

Boulders between your swim exit and T1? Best learn to scramble over rocks in a wetsuit. This is XTERRA.

Also, carry anything you'll need with you. Aid stations on the bike course can be rare. Be sure you can remove your own wetsuit as there are no wetsuit strippers at XTERRAs. But, they can be fun. Just depends on how you see it.

That actually looks like some fun.. well maybe not running through the flooded stream part.

I don't have to worry about a wetsuit, this location's water is usually warm enough that wetsuits aren't allowed. 

So should there be a cap in some of my distances/times, considering that if I increase my times by 10% on the weeks specified, I'll be eventually running/swimming 2 hours.  Or shoudl I just not worry about that since I'll be putting in some good time so it'll pay off in the end. 

The longest an XTERRA will be is 1500 m swim, 30K bike, and 10K run. No need to be going bonkers in training volume for a race that is that distance. That's like following the Ironman training plan for an Olympic distance race. Since the distances are shorter, the high intensity speed work will help.

I will agree with almost all of the comments on here.  My first tri ever was an XTERRA and I did it last year.  I will say, it was hard, but I had so much fun.  I am totally bummed I can't make it again this year.  I will say to get in a bunch of time on the bike.  The course I did (Uwharrie, NC) gave you everything you can ask for in a mtn. bike ride.  It had steeeeeeeeep, climbs, super fast downhills, root sections, rocky sections, everthing.  Again, the bike was a killer.  Swim was no different.  Run was a little different.  It was kind of hard to get into a rhythm with all of the starting, stopping, jumping, and ducking. 

Best of all, I met some great people.  I had one of the top professionals right next to me in transition and he could tell this was all new to me and even gave me tips to help setup and get through my transitions.  I saw another one of the pros stop and help a guy with a flat. 

Good times, that is what it's all about.

I'll be doing my first XTERRA tri this year - the one in Lincoln, NE on August 15.  Has anyone done it, and if so, how technical is the bike course?

Also, would you recommend using clipless pedals?  I have a set of pedals on my mtn bike that are two sided - one side is clipless, the other is not.  I guess that lets me have the option of either...

cool deal, this course is a 1200 (2 600m laps) swim, 15mile bike, and 5 mile run.

 I had been told that if I do a 1 mile non-stop swim for my long workout I'll be fine, and 10 miles is the most I'd need to run (at my current LSD pace, that's about 100 minutes).

So bringng my camelback MULE(I've got a first aid kit, pump, two tubes, extra chain, multitool) sounds like a good idea too.

Thanks for all the help!

I've done most of the western races, so I haven't done NE. But if you do a google search for that particular XTERRA race, you'll often find blogs with race reports.

If you are used to using clipless on a MTB, then go for it. XTERRAs usually  have a lot of climbing where the clipless help. If you are not used to handling obstacles on a MTB with clipless, then go with flats, but get the downhill flats. They are the big square ones with screws sticking out throughout the surface of the pedal. If you wear your running shoes, the screws will grip the bottom of the shoe really well. Just make sure you keep your legs clear of them when taking your foot off the pedal. They are known as "cheese graters."

I prefer a camelbak in XTERRAs. You don't have much time to take your hand off the bars and fish around for a bottle. The camelbak makes it so much easier to drink when you need to. Just strip it down to the bare bones and take out any stuff you won't need to help save some weight off your back. For races mine has:

• 2 CO2s and CO2 inflater head (the micro one from Genuine Innovations)
• Pump (always have as back-up in case I use up all the CO2s)
• tube
• patch kit with self-adhesive patches (no waiting for glue to dry)
• tire irons
• tweezers (easy removal of thorns)
• boot material (4 inches of old roadie tire)
• Quick link for chain (a MUST have!)
• Multi-tool with chain break
• cell phone

I would take out the chain in yours and replace it with the magic quick link. Chains are heavy to carry around.