Any training benefits to doing an unofficial tri?

IMO, waste of time.  If you are new to tris then you shouldn't worry too much about transition time anyhow.  Plus, it would be really difficult --- where would you do the OWS? who would watch your bike/ running stuff when you were in the water? etc.

I think that if you have trained well you'll rock your sprints !

It can be if you do it properly. If you're going to do an OWS, then make sure you have a kayaker or other support craft. Don't just "do it", despite what Nike might tell you. You can have the kayak person watch your stuff when you're out zipping around.

Also, if the goal is to work on transitions, I'd be doing very short distances, and do it a few times.

Something like 150m swim (go hard), 5 mile bike (go hard), 1-2 mile run (go hard). Do that a couple times with good rest in between. You get a good workout, you can feel what it's like to come into T1 soaking wet with your HR doing backflips, trying to stuff your feet in your shoes when your thighs are on fire, etc.

But a full triathlon just to work on transitions, not digging that idea.

John

Edited by tkd.teacher 2009-04-17 3:05 PM

In the spring and summer I do my version of that. I don't have anywhere to swim in open water so I drive home from the pool (about 10 minute) and then do a bike/run brick.

Mine are usually oly length.  

Edited by Spin_Savvy 2009-04-17 3:24 PM

The logistics of it (how to secure my bike etc.) I wasn't worried about as my parents live on a small lake in the woods.  But your answers kind of back up what I was already thinking.  Just better to keep pushing myself on individual workouts and hope for the best on race day.

Thanks

My 1st Tri is this weekend (sprint), and I've done "sprint tri brick" on my own in practice (swim/bike/run same day/session).  I guess I did it mainly out of curiosity.  I'm an experienced endurance cyclist, but below ave runner, & rather poor swimmer.  Most coaching advice seems to be against doing regular "triple bricks", but I think doing 1 or 2 helped my self-confidence.

Given that this is your first tri, you might want to do one swim-bike brick just to see what it feels like to be on a bike right after the swim. Basically, just tack on a short bike after a regular swim workout. The bike doesn't need to be long; the goal is to make sure you're not dizzy or anything after the swim, which you really shouldn't be if you've been keeping up with swimming portion of your training plan. Other than doing it once, I find swim-bike bricks useless and I don't even bother doing these anymore.

You'll get a lot of different opinions on bike-run bricks. Again, you should do at least one so get the feel of how you're legs will react to running after being on the bike. In short, it will suck. But here again I've found the best way to minimize this shock is to ride lots. This way you'll build endurance to spare on the bike and have relatively fresh legs. I also find bike-runs bricks of no help although I may do one just as a test to see how I'm progressing in my training. If my legs feel like they have weights attached to them as I start the run, then I know that I need to bike more. Other people, however, swear by bike-run bricks as a training method. You'll just have to use your judgment on this and develop your own training style.

Interesting note: While I hardly do any bricks at all and find them useless, my wife swears by them, and she'll actually set up practice tris by bringing her bike to our pool and all that. In fact, a tri coach once told her that she should run after every ride, even if it's just a 5-10 minute run, and she follows this rule religiously. This it what works for her, and that's great. I prefer just building solid distances in each of the disciplines.

Edited by MikeTheBear 2009-04-18 12:47 AM

You might want to think about joining a club or group. My tri club has been doing some of this on Saturdays. We worked on swimming over the winter but now that tri season is on us we have been working on two or three disciplines each workout.