Question:
Can anyone recommend ONE good beginner's
triathlon book? something that is
fun to read AND informative. just
enough to get me set up with the
basic skills, knowledge and equipment
to do a sprint tri. i looked at
a few different books today; some
looked far too technical for a newbie
like me (like a huge one called
something like the triathlete's
bible), while others were too skimpy.
If the sport grabs me, then I'll
get into that stuff.
Ipicked up
Triathlon 101, by John Mora. It
cost more than some of the others,
but it looked pretty good. I also
grabbed the lastest copies of two
tri magazines, any other suggestions
would be much appreciated. I shouldn't
think that more than one or two
books would be necessary . and there
MUST be something good on the web
to help me out.
Answer:
If I could offer but one piece of
advice, it would be to take swimming
lessons (uming you aren't already
a good swimmer). Swimming is the
most skill dependent of the three
sports and by a lot. I swam on my
own for a while, then signed up
for things at my local YMCA - first
an 'advanced' swimming cl, where
they worked on all the different
strokes and taught us some basic
practice ideas, then private lessons
for a year with a former competitive
swimmer. Between the two I made
quite a transformation, from someone
who could kinda sorta swim a mile
without stopping to someone who
everyone now comes up to and asks
me if _I_ used to be a member of
the swim team!
The first
book I bough was Endurance training
for the serious athlete. Great book,
but not too fun The other I would
recommend is the triathletes training
bible. You can get the triathletes
training bible and total immersion
for $26.00 at Amazon right now.
They have a special running if you
buy them both at once. Amazon also
has the option to buy it used if
they have it.
Heed my advice
on swimming, take it to heart because
you can get into more trouble during
the swimming leg than any other
portion of a tri. The only thing
I would add is that if your race
will include open water swimming,
practice in open water a lot. There
are psychological and physiological
differences between the pool and
a lake or bay. Not to mention the
chaos of tens to hundreds of other
athletes
all trying for the same finish line.
As a former competitive swimmer
I have helped several tri-athletes
with their strokes (you really only
need two, the crawl and dog paddle)
and I still remember the very first
one who balked when confronted with
that cold, dirty lakewater.
