On Saturday i did my first ever triathlon and it was a bit of a disaster! After the 800 meters swim (open water) i got in the bike and felt ok and then when i hit the first hill all my energy suddenly left me! I just had nothing left.
I cycle mainly hard most days 20 miles, swim most weekends (not 4 times a week as i used to) so the sudden energy loss was a real eye opener. I did finish but could not fathom where my fitness had gone.

Anyone else had that experience?

Did you practise riding from swimming, or running off the bike.

What jam bo said , when I was thin and fit (pre an RTA that screwed my knee) I would bike to work and my running gear was always left out in the hall for me to get straight into when I got home . There was no open water in the area so that was harder but you can find ways , I used to chain my bike in the entrance to the pool. got a gobfull every time for getting the floors wet 😳

A lifestyle expert will be along to advise soon.

What’s your nutrition like?

Well I have practised going to the pool and then riding back – no problem there so far. But as jam bo mentions maybe its the sudden transition I need to look at.

I eagerly await the lifestyle expert!

Oh he’s here somewhere. 🙂

*waves at deadly – how’s Molly?*

*waves* she’s grand. Still very little though. I think her diet might need tweaking.

What jam bo said – bricks are normally required to make your body understand what is going on. Also, while it might feel a bit hard to do it is always a wise idea to ride the forst copuple of K at about 75% pace and then start to wind it up – stops you blowing yourself to bits.

Lol, I was trying to think of “bricks” but kept wanting to type “planks”. But yes, for the op, bricks are what you need.

Might be worth using an HRM in training and races to get a better idea of how hard you’re working. As NZ Col said it’s possible to blow yourself up in a race without realising (until it’s too late) quite how hard you’re pushing it.

Also, during transitions it’s easy to get frantic which just pushes your HR up further.