Dd - cheers! It sorts of helps in that they have some bouyancy and you stay warm but they do make your legs a bit more floaty which I find annoying.
TBH I found swimming in a very crowded sea quite tricky and struggled to get into a rhythm. Annoying because I can swim okay when on my own. Even if you're slow though, give it a go. Only avoid if you might actually drown! It definitely knackers you out a lot for the cycle though.
Only avoid if you might actually drown!
That might be my problem 
Mat - I used to try to get to the outside for the swim and dodge the melee, you take a slightly longer route but can get into a much better rhythm which IME works out faster and less tiring. I'm not the best swimmer and didn't enjoy getting elbows and legs in the face while everyone tries to swim over each other!
I've been told that even if you are only halfway okay on a bike you'll piss all over everyone in a tri. They are apparently all rubbish.
This came from my roadie cyclist mate who wins triathlons not infrequently.
Well done Matt, that swim looked cold....
This is why proper roadies HATE being compared with try-athletes, remember these are elite pros who are paid to practice at this stuff:
Leggy - eh? I don't get it. Lots of cyclists falling off. Relevance?! I suspect (if that's a tri) that they are just knackered and diorientated from a hard swim.
Nearish the end of the run I was behind an absolute stunner of a girl in a crop top and hotpants (or similar) - what a bonus! Overtook her in the end but boy oh boy was she lovely - clearly pretty fit too 
you got it, lots of triathletes taking each other out after only a few minutes of effort! I do wish there were more fitties in road races though 
Mat, I think the video is meant to demonstrate lamentable bike handling skills amongst pro triathletes. To be honest, it doesn't look they've practised their transitions much!
Leggy - TBH it looks like a very crowded transition and you do feel a bit wobbly after the swim. I'm guessing they are just a bit knackered from the swim and therefore messing up on cycle technique?
The ground looks slippy too! I'd blame the organisers more than the competitors in that one.
I'm hardly a picture of fitness but have spent most of my life riding bikes in some form or another, so I tend to spend the bike leg reeling in and passing one person after another (then the opposite happens on the run). Although given how slow my swim is, I'm not exactly at the sharp end anyway. It's not really a shock that some people come in to tri from swimming or running rather than cycling and so won't be as strong a cyclist - especially as it's the most time-consuming discipline to train for.
As for the video, I do wonder how the people sniggering at it would fare after a hard swim, grabbing a bike and trying to get your wet feet into pre-clipped shoes. I nearly faint just bending down to get my wetsuit off! It's like watching clips of someone like Cavendish crashing and deciding that all pro riders are a bit crap because they can't even keep it upright.
I've raced from Sprints through to long distance, and in EVERY race I've done there were people cheating (drafting on the bike leg). IMHO it spoils the pro races as well as it essentially turns the whole race into a running race, unless it's a hilly bike course.
Well done Mat, esp. without a wetsuit. I've never done a pool tri. I tell people its because open water swimming is more fun. The reality of it is without a wetsuit I'm a terrible swimmer! Need the buoyancy.
I'm sorry, but that transition video is pathetic! They are elite athletes, not complete newbies. They are riding with their heads down looking for their shoes that are attached to their pedals, like they always are....
Amateur cross races feature regular dis and remounts often in slippy conditions towards the end of a full-on 1hr race and it is extremely rare for those kind of crashes and wobbles to occur.
I still have BIG respect for triathletes' fitness and dedication, those girls and guys are proper hard. They just fall off bikes a lot.
I do wonder how the people sniggering at it would fare after a hard swim, grabbing a bike and trying to get your wet feet into pre-clipped shoes
Mate, it's because they are pros (allegedly). So you'd expect them to be good at it, no?
If you paid me to do nothing but train and race, I'd show you a swift transition.
Good to see Kyle Kearey winning that, I went to Lanzarote for a training camp with him a couple of years ago, good bloke, very strong swimmer.
Triathletes are notoriously rubbish at bike handling, admittedly a proper tri bike is not the easiest thing to handle, but that video is slightly worrying. I would contest that they are actually pros though, proper pro triathletes are generally very strong in all disciplines.
I've dabbled in a few in the last year, but my running's atrocious, so I never do that well, which is a bit rubbish! Definitely prefer off road ones, triathletes inability to ride a bike really comes to a front then!
njee - he was an absolute demon swimmer (about a minute ahead of the 2nd person) and nice bloke too. Had a very very nice Cervelo bike - all the gear and LOTS of idea!
Also noticed his transition times - I did my first one fairly quickly because I had no wetsuit to take off. Or so I thought. 1m 23s for me, 23 SECONDS for Kyle!!
Had a really good study of the results and definitely interesting to look at - e.g. someone that came 30th was the 3rd fastest runner (I was the 4th quickest)! And some of the fast swimmers really were damn slow on the bike.
I utterly loved the ride section - first bit of competitive cycling and nice to overtake about 30 people. Had some good neck and neck tussles with a few riders - one is a guy I know and we were exchanging positions for almost the whole 15 miles. Eventually left him on the run.
I think I'm a quicker road rider than MTBer overall unless the course has little or no technical downhills! No fear of coming off!
A lot, lot more competitive than that EnduranceLife off road tri I did (and you did the other event) so was more chuffed to come 19th in this than I was to come first in that!
End of overenthusiastic blabbering...
I always do the same with the analysis of the results, don't worry. I did notice his transition time, no idea how he managed that to be honest, crazy.
You do always get people who are strong in one discipline, only to be expected at any multi disciplinary event I guess, my bike's always pretty strong, did the XTT tri on Saturday, my bike split was 1:09, the 4 people who finished just ahead were 1:16, 1:17, 1:13 and 1:14, I just throw it away on the run!
njee - I feel your pain. I came out of the water 60th out of 130ish (I think a fair few didn't finish though)! Just couldn't get a rhythm going and had the worst goggles ever so couldn't see - plus I just swam badly.
Runnings my strongest discipline then cycling. Swimming, despite surfing all the time and being an ex SLSC competitor, just isn't good enough when racing. Oh well - will concentrate on improving it!
I'm working on my running currently, will probably enter a tri at some point if I can crack it since my swimming is naturally ok so should brush up with a bit of training hopefully.
Njee, my running was transformed with a change in style to favour toe striking. I got about 15% faster immediatly and went from hating it to quite enjoying it. Dramatic.
There's a lot more 'have a go' type folk at a triathlon, so I'd just have a punt, you're unlikely to win, but you certainly won't come last.
I've no idea if I'm forefoot or heel striking to be honest, but I would always just rather go for a ride than a run! Got a bit quicker, down to 50 minutes for a 10k, but I'm never gonna win anything unless I can lose another 10 minutes!
Njee is right - there are a fair few who enter just to try and finish it.
Best (non race so probably a bit slow) 10k on road/track (i.e. non off road) is 39m15s. Would hope to beat that in a race. Njee - 50 mins isn't bad at all. You're fit from cycling so could soon drop that a fair bit with a bit of training.
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