Olympic Triathlon

The Olympic distance Triathlon is a great distance triathlon and, as you might have guessed is the triathlon distance that is used at the Olympics.

This was not always the case.  The triathlon was first introduced to the Olympics in 2000, at the Sydney games.   The race consists of a 1600 yard swim, a 24.9 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run.   The winner of the inaugural Olympic Triathlon was Simon Whitfield of Canada.  He posted a time of 1:48:24.02.  Pretty fast!

Training for an Olympic triathlon requires a good amount of dedication.  Most plans will be between 16 and 20 weeks, and will involve multiple workouts per day.  You can expect to spend anywhere from 5 – 10 hours per week training.  If you are like a lot of people that juggle a relationship, kids, 40 hours per week of work, and a honey do list on the weekends, I would recommend starting with a Sprint distance triathlon training program.  This will give you the opportunity to get your feet wet in the sport of triathlon, and work up from there.

While a Sprint Distance Triathlon is shorter, you should still train for it.

Good luck in your efforts to become a triathlete.  Please check back often, and leave comments on this blog to share with others regarding your experience training for and competing in a triathlon.