News Release June 9, 2008

Summer Youth Sports Great Training for Triathlon

Every child has the potential to accomplish great things given the opportunity. Some basic summer activities could lead your youth to accomplishing not only their first triathlon, but also finding a life-long activity for healthy living. A triathlon combines swimming, bike riding and running into one sport. It provides a fun and healthy event to help children stay active by using skills they probable already have. It also offers a fun and healthy way to compete with others and with you’re their own personal goals.

Many children already participate in a variety of sports during the summer, such as, soccer, tennis, and baseball. These sports provide lots of time for running, which is an excellent workout for the heart and lunges. Running, along with, biking and swimming are key elements in exercising the heart to become strong, and helping the body burn calories for healthy weight. These types of activities build endurance, which is the amount of time an activity can be done. While team events have great benefits for relationship building and leadership, individual sports like triathlon gives the participant a great sense of self confidence and personal strength. No matter what type of sport you play it is always good to challenge yourself.

Here is a list of things you will need to get started, bike and helmet, running shoes and a comfortable swim suit. Participants of any age benefit from well-rounded fitness workouts, enhancing their endurance and strength, and still having a lot of fun while they train. Parents and children are encouraged to train together, having a buddy to train with increases the success rate for most participants. Start out doing shorter distances at first. Give yourself time to increase distance over several weeks. Ideally you would like to give yourself 4-8 weeks of training before you’re actually competition is scheduled. Alternate your running, biking and swimming during the week and then towards the end of the training period start training the three sports together on the same day (at least the last week). Remember safety is the key. Never over stress your body or push yourself to hard. The training and event should be challenging yet still provide the fun factor, especially for kids.

Look for opportunities along the way to help encourage your youth. Summer walking programs, area fun runs and day trips to the pool can be great ways to workout and train at the same time. Take time to search the web for trails in your area that have both biking and running available. Map out your routes to increase distance each time. Work together on choosing the places to go. Make it an event and always keep the child involved in the planning. It is a great way to get quality relationship building time.

For more information on training for a triathlon, finding an event near you or learning swimming techniques contact your local YMCA. Most YMCA’s provide swim lessons and personal training. Some even have youth fitness areas with resistance equipment design for the smaller frame of children 7-14. Always check with your child’s doctor before starting any type of physical activity.

If you’ve already run your first triathlon here are a few key elements to smooth transitioning that may help your next race.

TRANSITIONS

Transitions should be viewed as a seamless part of your complete triathlon. A transitiion is the period of time between swimming and biking and biking and running. It is where you change your clothing, shoes or put on a helmet. Use the following tips to help reduce the amount of wasted time from one event to the other.

1. Bring only what you will need into the transition area. Too much equipment can be a hazard to you and your competitors.

2. Plan your transition: Know in which order you will put on equipment. Shoes, helmet, go.

3. Be quick, but don't hurry: Rushing will cause you to fumble or forget something.

4. If something goes wrong, such as a piece of equipment is not where you put it, have a plan, be calm and keep on racing.

5. Think of others and be respectful: Transition areas are often very tight, so keep your equipment in your area and try not to take up too much space.

6. Be unique: Use a brightly colored towel to place your equipment on to help you locate your spot.

7. Map it out: Walk through the transition area several times and go with the flow of the area.

8. Practice transitions prior to race day. Work on running with your bike, getting on and off your bike and changing equipment.

Article provided by Brandi Hibbs, Health and Fitness Director. The Tuscarawas County YMCA will be sponsoring a Youth Triathlon on Saturday, July 12. For more information or for setting up a training session call Brandi Hibbs, Health and Fitness Director at 330-364-5511.