Triathlon. Does the thought of that word make you shake your head and think: “Are you joking? My bike has a basket on the front, I can’t put my head in the water and haven’t done breaststroke since I was a kid!”
You’ll be surprised that you can ride any type of bike at a triathlon (even if it didn’t cost £2,000) and that in some triathlons – up to the longest, known as Ironman – some swimmers do in fact prefer breaststroke.
Triathlons consist of a swim – either in a pool, lake or the sea – followed by a bike, and then they finish off with a run. If you haven’t done a triathlon before, the challenge can feel like you’re taking a leap out of your comfort zone, but starter tris can be as short as a 200m swim, 8K bike and 1K run. Give yourself the chance and you may find the experience is life-changing… running affter a swim and a bike can make you feel powerful, and the whole body workout leaves you with a massive sense of achievement. “A triathlon takes you out of your comfort zone, into the realms of deep water (literally) and challenges your entire body and mind in all sorts of ways that just one discipline can’t,” says Lucy Fry, author of Run, Ride, Sink or Swim.