Your first triathlon season

From scratch here means you have never raced a triathlon. It does not mean you cannot swim or ride a bike. A training plan teaches you to handle load, not to stay afloat. Skill first, plan second.

What you need to be able to do first#

To train on a plan on your own, you need to:

• stay afloat, breathe calmly and finish a swim drill without stopping at the wall along the way;
• control a bike, brake with confidence and pick a place where it is safe to ride;
• run easily and tell an easy run from a hard one;
• understand a session's instructions and record what you did and what got in the way.

We do not set a bar like swim 400 m or run for 30 minutes. Numbers like that say nothing about a particular person. If one of the skills above is not there yet, start with a club or a coach for that sport. A training schedule will not solve that.

Which race to pick first#

TriCoo recommends a sprint as your first race. It is better when the water is calm and the course is simple. TriCoo plans 12 weeks of preparation for a sprint.

There are races shorter than a sprint, for beginners and kids. You can enter them too, but TriCoo has no separate preparation for those distances: the plan is built as for a sprint.

TriCoo does not recommend a half or a full distance as a first race. First-race experience is cheaper to get on a short distance. On a long one, a mistake costs much more.

How to start in TriCoo#

Add a race, the days and time you have, and your experience level. For the first two weeks TriCoo gets to know you: the load is cautious. You do not need to know your thresholds. The plan will go by feel, and a threshold test will appear later, once there is something to build it on.

What the platform will not do#

The platform cannot see how you swim and will not teach you technique in the water. It will not check how you ride in a group. Real coaches teach that. More on the Triathlon without a coach page.