The Trials and Tribulations of a Triathlete

You can’t just turn into a Triathlete overnight! This is serious stuff and you need some serious kit. When I started Triathlons just over 2 years ago I joined TriLondon, which is made up of many men and women with very little body fat. To say I felt out of place is an under statement.

I started squad swimming, which for me was quite bad because I was about 4 stone overweight and everybody else was a lean machine, but thank god everyone was lovely and although I felt slightly out of place with my size I just got on with it. What took the longest to get involved in was the cycling. I was riding my fathers’ 19yr old mountain bike. On group cycles some people had uber expensive Carbon Time Trail bikes, but mostly people were riding their winter training bikes (they had different bikes for different times of the year, wow!).

The bike is just the start of it, everyone had lycra cycling shorts with pads, cycling jerseys, gloves, shoes that clicked into the pedals, bike computers, GPSs/Sat Nav systems, special nutritional bars and I could go on. This is all expensive stuff and it takes a while to accumulate it all, but after 2 ½ years, I’m keeping up with the Jones’!!

I have added a video below which had me in tears because it is so true and you can just imagine some poor triathlete’s wife making this(beware it does have some rude language!).

There are a few things in the world of Triathlon which I have come to terms with and a few I have not! Lycra tights for running. I have a pair which I run in when it’s not warm enough for shorts and they are very comfortable. I took me a long time to feel comfortable in them. When you are out for a group run and everyone is wearing them then fine but when it’s just you, jogging through the suburbs then you feel a little out of place, but now I’m like, who cares!

Now the thing I have yet to do is shave my legs. It seems the better the athlete you are, the less hair you have on your body. Firstly, I like my hairy chest and that won’t change, but I have debated shaving my legs (only really because I feel out of place with my Tri buddies as I am the only one with hair on my legs) Isn’t that funny, feeling out of place in a group of men because you have hair on your legs!?? But take me down to the pub and my other friends will ridicule me for having silky smooth legs… What to do?!?

I have come to the decision, I will shave my legs, not wax them (I’m not that brave) before my first Ironman this year. So if you see these bronzed, clean-shaven legs, do my ego a favour and don’t call me a Nancy!