While keeping fit you must have bumped into thinking: which sporting discipline can be both interesting and useful to dig into? For sure, if you don’t like to get bored, tre sport fits perfectly for you. Let’s figure out its main features.
What is triathlon about?
A triathlon is a sporting race consisting of three disciplines each:
- swimming;
- cycling;
- running.
Here are many different distances, from short to extra long, about 20 variants, even some for children are included. The most popular are:
- Ironman;
It’s the longest and heaviest distance, which is held under the brand International Triathlon Corporation.
The Ironman triathlon has a maximum time of 16 hours. Thus such competitions are one of the toughest tests in the world. - Olympic, international or standard distance;
This discipline was included in the program of the Games relatively recently, in 2000. - The sprint;
Here we are talking about the Half-Olympic distance. On the one hand, it’s the easiest type. On the other hand, you can redistribute the forces at the long ones: if you fall behind in the first discipline, you can catch up in the second or third discipline. - The ultratriathlon is a classic one that has climbed many times.
There is also a winter one, which is a ski race instead of swimming, but it’s not an Olympic sport yet.
The crucial points of history
The first semblance of a modern triathlon is known from the 1920s, especially from France, where competitions appeared. But only in 1974, a group of athlete friends from the United States unexpectedly created a club where they started training, and then participated in a program similar to the old French competitions, thus the so-called modern sport was invented.
For now it has gained lots of followers and have already become part of the most famous international competitions – the Olympic Games.
The particularities of the sport
Every sport discipline is special, so triathlon is not an exception. Among its general features are:
- great variety of distances;
- great range of amateur competitions;
- special equipment and training process;
- quite high level of danger.
As it is about overcoming obstacles and endurance testing, you may come with such risks:
running may be dangerous for your knees, which are the first to fail, as their joints are under great stress.
cycling is no less traumatic, as participants often fall off the bike, and with them at high speed there are serious injuries.
For sure, you must acknowledge that these risks are more relevant for professional athletes, as the rules of ‘real’ sport are rough. While doing the sport like a hobby, we can’t pay a lot of attention to these factors.
Striking the balance, why should I start doing triathlon now?
It can be practiced at any age. Of course, the sooner and more seriously you start, the greater the chances of being successful as a professional athlete. But many people in the world do it just for health. It’s essential not to overestimate your fitness and gradually increase the load. Between training for a triathlon, you should go to the gym and do strength exercises.