So for example if you are aged 8, you would be doing a 50 m swim, 0.8 km (800m) bike ride and 0.6 km (600m) run

If you are over 16 - you may be able to enter one of the adult triathlons - please contact us for more info.

Training

Training allows you and your body to be prepared for doing the event.  You may surprise yourself how you can improve your swimming, biking and running, and this will give you confidence for the event.

The idea is for all this to be enjoyable, so we do not recommend heavy training, especially for young people.

You need to be able to comfortably complete the set distances for your age.  So your training will involve practising those disciplines of swim, bike and run, and building up your endurance - that's being able to keep going.

We are not worried about speed here - if you have the endurance, you can work on speed when you are older.

Don't worry if you can't complete those distances now - you need to do them at the event, not now !  What you do partly depends on how you are doing those events at the moment. 

Swim Training Example: If you are nine, and can't yet manage the 150m swim distance, you need to build up your distance gradually.  The usual (and fastest) stroke is front crawl, but you can use breast-stroke in the event, and in practise.  Try doing front-crawl in between a less tiring stroke, such as back crawl.  Note that back crawl (back stroke) would not be a good idea in the event, as you'd probably cause a pile-up !

Swimming is all about technique, so if you can, ask a teacher, or someone else who knows about swimming to help you with this.

Cycling: is often the discipline that people feel confident of doing.  So to prepare for this .... go cycling !  Once again, keep tabs on the distances, and don't worry about the speed.

Running:  You need to be able to steadily run the event distance.  You can start your preparation by walking, then doing runs in-between bouts of walking.  Increase the running and decrease the walking until you can manage steady running. 

Try to record the distances you have done, perhaps in a simple diary, so you can see how you're getting better.

How much training ?  The top triathletes train very hard, but we're doing this for fun.  It's most important that you don't over-do it, especially with school sports lessons and other things happening.  It's also vital that you enjoy the training and preparation. 

You need to sensibly fit in what you can so that you can enjoy doing the triatlhon on the day.

Everyone is different, so maybe ask your parents, and sports teachers what they think you should do.  Also concentrate on the right things, so if for example your cycling is fine, put more of your efforts into making sure your swimming and running are improving.

How about making your sessions more enjoyable by getting together with friends or family ?  Do the cycle or running in a scenic place, but make sure this is safe.  Bristol for example has lots of places to exercise such as Clifton Downs, Blaise and Ashton Court.  Make sure you cycled on designated paths.

Combining the events:  In the triathlon, you need to do all three events together, so if possible, it might be worth trying a cycle followed immediately by a run.  It's more difficult to find somewhere to do a swim followed by a bike ride.

Safety: Always make sure you are being safe, supervised according to your age, and healthy when you are exercising.  Don't over-exert yourself, stop if you are injured, something hurts or you are unwell.  Seek a doctor's advice if in doubt.  You should also warm-up and warm-down at the beginnning and end of your exercise. 

What to do next (apart from training !)

The junior triathlons cover a wide age-range, but if in doubt please ask your parents/carers for help with the things below.

1. Please contact us by e-mail andy@ccstriathletes.org.uk or on 07971 544709 to let us know you’re involved.

2. Enter the triathlon online - at http://www.bristoltrifestival.org/  Follow the instructions carefully.  Places may go fast, so best to get this done soon.  Enter your club as "CCS Triathletes", so we can see you belong to our group.  The event costs around £ 11 to enter.  This is much less expensive than regular event entries, so we think this looks like good value.

3. You need to start thinking about the things you need for the triathlon, such as bike, helmet, clothes etc.  We will post more on this nearer the event

3. You can get sponsored in two different ways.  Get sponsored either “offline” by using the form provided, which you can download from the bottom of this page.  Get in touch and we'd be happy to send you some printed copies.