How did I get into triathlon

First post, first things first. How did I get into triathlon.

When I was a kid, I used to do some sports, manly table tennis and football. I tried also some skateboarding, around the age of 13. Some tennis and badminton here and there, nothing too serious.

Like most people who does triathlon, you rarely wake up one day and just decide to do triathlon. Almost everyone picks up one sport or two, and add the other discipline one day.

The bike

Fast forwards few years later, and I visit my uncle and aunt who lives in New York, in 2017, I’m 21. My uncle used to bicycle to work everyday (or almost?) using a hybrid (half road/ half city bike, also called fitness bike or VTC in french = vélo tout chemin). I remember finding this awesome. Back then, I was traveling mainly using public transportation or car or my motorcycle where I used to live, and it didn’t occurred to me at all that we could use bike as a transportation mode.

I know it sound silly, but it was before covid era, and even in Europe, using bike as a day-to-day transport mode wasn’t as popular as it is now. Seeing my enthusiasm, my uncle and aunt participated to offer me my first “real” bike. It was a LaPierre, hybrid bike just like my uncle. I used it to go to school, and being an apprentice, I was already working. However, it was way more hilly route to work, I wasn’t ready yet to do this everyday and get all sweaty 🙂

Even tough there is a a big gap between using bike as a transportation mode and bicycling as a sport, I did keep this habit when I finished school and moved in Bordeaux with my girlfriend. Going everyday to work with a bike, even at a slow place, builds up some stamina. First sport – check.

The run

Few months later, covid’s here. We’re locked in, no more bike, more work from home. After months and months of locking/de-locking, some restrictions, a little less restrictions, and then some more, going back and forth, it’s now 2022. Covid is now mostly behind us, and I’m doing 2 days of work every week on site. Some of my colleagues go running and do some cross fit thingies at midday. After weeks of seeing them going, I finally decided to follow them.

The usual session consisted of running about 1.7 km, followed by some crossfit drills at a street workout spot, and then go back by running. I remember the first time I decided to join them, I didnt have shoes or shorts. A colleague landed me a too-big-for-me pair of shoe, and I used my bike rain pants as shorts 😀

Well, for people who run, 1.7 km is a very short distance. But if you’ve never really run, or are a little bit overweight, or has no sports background at all, it is challenging. When I first did it, I was all red and exhausted. What’s great about when you suck at something though, is that you progress very fast at the beginning. By only going only one time a week over one month, your body already adapts and the run become the warm-up instead of a challenge.

Fast forwards a few month, and sometime instead of doing some cross fitsdrills, I prefer to just run. Running at a slow, conversational pace, is quite chill actually. You put some music and let your thoughts take over. That’s where I started running around the Chaban Delmas bridge, and Pont de Pierre one, well known in Bordeaux, that’s a 7km run approximately. Now on from time to time, I started running on alone, and a few months later my first race, and a few months later my first half marathon.

The swim

Having finished my first half-marathon, in Lège Cap-Ferret, I discussed with another runner. We chat a little bit, and he tells me he do some triathlon. He tells me it’s less boring. And to be fair, he’s right, having followed a structured plan to finish my first 21km, running 3 to 4 days a week can feel daunting. But to be really honest, biking and swimming isn’t much more funny than running. Having a volleyball with some friends, do a “petanque”, play tennis or squash is way more fun.

At first glance, triathlon is just a mix of boring sport. However they’re very rewarding. After a swimming or biking session, you just feel good. It’s the opposite of drugs : Instead of borrowing some happiness from the future, you suffer (more or less) and feel good after. Also, it brings discipline to your daily life, you can set goals and you have things to look forward to, you can feel the progress in each discipline, and you feel overall stronger. And the emotions you feel after completing a big objective is almost indescribable.

Back to our story, so this guy just put a seed in my head. What if I just add swimming and try a triathlon ? At this time (april 2024), I was cycling 20km a day just by going to work. Seems not very far off to take some swimming lesson and try one.

So this idea kept on growing, and I started swimming in november 2024. My swimming background is like most of people : I learned to swim when I was young at school, so I know how to swim enough to not drown, but to be honest, back then I didn’t really know how to swim. I wont detail here how the progress was in swimming, but basically, unlike the other discipline, it’s really important to get a good technique, so taking lessons is almost mandatory. Even if you’re fit, it will be very hard to do a front crawl for more than 100m if you don’t have a basic skills.

So I took lesson, and step by step, I’m slowly becoming a better swimmer after each session. Reel progress is built on long term, unless things we see on social media, some people maybe take years to reach a certain level, whatever the discipline. Secret sauce here is to try to not compare ourselves to others.