Chorley Athletic and Triathlon Club logo

Triathlon

CAAT Ironman

Overview

Getting started in the worlds of triathlon, duathlon and aquathlon can appear to be complicated. The British Triathlon Federation (BTF) has plenty of advice, assistance and a whole bundle of benefits to get you going.

Triathlon has come a long way since its beginnings in 1974 when a group of friends began to train together. The group consisted of swimmers, cyclists and runners, and before long they were organising competitions combining the three sports.

Triathlon is an exciting multi-discipline sport involving a continuous race over various distances in the three disciplines of swimming, cycling and running. A standard triathlon is made up of a swim, followed by a cycle ride, followed by a run.

Competitors race against the clock, which starts as they enter the swim and stops as they cross the finish line after the run.

For this reason, triathlon is often reported as having a 'fourth discipline' known as the transition. The transition is the point in the race when competitors change from swimming to cycling, and from cycling to running.

CAAT Ironman Training

Click Ironman Training for more guidance.

Race Distances

Distances of individual events may vary from race to race, but there are some standard triathlon distances, quoted in terms of swim/bike/run:
• Super sprint - 400m/10km/2.5km
• Sprint distance - 750m/20km/5km
• Standard distance - 1500m/40km/10km
• Middle distance - 2.5km/80km/20k
• Ironman distance - 3.8km/180km/42km