The move from ice hockey to a triathlon

As I approach the end of my twenties I find myself setting more and more goals. Drop a stone of weight between Christmas and the end of February – DONE! Be Mortgage free or playing golf off a single figure handicap by the age of 45 – hopefully the latter! By my main sporting goal is to run an Ironman triathlon by the time I’m 30 (1,217 days to go)

This goal has some smaller goals holding it up. This summer I will be competing in Olympic distance triathlons and running a half marathon. Next year a Half Ironman triathlon and a full marathon then the year after the Ironman race! 2.4mile Swim, 112mile Bike and a 26mile run to finish.

For the last 20 years my sport of choice has been Ice Hockey. A fast, powerful and unforgiving anaerobic sport that requires flat out sprints and intense physical effort for 45 seconds at a time, repeated for dozens of times over a game lasting 1hour.

Ice hockey has seen me in the gym frequently lifting heavy weights for movements that are sport specific and dynamic – lots of legs and core work. My cardio work was limited to hills on the exercise bike or sprints but as skating is such a unique movement most of my cardio was gained from time on the ice.

Getting into triathlons has been a real eye opener. My first trip to the swimming pool saw my muscles fatigued after 50metres; of course for the last 10 years they haven’t exceeded 10reps of anything.

Running with Ice Hockey player size (and weight) has been a slow sluggish road of improvement. Because of my thigh muscles I thought the transition to cycling would be the easiest - so the obvious choice to me was a cheap road bike

Off I went to Rutland cycles in Whitwell looking for a cheap road bike. The level of service was fantastic and I was measured out with a suitable bike. A few days later I went for a casual 15mile ride to test her out. Instantly the feeling of being able to accelerate so quickly felt amazing and the speed downhill with a little help from the wind was sometimes freighting. However my arrogance of thinking my strong skating muscles would be able to keep a fast pace up for a substantial period of time was soon met with a serious amount of lactic acid! Not only where the muscles in my legs being challenged but my lower back and hands were also aching along my maiden voyage.

I’m still playing competitive Ice hockey for a month or so but I’ll keep this blog going on how I am adapting to cycling for my Triathlons. With no daylight after work and weekends taken up by Ice hockey I have taken to using my cheap road bike to cycle to and from work avoiding the terrible traffic around the business parks in Peterborough. A few early morning rides through Elton and Warmington before work have been enjoyed but validated my theory that getting to a competitive level of cycling is going to be harder than I first thought!