CHAPTER 92 • TRIATHLON 53910 K training programs. In 1974, members of the San
Diego Track Club hosted a first of its kind swim-bike-
run event in and around the waters of California’s
Mission Bay. That three-event race was called a
triathlon and still to this day triathlons are one of the
most popular worldwide endurance events.- John Collins, a veteran of the first Mission Bay
Triathlon, was influential in the further development
of the sport. He is responsible for combining three
endurance events: the Waikiki Rough Water Swim,
the Around-Oahu Bike Ride, and the Honolulu
Marathon into one of the world’s most recognized
and demanding competition, The Ironman.
a. The inaugural race of 1978 was comprised of 12
male competitors, followed by 13 competitors
in 1979 including the first female competitor.
An article, written by Barry McDermott and
published in the May 1979 edition of Sports
Illustratedincreased the race field into the hun-
dreds and brought ABC’s Wide World of Sports
to the event for its first of an unbroken string of
broadcasts. - Popularity and continued growth led to the estab-
lishment of the International Triathlon Union and
the inaugural World Triathlon Championship com-
petition in 1980. Popularity and international
recognition resulted in the continued growth of the
sport through the 1990s into the new century with
the 1994 Goodwill Games, 1995 Pan Am Games,
and the 2000 Olympic Games hosting their inau-
gural triathlon competitions.
a. 2004 data show there are 200,000–300,000 and
100,000 active triathletes in the United States
and Australia respectively (Burns, Keenan, and
Redmond, 2003). In 2002, there were 850 sanc-
tioned triathlons in the United States alone.
•Triathlons are a unique sport that encompass all health
related variables: cardiorespiratory endurance, body
composition, muscular strength, endurance, and flexi-
bility.
•Triathlon governing bodies recognize four standard
race types based on distance (Korkia, Tunstall-Pedoe,
and Maffulli, 1994). - Sprint (0.75-Km swim, 22-km bike, 5-km run)
- Olympic (1.5-Km swim, 40-km bike, 10-km run)
- Half-Ironman (1.9-Km swim, 90-Km bike, 21-Km
run) - Ironman (3.8-Km swim, 180-Km bike, 42-Km run)
VOCABULARY
•Like all sports, triathlons and triathletes have a unique
vocabulary. A few of the more common terms are inclu-
ded here to aid in the understanding of these athletes.
- Bonking: A reference to when a competitor begins
to lose the ability to concentrate, feels disoriented
and overly fatigued, and at times is unable to con-
tinue on in a race. Bonking occurs when energy
intake does not meet energy expenditure and
glycogen stores are depleted. The regular intake of
carbohydrates during prolonged competitions can
prevent this condition from occurring. - Transition zone: An area of controlled chaos where
athletes change from swimmer to biker and from
biker to swimmer, T1 and T2 respectively. - Breakaway: When one or more competitors signif-
icantly increase their speed in an attempt to create
distance between themselves and the rest of the
field. - Surge: Similar concept to a breakaway in cycling
but referring to running. - Road rash: Superficial abrasions to the skin usually
as the direct result of a bicycle accident. - Traumatic tattooing: Skin discoloration resulting
from debris that was deeply embedded in the skin
following road rash. - Brick: A training method or workout used to simu-
late race conditions. It involves swimming, biking,
and/or running all in the same day...one event after
another.
INJURY EPIDEMIOLOGY•Triathletes compete and train in three distinct events,
each of which triggers its own set of injuries. Injuries
specific to an individual component event of the
triathlon will be covered in that specific chapter, here
we will try and focus on injuries unique to the triath-
lete.
•Theoretically, it is possible that triathletes would have
fewer overuse injuries compared to other one sport
endurance athletes as triathletes spend two-thirds of
their time cross-training. The contrary may also be
true: triathletes suffer from the cumulative effect of
three distinct injury-producing events and are suscep-
tible to more injuries.- Injuries are defined as any musculoskeletal prob-
lem that causes a cessation of training for at least
one day, a reduction in training mileage, the taking
of pain medication, or the seeking of medical aid.
- Research has demonstrated injury rates among triath-
letes to be anywhere from 37 to 90% annually with
roughly 50% of injuries occurring during preseason,
37% occurring during the competition season and the
remainder overlapped between seasons.
- Overuse injuries are the primary injury for the
triathlete and comprise 68 and 78% of the injuries
sustained in the preseason and competition season