Juniors

We run regular weekly junior training sessions on Saturdays, Mondays and Fridays.

Here is our 2012 membership form - Junior Membership Form 2012.doc

and code of conduct (return with membership form) - Junior Members Code of Conduct 2012.doc

Our Saturday morning sessions run from 8 am until 10am at Impington Village College.

We have two age-based training squads (see below) which follow different programmes on Saturdays: One squad cycles while the other runs and then swims. On cycling weeks you will need to bring your bike, cycling kit and running shoes. On running and swimming weeks you will need to bring running kit and swimming kit. We'll normally remind you which weeks you need to bring your swimming kit.

Please try to arrive by 7.50am so you have time to lock up your bike, get changed and be ready to start at 8am. Cost is £2.50.

Our Monday (7:15pm) and Friday (7pm) sessions are swimming at Bottisham Village College. They each last one hour.  As well as catering for our range of swimmers, the Friday session is designed to be an improvers session to feed children into the sessions on Saturday mornings. Cost is £2.50.

Our Thursday running session is at the Guided Busway Park and Ride car park at Willingham Road, Longstanton from 6.30pm to 7.30pm (a big, empty floodlit area for the winter). We will charge a nominal £1 per session. Each session will comprise warm-ups, stretches, drills, a running set and finishing stretches.

Fees may be paid in advance at discount rates, please contact the Junior Section Co-ordinator for more information. There is no need for parents to complete any additional paperwork each week but please keep us informed if contact numbers or medical conditions change

Non-members are very welcome to come to any session although parents will need to provide emergency contact details each time.  Our non-member price for all is £5 per session.

Prospective members.  Please contact Nick Horne, our Junior Co-ordinator, before coming to your first session so that we are ready for you and have time to welcome and introduce you.  Your first 2 trial sessions will be free of charge.  

Our coaching owners for each session are -

Monday swimming Sarah Chamberlain

Thursday running Annie Parker

Friday swimming Simon Bradford

Saturday Chrissie Lankford & Steve Gershon

 

Weekly Saturday Morning Programme

We run the Junior Section as two training squads based on age. Within each squad we adapt our programmes according to ability and experience. This allows us to tailor our programmes more closely.

Our squads

Crocs: Youths and Tristar 3. For 2011 these are athletes born in and before 1998

Caimens: Tristar 2, Tristar 1 & Tri Start. For 2011 these are athletes born in 1999 and later

The Saturday morning programme below is intended to give a general indication only. We will send an email notice with details of the schedule and might make changes at short notice due to the weather, the facilities & coaches available, and the number of athletes present. Please ensure the Junior Section Co-ordinators have your current email address for these and other important notices.

Please ensure that you bring enough warm clothes with you - especially for cycling on the road. It can be pretty cold at 8am, even during the summer.

During December and January we use the indoor sports halls at IVC. These sessions include balance, agility, strength, core conditioning, circuit training, skills and movement. Please bring clean shoes.

Next few weeks -

Saturday February 4th

  • Caimens and parents; bike maintenance followed by bike skills (if you have cycling shoes, bring them, as well as trainers)
  • Crocs; Running (outside) followed by swimming

 

Saturday February 11th

  • Caimens; Running (outside) followed by swimming
  • Crocs and parents; bike maintenance followed by bike skills  (if you have cycling shoes, bring them, as well as trainers)

 

Date Squad 1st Hour 2nd Hour
Summer Caimens Running Swimming
  Crocs Cycling on the road
       
Summer Caimens Cycling skills Transition skills & running
  Crocs Running Swimming
       
Winter Caimens Indoor Swimming
  Crocs Indoor Running outside
       
Winter Caimens Indoor
  Crocs Running Swimming

Racing

One of the main reasons for doing Triathlon Training is, of course, doing Triathlon Racing. See the British Triathlon web site http://www.britishtriathlon.org for the full Triathlon Racing Calendar.

Though triathlon is fundamentally an endurance sport Youths (Under 17) and TriStars (Under 15) always race over shorter distances. The table below gives typical distances for each age group. Note that the bike leg will be longer if it is on tarmac.

Age group Swim Bike
(if grass)		 Bike
(if tarmac)		 Run
Tri Start 8yrs 50m 800m 1500m 600m
TriStar1 9-10yrs 150m 2km 4km 1200m
TriStar2 11-12yrs 200m 4km 6km 1800m
TriStar3 13-14yrs 300m 6km 8km 2400m
Youth 15-16yrs 400m   10km 2500m (= senior Super Sprint distances)

Race distances are not precise. No two events are the same as the transitions between each discipline are included in the race.

2012 Club Championships

Coming soon !

Regional League website -

http://www.triathlonengland.org/east/athletes/childrens-section/regional-league

 

Equipment

The essential equipment for giving triathlon a go comprises nothing more than a swimming costume and goggles, a pair of trainers, vest or T-shirt to wear for the cycle and the run, a bike and a cycling helmet. For training sessions the only addition is suitable clothing for running and cycle training.

A mountain bike is fine though swapping the knobbly tyres for smooth ones is a cheap and simple upgrade that will make a huge difference.  Though many of our juniors have now moved onto road bikes they all, without exception, started on mountain bikes.

 

Our Philosophy

Triathlon is a very unusual sport – both in its nature and its culture. At the top level it requires a high level of all round fitness, endurance, balance, co-ordination, intelligence, motivation, self-belief and dedication. It offers a huge variety of training and racing environments and caters extremely well for participants of a wide range of ability. Culturally it is a very new sport and keen to embrace new ideas and new thinking. It has very little of the baggage of more established sports. There is complete equality between sexes, for instance, and competition is in five year age categories from 20 through to 80. Under 20 the bands are two years wide.

Our philosophy at Cambridge TC is closely aligned with that of the British Triathlon Association. Firstly we want to have fun but we place a strong emphasis on learning essential skills and building confidence. Doing a sport well is safe, satisfying and provides a sound platform for long-term development and life-long enjoyment. We teach good swimming technique, we teach good running technique and we teach good cycling technique. Besides the three basic disciplines we work on fundamentals such as balance, agility, core stability, speed of movement, flexibility and strength.

Cycling on the roads forms a major part of any triathlete’s training (and racing) programme so we regularly take our junior section cycling on the roads. Here the initial emphasis is on road safety and awareness, then on learning to ride in a group, then on developing basic cycling endurance. As many Tristars (U15) races involve cycling on grass we include that in our programme too.

We are well aware that in this age band there is a wide range of ability and physical development. There is also a big difference in speed between a heavy mountain bike with knobbly tyres and a lightweight road bike with narrow slicks. We’re only interested in helping our young members to have fun, to learn and to get their own rewards through seeing themselves improve. Ultimately those who start with us are likely to be the ‘top dogs’ when they reach the senior ranks. Those who come to us who already have strong swimming and/or running backgrounds could be in a position to progress very rapidly and we are able to provide support right through to international level. We have strong links with the BTA World Class Performance Programme. So far five of our young triathletes have gained a place on the Programme and two have represented GB as Junior Internationals.

All of our sessions are run by trained and qualified coaches. In addition the Club has a Welfare Officer and is, of course, affiliated to the British Triathlon Association.

 

Race Preparation

Triathlon is an unusual sport. Every race is different, there is a lot of kit and equipment involved, you have to look after yourself (no team manager) and you only get one go at getting it right. Preparation is really important. Here are a couple of favourite maxims:

  • Failing to prepare is preparing to fail
  • Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance
    • .


Things to do in the days beforehand:

Make sure that you know:

  • Where the event is
  • How long it will take to get there (include car parking time)
  • What time you have to register
  • What time your race starts


Check that all of your kit and equipment is ready.

  • Bike (everything in working order)
  • helmet
  • shoes (running shoes, cycling shoes, elastic laces or toggles)
  • goggles & swim hat
  • race clothes – swimming costume, tri-suit, T-shirt, sunglasses…
  • towel talcum powder (to put in your shoes)
  • drink bottle

If you only discover that something is missing the evening before the race that’s too late to do anything about it.

Here are a few things that it’s a good idea to have with you
- safety pins, elastic bands, insulating tape, spare inner tube & tyre levers, bike tools, bike pump, spare goggles, spare swim hat, toilet roll.

The day before the race:

One important factor in racing well is having plenty of energy. Energy comes from food and goes through exercise and activity. There is no need to eat loads and loads before a race unless it’s over two hours long but conserving energy by taking things fairly easily and eating good quality food is a good idea. Good quality food is carbohydrate – like pasta or rice; vegetables; and protein like meat or fish. It’s best to avoid fatty and sugary snacks like crisps, cakes, chips, burgers, sweets and chocolates. The best thing to drink is water. Most races start quite early in the morning so staying up late isn’t a great idea.

Race day:
Racing on a full stomach is likely to make you feel sick. Racing without any breakfast is also likely to make you feel sick. The answer is to eat a sensible breakfast about two and half to three hours before the race. Besides ensuring that you have some energy and that you have digested your food properly this also means that you are wide awake, fully alert and don’t feel as though you have just got out of bed by the time you race.

A sensible breakfast is something like cereal & toast. It’s sensible to keep drinking up to the start of the race and OK to nibble on a few snacks, like a sandwich, a muesli bar or a banana. Again, sweets, crisps & chocolate do more harm than good*.

When you get to the race:

The four important things to do when you get to the race are:

  • Register, collect your signing on details and find out if there is any new information
  • Check the course
  • Set up your transition(s)
  • Warm up


If your planning was good you’ll have plenty of time for all of these. Remember that queuing for registration and toilets can use up a lot of pre-race time.

After the race:
The most important things to do after the race are to keep warm and to re-hydrate. This is also a good time for a sugary snack. Needless to say, being prepared in advance with warm clothes, food and drink is much better than not being prepared.

* Why do sweets, crisps and chocolates do more harm than good?

The body converts sugar to energy very quickly, in minutes, and the energy that it gets from fat is no good for racing because it cannot be metabolised at a quick enough rate. Eating sugary things is OK if you use the energy straight away – otherwise your body has to do something else with the sugar and it stores it as fat. Even if you do use the energy straight away it doesn’t last long and you feel ‘low’ half an hour later when the energy runs out. For very short races, having sugar just before the start can be beneficial: For races over half an hour it’s a bad idea because the energy low happens during the race.