Wanna try a tri-athlon?

The AJ Bell London Triathlon will take place over the weekend of 8-9th August: and, like the London marathon, it will affect East London roads from Rotherhithe to Becton at various points over the weekend. Some roads will be totally closed for extensive parts of the weekend and travel will, therefore, be severely disrupted. See below for how to check up on how you may be affected.

The London Triathlon is an international event, with 13,000 entrants – making it the world’s largest triathlon. It has something for all triathlon abilities, with a wide selection of race distances (including Super-Sprint, Sprint, Olympic and Olympic Plus) as well as the opportunity to race as part of a team-relay. During the race events, there will be an exhibition in the Excel Centre where would-be tri-athletes can look at the latest gear and devices.

As London athletes entered their last stages of preparation for the big days, reigning London Triathlon and British Super Series Champion Emma Pallant, Olympian Stuart Hayes and UK Athletics Run Coach Laura Fountain handed out some top tips to competitors. Their advice came at a “Triathlon Thursday” training session hosted by AJ Bell London Triathlon at the Virgin Active Riverside Club in Canary Wharf in order to provide much needed motivation and last minute advice ahead of the event.

Laura Fountain, author of Tricurious, led a training run and drills, which was followed by course tips and a Q&A from two former London Triathlon winners Emma Pallant and Stuart Hayes. If you didn’t make it to the session (or if you just want a nosy preview of what triathletes have to think about), here’s the top tips in a nutshell.

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Emma Pallant
•Everything with triathlon is about rhythm and keeping focused. It’s the world’s biggest triathlon but try not to let that phase you on the day. Keep doing what you’ve been doing day in day out with your training but use the buzz of the event to lift you when you need it.
•Don’t change your diet in the next two weeks, stick to what you know and food that works for you.
•Fail to prepare… prepare to fail! The night before you should get yourself as organised as possible, check everything off your packing list and make sure you know what time you need to be there. It’s important you’re as calm as possible on race day.

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Stuart Hayes
•Practice getting in and out of your wetsuit before race day – that’s vital!
•Start hydrating yourself more about three or four days out: it’s been quite hot recently so make sure you’re not waiting till the day to get hydrated.
•Make sure you get to the ExCeL Centre as early as you can. Don’t leave it to the last minute and rush yourself – you’ll want to familiarise yourself with transition and get yourself prepared to enable you to have the best race possible.

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Laura Fountain
•When you’re out on the run, think about your form. When you’re tired the temptation is to hunch your shoulders and lean forward. I always see see a lot of people shuffling along at the end of a triathlon. But if you can remember to stand up nice and tall, imagining you’ve got a balloon coming out the top of your head, it’ll make both a mental and physical difference to your run.
•To maintain power in the run, particularly if you’re doing Olympic distance, think about eating early on whilst on the bike so that you don’t start the run with a full stomach but have enough power to move you forwards.
•If you’re feeling nervous, just remember that so many people are in the same position as you so the key thing is to relax and enjoy it!

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•To keep up with all the latest news from the London Triathlon, visit www.twitter.com/thelondontri  and www.facebook.com/thelondontri

•To see full details of road closures and transport disruption, go to the main website, click on “competitor and spectator info” and scroll down to “road closures”: www.thelondontriathlon.com