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Answer 8 quick questions about your fitness, experience, and goals — get a personalized distance recommendation with gap analysis and training priorities.
Our recommendation algorithm evaluates your readiness across multiple dimensions, using the same criteria professional triathlon coaches use.
We assess your current fitness in all three disciplines — swim, bike, and run — separately, because your weakest discipline determines your ceiling.
Swimming is treated as a hard gate. If your swim fitness doesn't meet the minimum for a distance, we won't recommend it. This is a safety issue — open water swimming is fundamentally different from pool swimming.
Your available training time and weeks until race day are checked against research-backed minimums. Cramming too much training into too few weeks is the number one cause of injury and DNF.
Your goal matters: "just finish" allows a lower readiness threshold than "be competitive," which in turn requires less than "qualify for something."
Every triathlon distance offers a different challenge. Here's what each one involves and the minimum training typically recommended.
| Distance | Swim | Bike | Run | Finish (beginner) | Min training |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Sprint | 400m | 10km | 2.5km | 1:00–1:30 | 2–3h/wk |
| Sprint | 750m | 20km | 5km | 1:15–2:00 | 4–6h/wk |
| Olympic | 1.5km | 40km | 10km | 2:30–3:30 | 6–8h/wk |
| 70.3 (Half Ironman) | 1.9km | 90km | 21.1km | 5:30–7:30 | 8–10h/wk |
| Ironman | 3.8km | 180km | 42.2km | 12:00–16:00 | 12–14h/wk |
Pool swimming and open water swimming are fundamentally different. Cold water, waves, currents, and the lack of walls to rest on mean most pool swimmers lose roughly half their endurance on their first open water swim.
The experienced triathlon community consensus is clear: do 2-3 sprints before attempting Olympic, 2-3 Olympics before 70.3. Each step up introduces new challenges — nutrition, pacing, mental endurance — that aren't just "more distance."
Your body needs time to adapt to the combined stress of three disciplines. Trying to compress a 16-week build into 8 weeks dramatically increases your risk of injury and DNS/DNF.
A strong bike and run cannot compensate for a swim you're not ready for. Your race readiness is determined by your weakest leg, not your strongest.
Signing up for the same race as your training group is fun — but if your fitness level doesn't match the distance, you're setting yourself up for a miserable day or worse.
Most beginners should start with a Sprint triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run). It's short enough to finish with 8-12 weeks of training at 4-6 hours per week, but long enough to feel like a real accomplishment. If you're a strong swimmer and runner, an Olympic distance is also achievable as a first race with 12+ weeks of preparation.
It depends on the distance: Super Sprint needs 2-3 hours/week, Sprint needs 4-6 hours, Olympic needs 6-8 hours, 70.3 needs 8-10 hours, and Ironman needs 12-14 hours per week. These are minimums for finishing — racing competitively requires roughly 1.5x those hours.
We strongly recommend against it. The Olympic distance swim is 1,500 meters in open water — with cold water, currents, other swimmers, and no walls to rest on. Pool swimmers lose approximately 50% of their endurance on their first open water swim. Practice in open water at least 3-5 times before race day.
An Olympic triathlon is exactly double a Sprint: 1.5km swim (vs 750m), 40km bike (vs 20km), 10km run (vs 5km). But the effort is more than double because fatigue compounds across three disciplines. Typical beginner finish times are 1:15-2:00 for Sprint and 2:30-3:30 for Olympic.
For a Sprint triathlon, allow at least 8 weeks of structured training (12 weeks if starting from scratch). For Olympic, plan 12-16 weeks. For 70.3, 16-20 weeks minimum. For Ironman, 24-30 weeks. These timelines assume you're already reasonably active — add 4-8 weeks if starting from zero.