We'll be happy to answer any questions you have. You can send general questions to info @ ucdtri.com. If you're having problems with the website (e.g., you can't create an account, your password isn't working, etc.), you can send those questions to webmaster @ ucdtri.com. If you think your question can be best handled by a specific officer of the team, you can find a list of officer email addresses on the Officers page.
Team membership is open to all students (undergraduate or graduate), staff, or faculty. If you're not associated with the university in some way, you can't officially be a team member, but you're still welcome to join us for workouts. Feel free to create an account on this website and make use of our workout calendar even if you're not an official team member.
Non-UCD Davis residents may also be interested in checking out the Davis Mad Cows -- they're a local non-university triathlon team and a great group of people to train and race with.
Dues, reg. forms, waivers, etc. can be dropped off at 1014 Academic Surge (Danny Lee's office), in the team mailbox at the Sportclub Office (2nd floor of the ARC), or at a team meeting.
No, attendance at team meetings is optional. We'd like to have you there if possible since we'll often make important announcements at the meetings, but we'll post a summary of what was discussed at the meeting on the team website a day or two after the meeting. Our coach will also give training and racing tips at some of the meetings, so try to make it to the meetings if possible. If you have dues, registration forms, waivers, or race entries that you need to turn in to the officers and you can't make it to a meeting, you can make arrangements to meet one of the officers on campus at another time to drop those off.
No, not at all. We have new members join throughout the year and we'll be happy to bring you up to speed. Even if you join late spring or early summer after the official collegiate races are over, there will still be plenty of opportunities to race with the team at general races. The only thing you might miss out on if you join to late is the opportunity to order a team uniform. We usually only put in a single uniform order for the year and the extras that we order dwindle as the season progresses.
Yes! Anyone on the team or interested in joining the team should subscribe. Details can be found here.
None! We welcome athletes of all levels and abilities, as long as you are willing to give it a "tri!" Some of our current members have or had been a part of the swimming, cross-country, track, or other ICA teams and decided to add more sports to their plate. The majority of us, however, were sitting around one day thinking, "Hey, I can swim a little, I know how to ride a 2-wheeler, and I know how to run without falling down....maybe I should try a Triathlon!"
Many races have relay events, so even if you can't swim, or bike, or run, you will likely still be able to race with a relay team. This is a great way to get started. There are also some bike-run races (duathlons) and swim-run races (aquathons) that you can participate in if you just want to do two of the sports. If your goal is to complete a whole triathlon, we'll be happy to work with you on the skills you currently lack.
Of course! That is why we are officially known as "UCD Multisport". If you hate to swim, there are several duathlon (running and biking only) races throughout the year. If you want to learn to swim you can gain support by talking to a few of our members that recently learned to swim. Our coach and other experienced swimmers on the team will be happy to work with you on your swimming until you feel ready to take on the swim portion of a triathlon. And fortunately for you, swimming is always the shortest part of a triathlon (both in terms of distance and time spent). Most collegiate races have a swim cutoff of 10 minutes -- at that point you get to skip the remainder of the swim and move directly to the bike.
The fall season is base building, where most of the workouts are organized around getting athletes into a good base of conditioning. Starting in January, we will start to incorporate more speed and intensity for the new racing season. We will have several coached workouts a week in addition to group workouts organized by workout coordinators. Additionally, many people who can't make the scheduled times organize their own workouts. Anyone can post a workout on the website's workout calendar. The calendar will list pool times, coached sessions, and other workouts.
No, the team has no required workouts. Core workouts (which are marked with a star on the workout calendar) are simply workouts that we guarantee will happen at exactly the same time every single week. The actual workout itself might change, but you're guaranteed to have somebody to train with if you show up. These are also likely to be our best attended workouts, so if you're new to the team and would like to meet other people, these workouts are your best bet. Our goal is to make the core workouts accessible to all ability levels.
Yes, the Mad Cows are a large group of really cool triathletes based out of Davis. The UC Davis team has a good relationship with the Mad Cows, and sometimes we join each other's workouts, carpool to races, or volunteer at each other's events.
Yes. For swimming, check out Davis Aquatic Masters (DAM). Several of our members swim with DAM to fine-tune their strokes or get some competitive swimming experience. For biking, you can check out the Cal Aggie Cycling Team or the Davis Bike Club. And for running, the Golden Valley Harriers provide great running workouts for all levels of experience.
Now that Schaal pool has opened for use by the ICA teams, our swimming situation is better than in past years. The triathlon team will have Hickey Pool reserved for workouts a few times a week. There are also open lap swim hours at Hickey Pool at other times during the day in case you can't make it to the team workout times.
Some of our members also swim with Davis Aquatic Masters, one of the top masters swimming organizations in the country; they offer something like 8 coached workouts per day. Davis Athletic Club also offers masters swimming with their health club membership. The city of Davis has several community pools and offers at least an hour a day of lap swim at these pools for approximately $1.75 per time, or $25 per month. The club also tries to organize one day of open water swimming per week at nearby lakes such as Berryessa or Natoma during the warmer months.
Contrary to the thought that it is something you may heave at someone if they are trying to draft off of you during a race, a "brick" is a workout that combines two or three sports. Much like actual bricks are stacked on top of each other, swimming, biking and running are "stacked" during one workout session. This allows for training for transitions and believe it or not, by bricking regularly, you can improve the time it takes to transition between the slow uncomfortable shuffle of a run that might plague you immediately after the bike, and move into a flowing, smooth gazelle-like stride....
The team has several races which we focus on throughout the year. For these races, designated "team races," the team will pay a portion of the registration fee. Most of these races are in the spring, and typically include races at other universities such as Berkeley, Stanford, Sac State, etc. In addition to these team races, there are many other races, not necessarily all triathlons, throughout the year which teammates are encouraged to participate in.
Nope! The only requirement is that you come out once in a while and train with us! Or heck, just send out an entertaining email once in a while. Participate at the level you feel comfortable; who knows, you might find that racing isn't nearly as scary as you might have previously thought!
The length of the races widely varies. Sprint triathlons are about 400-800m swims, 10-15mi bike, 3-5mi runs...(although in our area there is a set of "super sprints" at 250m swim, 6-10mi bike, and 2mi run). Most collegiate races fall into the sprint category although our collegiate championship race is an Olympic or international distance event. An Olympic distance race is 1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run (or 0.9 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). If you decide you want something more challenging than Olympic distance then you can move up to a half ironman or even the full ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run.)
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No, the star simply indicates that this is a "core" workout; i.e., it is guaranteed to happen at the same time every week. Core workouts are described more thoroughly under a previous question in the "training questions" section of this FAQ.
First, make sure you're logged in to the website. Now if you look at the workout details page for the workout that you posted, you should see two additional links at the bottom: "modify this workout" and "remove this workout." You will only see these links if you are logged in and viewing a workout that you posted.
Yes, you've actually got two options here. Most people will probably want to receive notifications of new workouts via email. You can sign up for those (and specify exactly which types of workouts you get notified about) here. More computer-savy users can also subscribe to an RSS feed for the workout calendar. If you know what RSS is and want to use it, then you probably already know how to find the feed.
"External" or "non-UCD" workouts are workouts that are being hosted by a group other than UCDTri, but that we're welcome to go to. For example, the Davis Mad Cows Triathlon Team hosts a 10-mile cycling time trial series every Spring/Summer and welcomes UCD triathletes to come out and compete for free. Likewise, running workouts put on by the Golden Valley Harriers (the local running club) are also open to anyone for free and sometimes members of our team will attend those.
No, you can attend any workout, even if you didn't mark interest in it online. Marking interest in a workout serves two purposes. First, you'll get an email notification if the workout gets cancelled or if the details (time, place, etc.) change. Second, this helps the workout coordinator figure out how many people to expect and whether they should wait a couple minutes for you to show up. If you mark interest in a workout, you can always go back later and change how likely you are to attend the workout, or completely remove yourself from the list. Also, if you don't want to show up on the list, you can always mark interest anonymously -- you'll still get notifications about cancellations or modifications, but nobody will see your name online.
Report any problems with the website directly to webmaster @ ucdtri.com. If possible, include information about what web browser and operating system you are using.
The team dues will be between $85 for the entire 2007-2008 season (make your checks out to "Aggie Multisport"). Triathlon races are expensive, about $25-$50 for a sprint distance, $60-$90 for international distance, $180-$220 for a half Ironman, and even more for a full Iron-distance race. Our team competes primarily at the sprint and international distance races. The team will help pay for race fees for the "team" chosen races. Also, there are sometimes ways to volunteer at races to get credits to race for a reduced fee at a later time.
Team dues pay for lifeguard and pool fees, coaching costs, some race registration fees, a portion of transportation and lodging for some away races, and other cool stuff like team picnics.
Yes, the team has some great sponsorship deals which will make it a little more affordable to get all the gear that many triathletes seem to collect. These will be discussed at the meetings.
The minimal set of stuff you will need to do a triathlon includes, a swim suit, running shoes, a bike, and a helmet. There is no limit to the amount of equipment that you can acquire though...but don't let this be a deterrent....most of us started out on older hybrid bikes and froze our way through the open water swims in October.
Here is a list of additional items that might make your race more enjoyable:
SwimAvailable here (PDF format).
(c) 2007 by the UC Davis Triathlon Team
Web site developed and maintained by Matt Roper
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webmaster @ ucdtri.com