I (Jen) truly believe that just about anyone can do a sprint triathlon as long you know how to swim, ride a bike and walk. You don't have to be great swimmer, you just need to be able to put your face in the water and do the crawl (freestyle) or even the breaststroke.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to train for a sprint distance race in about four hours a week. Most people need the most work on swimming since most have the least amount of experience with this sport.

Swimming is more about technique than fitness, but you will gain fitness in the pool, and that fitness will transfer to running and biking. Most sprint triathlons have a swim distance of 500 to 750 meters. This is equivalent to 20 to 30 lengths of a standard swimming pool. Most swimmers can complete this distance in 10 to 20 minutes, meaning you are training to be able to swim continuously for 20 minutes. That's not as scary as you might think.

The bike portion of a sprint triathlon is usually 10 to 15 miles. Most novice riders will ride that distance 12 to 15 mph, depending on terrain and fitness level. You don't need a special bike. Any road bike, hybrid or even mountain bike will suffice. You can even borrow a bike. The goal is to be able to ride continuously for about an hour.

The run portion of a sprint triathlon is usually 5K, or about 3 miles. You don't even have to run, you can walk. If you walk at a semi-brisk pace of 15 minutes per mile, you will complete the run portion in about 45 minutes. If you add that together, a novice can complete a sprint triathlon in about two hours. Here's an outline of what a basic training program might look like. If you did this program for six weeks you would be ready by race day.

> Monday: Swim 20 minutes, Ride 30 to 40 minutes

> Wednesday: Swim 30 minutes, Run/walk 20 to 30 minutes

> Friday: Swim 20 minutes, Ride or run/walk for 40 minutes. Do the opposite sport of what you are doing on Saturday

> Saturday: Alternate weeks of a long run/walk of 45 minutes or a long ride of about an hour

Many people think they need to practice the full distance before race day. Very few marathon runners run 26 miles before race day, and Ironman triathletes certainly don't complete an Ironman distance before race day. So, there is no reason why a sprint distance triathlete should try to complete the distance before race day either.

We have some great local sprint triathlons in Northern Colorado, including Pelican Lake in Windsor, Fort Collins Club Sprint Triathlon, Greeley Sprint and the Loveland Sprint Triathlon. All are great races for beginners. The Fort Collins Club Sprint Triathlon even features a pool swim for those who are fearful of open water. Some races also have a duathlon format that forgoes the swim or an aqua-bike format that forgoes the run.

So, what are you waiting for? Start training now.