CALGARY — Paula Macdonald knows there’ll be no lack of enthusiasm among this group of students. After all, her new class is aimed at kids . . . and it involves competition.

“Kids from eight to 12 are really big on racing. They want to race each other all the time,” notes Macdonald, who’ll be the instructor for SAIT Recreation’s all-new offering, Tri-Kids Training, an eight-week swimming, biking, and running adventure for youngsters interested in racing triathlons.

“Who’s the first to put on their shoes? Who’s the first up the stairs? Who’s the first to the car?” adds Macdonald with a chuckle. “I know that after I did my first triathlon, I asked my son if he wanted to do it, and he was like: ‘Yeah!’ The kids are always enthusiastic.”

Tri-Kids Training, for participants aged eight through 12, begins April 10 and features 12 hours’ worth of Sunday-morning instruction by Macdonald, a National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) community sport triathlon coach who’s a recreational triathlon runner herself. Kids will learn the skills, core strength, and endurance necessary for a triathlon race for their age group — which ranges anywhere from a 50-metre to 300-metre swim, 1.5-kilometre to 15K ride, and 500-metre to 3K run. There’s no triathlon pre-requisite, but participants must have passed a Swim Kids 5 course or be able to swim 50 metres continuously.

“In swimming, we want to improve their endurance and their front-crawl speed. In running, we’ll work toward planting with their forefoot. And in biking, it’s mounting and dismounting, and handling the corners,” says Macdonald.

“And there’s the transition, the organization of their equipment. This is about the kids being independent . . . getting your shoes and helmet on, getting that T-shirt over the wet body. When the kids do it all by themselves, they’re so proud.”

All work and no play at Tri-Kids Training, of course, would make Jack and Jill dull children. That’s why Macdonald’s instruction is couched in fun and games.

“The more I make the skill into a game, the more the kids retain it. That’s why, with the running element, we’ll be doing it through games, and obstacle courses on a bike, and games and relays with a lot of the swimming,” she says.

Tri-Kids Training has been strategically arranged so that enthusiastic graduates can test out their newfound skills at the Calgary Kids of Steel Triathlon 2011, on June 5 at the University of Calgary. “Once kids and their parents experience a triathlon, or if they’re around the triathlon community at all, they’ll find it’s an amazing community of people,” says Macdonald.

For more information on Tri-Kids Training, please visit http://sait.ca/recreation or call 403.284.8734.