As a beginner triathlete, sticking to a triathlon training plan that includes a solid swim program is very important. The swim leg of a triathlon is usually the most intimidating part of the whole race for a beginner. Feeling comfortable and confident during the swim leg will at least ensure a good start to the race. But if you already come from a good swim background, then you’re well on the way to being a good beginner triathlete. For everyone else, mastering the art of swimming well enough to complete the first leg of a triathlon is the first goal of triathlon training.
Step one for the beginner triathlete and swim training is to learn good technique. Learning the proper way to swim will save lots of wasted time and energy. By knowing good swim technique, you’ll avoid all of the added frustration that comes from struggling through workouts thrashing through the water and not getting anywhere. Being able to move through the water efficiently and with less energy will go a long way toward finishing the first portion of the race as easily as possible. Not to mention you can’t eventually go fast if you are not efficient in the first place.
So how does a beginner acquire good swim technique? Well, if you’re good at teaching yourself things, there are plenty of books, videos and websites that can explain proper swim technique. This might work for some, but in reality there is no substitute for immediate feedback and structured learning. Finding a friend that can teach you how to swim is a good way to go. Having someone to analyze your stroke and suggest changes and drills for practicing can be very beneficial.
The best and quickest way to learn swimming for a beginner triathlete is to find a swim coach or a pool that offers lessons. A coach can teach you proper form and give you workouts and drills that will help you progress toward being a proficient swimmer. Swimming really is different than the other two sports of biking and running and requires a lot of correction and drilling in order to become proficient. Having some expert advice and knowledge at your disposal goes a long way toward your beginner triathlon training.
Once you’ve got some basic understanding of proper technique, it’s time to practice, practice, and practice. In order to build good swim endurance for your first triathlon, you should be swimming about three times a week. Swimming is a low impact sport, so it’s easier for the body to recover from a swim workout than it is from running or biking. And swimming can actually be a good recovery workout for your beginner triathlon training. Open water swimming should also be incorporated into your training. Practicing an open water swim before you actually have to do it in a race will give you the confidence that you need on race day to jump in the water with all of the other triathletes.
One does need to be careful to avoid injury while swim training. Overuse injury can easily occur, especially for the beginning swimmer that hasn’t built up the muscle and endurance in the shoulders. Swimming also requires a strong stomach and back. Taking the time to improve the muscles of your core will also aid in avoiding injury.
After taking the steps to learn the basics of swimming, it can also be beneficial to join other swimmers at a masters class or swim club. The best way to improve is to train and practice with other swimmers, both beginners and advanced. Practicing with others can also help simulate what it will be like during the mass open water start of a triathlon.
Swim training is very important for the beginner triathlete, keeping all of these things in mind while carrying out your triathlon training plan will go along way toward helping you finish your first triathlon. A solid plan for your beginner triathlon training should always incorporate a good swim training program.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Getting Started with a Triathlon Training Plan
Beginner triathlon training plans come in all shapes and sizes. What’s important is that you choose a plan that’s right for you and even modify it if necessary to suite your individual needs. As a beginner, you’ll have the most success if you can start a triathlon training plan that will lead you to your goal of completing your first triathlon and becoming a triathlete. And even possibly greater athletic endeavors of competing and improving in the sport of triathlon.
There are many types of beginner triathlon training plans. And as there should be, since no one plan is right for everyone. As I discussed in an earlier post, How to Choose a Triathlon Training Program, you need to find a plan that meets all of your individual needs. You’ll need to be honest about your beginning level of fitness and skill, and formulate or adopt a plan that will take into consideration each of your beginning attributes in the three disciplines.
One type of plan that you’ll come across is the strict and rigid plan. These plans are widely available on the internet for all types of race distances and beginning levels of fitness. You’ll know these types of plans when you see them. They are written out in calendar format telling you exactly how many miles and how much time to workout in each sport for every day of the week. These triathlon training plans look great to the beginner triathlete -everything is written out so simply and clearly like a recipe for potato and ham soup. But what these rigid plans are is really a recipe for disaster.
How can this cookie cutter triathlon training plan know what your current level of fitness is? How can it know that you aren’t able to work out twice a day three times a week? Simply, they can’t. Avoid starting these types of beginner plans, as you are surely setting yourself up for injury or failure.
These rigid online training plans are useful for showing you what a plan might look like, or for showing you how frequent and how much you might be working out. But these beginner plans fail to show you how to schedule all of that into your normal daily life. And they fail to take into consideration your current level of endurance.
What can be done with these rigid beginner triathlon training plans is to take them and modify them. Look at how frequently and how much volume there is in the first week and decide if that is something you can do. If not, then maybe only do half of that, or two-thirds of it. Start off slow and do the preparation that you will need to make it to that first week’s level of volume.
There are other types of beginner programs that can be found as well. And I term these “loose” programs. These will give you a list of workouts for each week, and it’s up to you to schedule them into your weekly schedule. I find these to be more accommodating to the beginner triathlete. Flexible plans like these are great because it gives you the freedom to schedule and re-arrange your workouts as you need to. And if you are disciplined enough to schedule each week’s workout, then you are much more likely to complete your weekly training and make progress toward your triathlon goal.
One characteristic that you’ll notice about good beginner triathlon training programs, or any training program for that matter, is that they are built around the principal of periodization. Periodization is the method of varying your training schedule to allow for periods of harder and easier training. The idea being that your body improves and gets stronger during the weeks of easier training. So if you look closely at some plans, you’ll see that there are some weeks with less volume, frequency, duration or intensity – or a combination of all of those. The rest weeks are very important for avoiding injury and continuing to improve all aspects of your triathlon training.
So where is the best place to find a beginner triathlon plan? As always, there is a ton if information online to sift through, both free and for sale. There are all kinds of books and magazines that contain plans or parts of plans. It would be wise to comb through as much information as you can find on training programs. Because remember – there is no one training plan for everyone. There might be one that’s close, but it needs a little tweaking. Or there might be one that has a swim plan that you aren’t quite ready for. Which brings up another idea, you can look at individual training plans for swimming, cycling or running and see what those look like and if there is any particular aspect of those plans that you might like. There are tons of 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon plans, as well as century and metric century biking plans.
Remember the idea is to find the training plan that works for you. Or you can hire a coach to do all of that for you, but that is a topic for another post. Hiring a coach can be a considerable investment. But for those athletes that are not sure about triathlon and just want to give it a try, finding your own triathlon training plan will be the most economical way to go.
There are many types of beginner triathlon training plans. And as there should be, since no one plan is right for everyone. As I discussed in an earlier post, How to Choose a Triathlon Training Program, you need to find a plan that meets all of your individual needs. You’ll need to be honest about your beginning level of fitness and skill, and formulate or adopt a plan that will take into consideration each of your beginning attributes in the three disciplines.
One type of plan that you’ll come across is the strict and rigid plan. These plans are widely available on the internet for all types of race distances and beginning levels of fitness. You’ll know these types of plans when you see them. They are written out in calendar format telling you exactly how many miles and how much time to workout in each sport for every day of the week. These triathlon training plans look great to the beginner triathlete -everything is written out so simply and clearly like a recipe for potato and ham soup. But what these rigid plans are is really a recipe for disaster.
How can this cookie cutter triathlon training plan know what your current level of fitness is? How can it know that you aren’t able to work out twice a day three times a week? Simply, they can’t. Avoid starting these types of beginner plans, as you are surely setting yourself up for injury or failure.
These rigid online training plans are useful for showing you what a plan might look like, or for showing you how frequent and how much you might be working out. But these beginner plans fail to show you how to schedule all of that into your normal daily life. And they fail to take into consideration your current level of endurance.
What can be done with these rigid beginner triathlon training plans is to take them and modify them. Look at how frequently and how much volume there is in the first week and decide if that is something you can do. If not, then maybe only do half of that, or two-thirds of it. Start off slow and do the preparation that you will need to make it to that first week’s level of volume.
There are other types of beginner programs that can be found as well. And I term these “loose” programs. These will give you a list of workouts for each week, and it’s up to you to schedule them into your weekly schedule. I find these to be more accommodating to the beginner triathlete. Flexible plans like these are great because it gives you the freedom to schedule and re-arrange your workouts as you need to. And if you are disciplined enough to schedule each week’s workout, then you are much more likely to complete your weekly training and make progress toward your triathlon goal.
One characteristic that you’ll notice about good beginner triathlon training programs, or any training program for that matter, is that they are built around the principal of periodization. Periodization is the method of varying your training schedule to allow for periods of harder and easier training. The idea being that your body improves and gets stronger during the weeks of easier training. So if you look closely at some plans, you’ll see that there are some weeks with less volume, frequency, duration or intensity – or a combination of all of those. The rest weeks are very important for avoiding injury and continuing to improve all aspects of your triathlon training.
So where is the best place to find a beginner triathlon plan? As always, there is a ton if information online to sift through, both free and for sale. There are all kinds of books and magazines that contain plans or parts of plans. It would be wise to comb through as much information as you can find on training programs. Because remember – there is no one training plan for everyone. There might be one that’s close, but it needs a little tweaking. Or there might be one that has a swim plan that you aren’t quite ready for. Which brings up another idea, you can look at individual training plans for swimming, cycling or running and see what those look like and if there is any particular aspect of those plans that you might like. There are tons of 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon plans, as well as century and metric century biking plans.
Remember the idea is to find the training plan that works for you. Or you can hire a coach to do all of that for you, but that is a topic for another post. Hiring a coach can be a considerable investment. But for those athletes that are not sure about triathlon and just want to give it a try, finding your own triathlon training plan will be the most economical way to go.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
How to Choose a Triathlon Training Program
A beginner triathlon training program can make all the difference between success and failure for the aspiring triathlete. Finding a guide or a book is often the best place to start, but how do you know if the plan is right for you? What things do you need to know before you even start that first swim, bike or run? Starting with a proper training program can be just as difficult as the race itself.
When I first decided that I wanted to do a triathlon, I went online and found some simple beginner triathlon training programs. I looked at each of them and decided on the one that I thought was best. Little did I know about what to look for or what kind of preparation was required.
Well, needless to say, I was injured after the first week.
There's more to becoming a triathlete than just putting in the miles. In order to start a good triathlon training program, you need to be honest with yourself about what your current level of fitness and skill is for each of the triathlon disciplines. Maybe you're already a runner or a biker, but you don't know how to swim. Or maybe the farthest you've ever run is 2 miles. Or maybe you've never even done any of the three sports with much frequency and you just wanted a challenge. These are things that need to be considered.
Triathlon training can be very intensive. After all, you are conditioning yourself for three separate sports all at the same time. Plus you have to manage everything else that goes along with your busy life like family, work, friends, hobbies, etc. Finding a plan that you can fit into your life will be one of the keys to your success. Even days of rest have to be scheduled into your plan. As a beginner, this will seem very overwhelming, picking the correct program will make all the difference.
So where to begin? Looking at books, articles, and online guides are all good places to start. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that no one program that you find anywhere is going to be exactly right for you.
Yes, that is such an important point, that I'll say id again: No triathlon training program that you find online, in a book, in a magazine, or from your friend is going to work exactly for you.
A beginner triathlon training program needs to be something that will work for you.
There are so many variables to consider, that not one single program could possibly work for everyone. So that is why it is important to be honest and realistic with your current level of fitness and skill. Take a look at each of the disciplines and decide where you need the most help. And be sure to check with your doctor about whether or not you'll be causing any health problems by taking on a rigorous event like a triathlon race.
For instance, if you're not a runner, or if you haven't run with any consistency for a few years, you need to start off very slow with your run training program. Maybe even incorporate some walking into your run training in order to build up your lower leg endurance.
If all you have is an old mountain bike, then you'll have to decide whether you can use that for your training, or if you need to invest in a new bike. You can certainly get by on the cheap with your triathlon gear, but if you like to spend money on gear, then triathlon is the sport for you!
Let's not forget about swimming. The swim leg of the race is probably the biggest barrier for any beginner triathlete to overcome. And chances are a beginner triathlete doesn't even know how to swim properly. Perhaps you'll need to sign up for some swim lessons in order to jump start your swim program. Proper technique and feeling comfortable in the water will go along ways toward your success and enjoyment of your swim training.
You'll also need to consider a plan for your recovery and maintenance. Things like stretching and sports massage are important for the high volume of training that you will take on. Even your diet needs to be considered. You'll be burning up a lot more calories, so a quality diet will be very important to your success.
So congratulations to you for taking the first step in choosing to do a triathlon. Now as a beginner, you have a tough but rewarding journey as you begin your training. I'm a firm believer that anyone be a successful triathlete. It's just a matter of whether or not you choose too. And by choosing and customizing a triathlon training for beginners program, you will be giving yourself the best chance for having a successful race.
When I first decided that I wanted to do a triathlon, I went online and found some simple beginner triathlon training programs. I looked at each of them and decided on the one that I thought was best. Little did I know about what to look for or what kind of preparation was required.
Well, needless to say, I was injured after the first week.
There's more to becoming a triathlete than just putting in the miles. In order to start a good triathlon training program, you need to be honest with yourself about what your current level of fitness and skill is for each of the triathlon disciplines. Maybe you're already a runner or a biker, but you don't know how to swim. Or maybe the farthest you've ever run is 2 miles. Or maybe you've never even done any of the three sports with much frequency and you just wanted a challenge. These are things that need to be considered.
Triathlon training can be very intensive. After all, you are conditioning yourself for three separate sports all at the same time. Plus you have to manage everything else that goes along with your busy life like family, work, friends, hobbies, etc. Finding a plan that you can fit into your life will be one of the keys to your success. Even days of rest have to be scheduled into your plan. As a beginner, this will seem very overwhelming, picking the correct program will make all the difference.
So where to begin? Looking at books, articles, and online guides are all good places to start. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that no one program that you find anywhere is going to be exactly right for you.
Yes, that is such an important point, that I'll say id again: No triathlon training program that you find online, in a book, in a magazine, or from your friend is going to work exactly for you.
A beginner triathlon training program needs to be something that will work for you.
There are so many variables to consider, that not one single program could possibly work for everyone. So that is why it is important to be honest and realistic with your current level of fitness and skill. Take a look at each of the disciplines and decide where you need the most help. And be sure to check with your doctor about whether or not you'll be causing any health problems by taking on a rigorous event like a triathlon race.
For instance, if you're not a runner, or if you haven't run with any consistency for a few years, you need to start off very slow with your run training program. Maybe even incorporate some walking into your run training in order to build up your lower leg endurance.
If all you have is an old mountain bike, then you'll have to decide whether you can use that for your training, or if you need to invest in a new bike. You can certainly get by on the cheap with your triathlon gear, but if you like to spend money on gear, then triathlon is the sport for you!
Let's not forget about swimming. The swim leg of the race is probably the biggest barrier for any beginner triathlete to overcome. And chances are a beginner triathlete doesn't even know how to swim properly. Perhaps you'll need to sign up for some swim lessons in order to jump start your swim program. Proper technique and feeling comfortable in the water will go along ways toward your success and enjoyment of your swim training.
You'll also need to consider a plan for your recovery and maintenance. Things like stretching and sports massage are important for the high volume of training that you will take on. Even your diet needs to be considered. You'll be burning up a lot more calories, so a quality diet will be very important to your success.
So congratulations to you for taking the first step in choosing to do a triathlon. Now as a beginner, you have a tough but rewarding journey as you begin your training. I'm a firm believer that anyone be a successful triathlete. It's just a matter of whether or not you choose too. And by choosing and customizing a triathlon training for beginners program, you will be giving yourself the best chance for having a successful race.
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