Training for a triatholon?

Question

ok i have been wanting to do a triatholon for a while now, but have yet to start training for it. I ride road bike with a local club, but have not trained for the swimming or running at all. I want to compete in one next summer, so that gives me a little under a year to train. I am going to start working the swimming and running into my riding routines. I was just wondering, is it better to just ride, run, and swim on different day, or should i combine them into one workout a day. I have a pool at my house, already have a road bike, and have a tread mill thats my mothers. I was just wondering which is the better way to go. Working on each event on different days, or combining the three into one work out. Also is weight lifting a key part to training for a endurance race, because if it can be avoided that would be prefereable, but i will suck it up and do it if it is benificial to me. I really want to get into the sport, and any help would be great.

Answer 1

I wouldn't bike and run too much in the same day.  Its okay to run and swim, or bike and swim, because they work different muscles.  Alternate between the different events.  I did a short triathlon just to see what it was like.  If you can find one, I would recommend doing it.  It is good to see what a triathlon feels like before you seriously compete.

Answer 2

On the contrary, you DO want to do bike and run combination workouts. They are affectionately referred to as "bricks" because the term aptly describes the way your legs feel after the workout. I get what the other person was saying about alternating muscle groups. This advise is typically good for other sports or workout routines that don't have a multi-sport element to the race. The whole point of a triathlon is do be able to transition from one sport to the next and have your muscles adapted to that stress. It's not easy and takes practice. Thus, you must train your muscles the way they will race. In a standard triathlon of any distance, once you finish cycling, you will transition to the run. If you truly wish to be prepared for a race, you should strongly consider brick training. It is a time-honored method and widely-used. Start out with moderate distances or times spent doing the bike then run, back to back. As you learn to cope with the stress, increase your distance and/or time spent.

If you can, and it sounds like the pool is super convenient to you, go ahead and give yourself a swim workout as well on a few brick days. You'll want to make sure you tailor your swimming workouts (as well as the rides and runs) to the race distance. You'll probably be better off starting with a sprint distance first, and an olympic distance at most. The weakest event for most triathletes is swimming. One theory is that you could become a strong swimmer and make up time there. Or, you could really become a fast cyclist where there is more potential for making up time on other racers due to the wide range of speeds possible and the longer distances to cover. One last thing with swimming: make sure you train for the kind of swimming you will be doing. If you are going to do a race with an open water swim, be sure to practice open water swimming. It is much more difficult than the pool.

As for your runs, I have to recommend that you get as many of your runs in as possible on the road. A treadmill is great for crappy weather days or the rare exception, but you are much better off running on the road/sidewalk. There are many reasons for this, primary of which is the physiological difference in your body running on roads and treadmills. A treadmill cushions your strides a lot more than the pavement. If you become too accustomed to this nice feature, you are greatly increasing the likelihood that you will get killer shin splints on race day - not a good thing. The increased pounding your legs will get from the pavement during the race (which I assure you will be on a road or paved surface of some sort) will be an unpleasant surprise to your feet, shins, ankles, and knees. Plus, you really want to expose yourself to the conditions you will be racing in. This prepares you more and toughens you up mentally. Not to mention, if you find a nice route to run, it will be more fun than a monotonous hour or more on a treadmill with the same scenery.

As for weight lifting, there isn't really much need for that. You want to concentrate on developing your skills and increasing your endurance through developing slow-twitch muscle fibers. Weight lifting might be a nice diversion or break from the usual training, but if you do decide to mix some in, only do low-weight, high repetition lifting to maintain a lean physique. You don't want or need to develop dense, explosive fast-twitch muscle fibers. In fact, if you do anything aside from swimming, riding, or running, you should be doing lots of core workouts for your abs and back. This will help you in your other skills.

Good luck!