14 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Training
If you are set to start a triathlon training program, it may be tricky to figure out where to begin. However, it is possible to achieve worthwhile results while keeping it straightforward.
Adding targeted workouts to your regimen, continuing in the same manner, and making sure to rest whenever necessary, you will quickly become fit, more powerful, and ready to compete.
1. Maintain consistency
If a triathlete wants to make the most progress in their early years, following a consistent training plan is the best way to achieve that.
By exercising consistently through swimming, biking, and running every week, one can experience an increase in power, physical conditioning, and swiftness. In other words, the more frequently you practice training for a triathlon, the more successful you will be.
Utilize the limited amounts of time you have in your timetable and no longer reject exercises that take less than an hour. Brief exercises done regularly can be fitted into a hectic routine, and are both advantageous and helpful.
Think of your fitness level like a bank account; the more hours of training you put into it, the more your fitness will increase, but it’s not a one-to-one relationship.
Your body is not likely to provide you with twice the benefits if you opt for a 60-minute run instead of a 30-minute one. It will, however, give you something positive in return if you keep running regularly over a long period.
If you are travelling for work and have 45 minutes to spare in your hotel before meeting clients for dinner, avoid spending it lounging around and watching TV. Take the opportunity offered by downtime and fit in a quick exercise.
Regardless of the difference in duration, briefer workouts are still capable of initiating the cellular signalling that increases physical fitness, requires minimal rest, and can more easily fit into one’s schedule.
Many athletes are too busy trying to fit a lot of their training into their already full schedules, with a lot of that time all at once on the weekends in lengthy practice periods.
Occasional big days of exercise should be a bonus on top of a regular routine of shorter, consistent workouts.
In the long run, it is through regular exercise that your body can make the changes needed to improve physical fitness. Look for shorter, frequent opportunities throughout the week to work on different disciplines instead of looking for two-hour blocks.
2. Build gradually
It’s so easy to become completely absorbed in the thrilling and alluring nature of triathlon that you may find yourself pushing yourself too hard in the early stages.
If you take your time and slowly increase the amount of swimming, biking, and running that you do, it is more likely you will continue to improve without getting hurt or overly fatigued. The usual practice is to expand the distance run or the amount of time spent running by no more than 10% each week.
3. Avoid the grey zone
Lots of triathletes devote far too much time to their training in the middle ground, where the intensity isn’t quite high enough to acquire the strength and velocity that comes with interval training, yet is still too elevated for the development of endurance.
Exercising at a moderate intensity, normally on a scale of one to ten counting effort, is enough to convince you that you’ve put in a strenuous session; however, it only serves to make you require more time to recover while raising the potential for damage with minimal advantages.
Begin with low-intensity levels to create more stamina and physical conditioning, then add in brief bouts of more intense exercise to enhance strength. Ensure to take plenty of rest breaks in between high-intensity intervals to provide your body with time to adjust. Keep away from the limbo state and you will quickly have increased fitness, endurance, and agility.
4. Focus on your weaknesses
Sometimes it can be comfortable to focus on the things you excel in or like to do the most, however, if you’re weak at one of the triathlon disciplines, you have more chance to improve it.
It is essential to uphold consistent workouts between all three sports every week, but allocating a little more attention to areas that need the most advanced is sure to result in improved race results.
5. Take rest days
The act of exercising involves weakening your muscles and it is not until they are rebuilt that you will be able to gain increased strength and speed. It is critical to give your body the appropriate amount of time to adjust.
Resting days should be different for every athlete, with a recommended concept being to have one period of relaxation each week. During this time, it’s important to relax both the body and the mind.
From that point onward, you can begin to comprehend what times your body needs a day of rest – it could be one day a week, a few days off every two weeks, or whatever schedule works best for you.
6. Warm-up and warm-down
Warming up is essential to not just relax the muscles for a workout, but also to slow down the rise in heart rate when beginning physical activity.
It is wise to allocate some time before the start of a workout routine to improve the efficacy of the exercise program and reduce the chance of any type of injury.
After your workout, decreasing your activity to a small degree will assist in eliminating lactic acid and minimising soreness after, as well as beginning the recuperation procedure.
7. Get your swimming technique analyzed
Athletes who aren’t accustomed to swimming generally experience the most difficulty with perfecting freestyle technique relative to the other aquatic disciplines. Triathlons are known for being very challenging in terms of technique, as they require proper swimming form, timing, and strength.
Having an experienced coach record your swimming technique using underwater recording equipment in a swimming pool or an endless pool can give you personalized feedback on what to improve. This will help you prevent any bad habits from forming and put you on the path to further progress.
8. Learn to run
While everyone can take part in running, not everybody has the correct form and this is often forgotten by those who move to triathlon without any experience in running.
By repeatedly refining your running form, you will become faster, more economical on energy, and less likely to get injured, all of which will lead to a better race day performance in a triathlon.
9. Get a bike fit
Not having a good bike fit can end up causing issues ranging from back pain to knee pain, chafing, and saddle sores, not to mention overworking leg muscles that can be better utilized while running. That is why having a proper fit for a bike is necessary.
A reliable bike fitter can get your setup adjusted to make sure that you get a comfortable riding experience, maximize strength and agility, decrease air resistance and make it easier to transition off the bike while considering the type of bike you are riding and the length of the race.
There is an extra advantage in having the assurance of being prepared correctly.
10. Give yourself a goal
Nothing can give you inspiration like having a goal to strive for. Registering for an event is an admirable way to get yourself distracted from your fitness struggles and push to become fitter.
Take a look at our instructions for choosing SMART objectives to guarantee you make the correct choice for increasing your fitness. Once you have an exact day scheduled, you can reasonably set objectives that will aid in the completion of your organized training regimen.
11. Listen to your body
Triathletes put tremendous physical demands on their bodies, so it is important to take note of what they require of us in return to strengthen performance and avoid injuries.
Your body can send you messages that are easy to read- like when you need a drink- but some can be more difficult, like the feeling of tiredness in the morning which may mean you need to take a break.
In races, by having a good understanding of your body, you can be prompted to slow your pace if you feel like you’re exerting too much energy or speed up if you’re able to give more effort.
12. Stop obsessing over volume and instead work on executing a balanced plan
Many triathletes concentrate all of their training efforts on increasing the total number of hours they put into practice each week. The outcome of this is usually an unstructured process of training without any intentional attention to having a proportionate blend of exercises that supply distinct objectives.
It would be beneficial to incorporate a combination of VO2, threshold, sweet spot, technique, and rest periods into the strategy. What matters is your actions, not the amount of time spent performing them.
Figure out which sessions are absolutely essential for your plan to be successful and make sure you focus on those. These workouts require more effort and strength training and can help you get in better shape than the other workouts.
Plan your workouts for times that won’t be interrupted by other tasks, and try to approach them with a clear head by getting adequate rest and proper nutrition.
Doing key workouts accurately will significantly increase important physical fitness indicators, for example, the threshold and aerobic capacity, most efficiently. Exercises of this kind also help to build up the mental strength to push through during a race.
13. Allocate intensity relative to your goals
If you want to get the most out of your workout in less time, you will have to spend a substantial amount of time exercising at high-intensity levels (above the second level).
It should be noted that most of your practice won’t be at a high level of difficulty; however, in comparison to persons who have the chance to practice for 15-20 hours per week, a greater part of the time that you devote to training will be at a higher intensity.
The majority of triathletes should focus the majority of their effort on biking. Riding a bike is gentler on the tendons and joints than jogging, so building up endurance in the saddle is more achievable and provides a lesser prospect of harm. Plus, it doesn’t require as much effort to recover.
Biking depends primarily on muscle strength, whereas running is affected by the flexibility of tendons and efficiency. Often it is muscular strength and power, not cardiovascular fitness, that stops triathletes from performing well on their bikes.
A program for cycling should consist of frequent work in the optimal range (the upper area that is slightly below the intensity maximum) and intervals of varying durations (ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes in the most vigorous intensity of 110-120% of the FTP).
Riding a bike indoors on a trainer can be an effective way to maximize your training, as it permits you to plan out your practice sessions at exact levels of force, without having to cope with issues that you would normally face while biking outdoors, such as road traffic, intersections, and the weather. If you are determined to become faster within a limited period, it is essential to ride inside and make it a vigorous exercise.
When it comes to improving running fitness, the most effective way is to increase the volume and frequency of runs, rather than the intensity. Triathletes are suggested to hit a mileage of more than 25 miles a week before starting to incorporate fast intervals and steady-pace runs into their training routines.
You need to build up your strength and endurance before you can perform these exercises since they cause your body a lot of strain. This is done by raising the sound to an appropriate amount instead of raising the volume and power simultaneously.
It is a fact that you can nearly reach your maximum capabilities if you regularly carry out low-intensity runs and short sprints.
It is more beneficial for triathletes to emphasize easy, regular running rather than high-intensity runs, which are liable to cause injury and hinder the implementation of essential training in the other components.
14. Allocate time relative to your goals—especially for the swim
If you aim to have the quickest time possible during a race, it is not advisable to divide an equal amount of time to practising all disciplines. One should strategically invest their time to maximize the advantages of each individual subject.
In long-distance events, the swimming portion of the competition only takes up a small fraction of the entire race, usually taking up about 10% of the total race duration. The bike will take much less time in the entire race compared to the other portions.
It is obvious that cycling capabilities are more significant than swimming aptitudes in long-distance competition, so your exercises should mirror this.
If your goal is to compete in a triathlon that allows drafting and swim performance is a key factor, you must focus more intensely on swimming as you are not as strong in that area.
For the majority of triathletes who are running out of time, focusing on becoming proficient in the water should be the main goal. Many athletes find it increasingly hard to decrease their swim times after reaching a certain level of progress.
Fortunately, it does not take a lot of swimming to sustain a level of physical fitness, after which time the benefit from training diminishes. Once you get good at it, you should be able to manage two to three swimming sessions each week that are specifically focused.
If you make the most of your exercise sessions, such as joining a masters swimming group, you can get a good result from as little as two hours of swimming training every week.
It’s possible to incorporate different equipment into your routine to supplement or substitute for swimming in a pool. Technology such as the Vasa swim trainer or ergometer can be helpful as replacements when pool sessions are not feasible or take too much time.
