Beginners

As a beginner you will need to assess your fitness and activity level before implementing a training regimen and race goals.  You should be honest with where you are at, and you should avoid comparisons to advanced triathletes (regardless if they're in the club or not).  Obviously, beginners who are making a transition from other sports (particularly endurance sports) will find their entrance into triathlon easier than beginners who do not have a history of consistent physical fitness.  But anyone can enter, progress, and succeed in the sport of triathlon, and every beginner will find that in endurance sports (such as triathlon) success is often predicated on mental ability as much as it is dependent on physical ability.

The greatest mistake made by beginners in training is to exert maximum effort at every workout
 every day, and to attempt to take on advanced workouts before they are ready.  While laudable, this is not an advisable course of action, as it may lead to injury or burn-out.  You should maintain expectations in line with your current level of fitness, and set goals that will stretch--but not break--your mind, body, and spirit. 

Different people have different bodies.  Some can live with no training, and show up on race day and complete an Ironman, while others will need to train every day to finish a sprint triathlon.  Some can train hard every day, while others will break down training hard every day.  Know your body, learn to read its signals, and know the difference between pain that is simply suffering (and therefore won't really hurt you) versus pain that points to a real injury (and therefore will hurt you).

In addition, you should understand the following concepts:

Periodization - Triathletes, just as other athletes, set their training schedules in "periods" of varying duration and intensity, so that each workout for each event during the course of a week is different, and that workouts for each event during the course of several weeks is different.  For example, in a given week, a triathlete will have multiple workouts for swimming, but one swim workout may be longer than the others, and another swim workout may be faster than the others.  The same applies to bike and run workouts in a given week.  Most triathletes schedule at least 1 distance workout per week for each event of swim, bike, and run.  Most triathletes also schedule at least 1 high-intensity workout per week for each event.  The purpose is to allow the body sufficient time to recover and incorporate the gains of particular workouts, and also to prevent the onset of monotony.

Progression - All athletes build, or "progress," in their workout duration and intensity towards race day.  The workouts that a triathlete will have in the months before a selected race will be different (usually, shorter and lower in intensity) than the workouts in the weeks before that race.

• Macro-cycle - Most sports have athletes train in workouts following a pattern stretching over months that are "macro-cycles" encompassing patterns stretching over days of "micro-cycles."  For triathletes, macro-cycles are usually meant to provide variety to encourage the body to adapt to a higher level of fitness, and are often used to work on specific elements of triathlon.  For example, one macro-cycle can be swim-focused to help a triathlete build swim endurance and speed, and then the next macro-cycle can be bike-focused to help the triathlete build bike endurance and speed while building on their improved swim fitness.

• Micro-cycle - A "micro-cycle" is the training schedule during a single week.  For triathletes, training workouts are scheduled so that they follow a cycle stretching a week, with a set number of workouts for each event each week.  For example, one micro-cycle might last 7 days, with 3 workouts each of swimming, biking, and running scheduled over 6 days (with 2 workouts per day for 5 of the days) and 1 day of rest.

• Build week - Macro-cycles are usually divided into weeks.  Build weeks are the weeks where the triathlete has organized a workout schedule focused on improving, or "building," endurance and speed.

• Rest week - Rest weeks follow build weeks, and are meant to allow the body to recover from build weeks.  Triathletes in rest weeks usually maintain workouts that are reduced in endurance and intensity, so that their bodies can rest and incorporate the gains of the previous build weeks while still maintaining a level of fitness.  Sometimes triathletes will choose to do no activity at all during a rest week.

• Active rest - Active rest is NOT complete rest.  "Active" rest is a workout of lower duration and intensity than those conducted in "build" workouts, and are generally meant to allow the body to increase bloodflow to a level that flushes out the oxidants created from "build" workouts.

• Taper - Before each race, triathletes reduce ("taper") their workouts in duration and intensity.  The purpose is to allow your body to recover and heal, but still maintain sufficient fitness, so that it is fresh and rested for race day.  Sports medicine research has found that the body will "remember" a fitness level, so the taper does not impact overall fitness, but will compete better if provided a measure of rest in the form of a reduced workload prior to a race.  The length and manner of taper varies according to personal preference of each athlete and the respective distances of each race.

• Over-training - This is what happens when you train too hard, too long, or too frequently.  It is the result of not providing your body sufficient time for recovery.  It is characterized by sluggishness, irritability, perpetual exhaustion, reduced appetite, and an inability to accomplish basic workouts that you would ordinarily consider easy.  Scientifically, it is the condition where the body has exhausted its glycogen stores (the material muscles use for energy) and the muscles have no source for energy or rebuilding, causing the body to alter hormonal chemistry in an effort to limit energy expenditure.  The best recipe for recovery from over-training is rest (anywhere from a few days to a few weeks), to allow your body to replenish its glycogen stores and restore hormone balances.  In severe cases, you will also need to visit a doctor.

Training Zones - For athletes, it is as important to develop your heart, lungs, and your body's efficiency in utilizing oxygen as it is to develop your muscles, reflexes, and coordination.  Endurance athletes, in particular, will organize their workout schedule based in part on the level of exertion that will be placed on their aerobic and anaerobic fitness.  Generally, sports medicine science has recognized different levels of exertion that are used in assessing a workout, and which can be used in developing a training schedule and describing the nature and purpose of a training session.  An exact breakdown of levels for your body requires calculation of your lactic acid threshold.  For purposes of conceptualization, however, beginners can interpret the levels of exertion as roughly falling into the following categories, with some variation for individual bodies:
 

For more detailed and complete information beyond the information presented in this tutorial, you can refer to the following list of texts that club members have found useful:

• Triathlon 101 (John Mora) - An excellent source for beginners

• Triathlons for Women (Sally Edwards) - A women-specific introduction to the sport of triathlon

• Triathlon Training Basics (Gale Bernhardt) - Provides the basics for triathlon training

• The Complete Triathlon Book (Matt Fitzgerald) - An excellent source for beginners

• Training Plans for Multisport Athletes (Gale Bernhardt) - An excellent summary of sample training plans for all triathlon distances

• Going Long (Joe Friel and Gordon Byrne) - An excellent source for Half-Ironman and Ironman distances

• The Triathlete's Training Bible (Joe Friel) - An excellent source for training-obsessed intermediate and advanced triathletes interested in the technical side of training

• Swim, Bike, Run (Wes Hobson) - An introduction to training for the sport of triathlon

Additional information can also be found on-line at the following websites:

• Active.com

• Hulaman.com

• Peak Performance

• Trifuel.com

• Tri-Newbies On-line

• Xtri.com