Welcome to Complete Triathlon Guide. The sport of triathlon is growing at a tremendous rate as more and more people participate in triathlons to stay healthy, get fit, and have fun. Triathletes are highly motivated, and they want to learn everything they can about the sport to help themselves become better athletes. Training for triathlons is a challenge because of the unique balance needed in swimming, biking, and running in order to achieve success. This book provides athletes and coaches of all skill and experience levels the best training information and racing strategies available. It is an absolute must-have resource for coaches and athletes who are serious about taking performance to the next level or those wanting to learn more about the sport. Complete Triathlon Guide is filled with training tips and information from the best-known experts in the triathlon field.
When we started discussing the possibility of putting this book together, we were excited to have the leaders of triathlon coaching, training, and racing willing to write a chapter on a topic they are best known for. Each of these authors has enough knowledge and expertise to write their own books, and many have, so we are grateful to each of them for sharing a piece of their knowledge in this book.
Part I, Training, includes chapters 1 through 10. Chapter 1 focuses on developing your seasonal training plan and understanding periodization. Chapter 2 discusses how to customize training for special groups including beginners, youth, and masters and female athletes. Chapter 3 introduces you to yoga by talking about the benefits of yoga and types of classes while also providing several yoga poses that can be practiced at home. Chapter 4 helps you understand how to incorporate strength training for triathletes by covering resistance training concepts, organizing a strength training program for triathlon, and explaining specific strength training exercises that can improve a triathlete’s fitness and performance.
As we move into chapter 5, we start getting into sport-specific training by covering swimming pool workouts for open water including the warm-up, technique work, main set, and cool-down. Chapter 6 discusses training for triathlon biking, while chapter 7 gets into the specifics of triathlon run training. Chapter 8 is dedicated to helping you understand overtraining and recovery, how to balance stress and recovery, and how to anticipate and prevent overtraining. Chapter 9 sets the foundation for the book as it discusses exercise physiology, covering the energy, muscular, and cardiorespiratory systems, and shows how manipulating the training loads affects physiological adaptations. Chapter 10 will teach you several key points about tapering including managing the training load during the taper, enhancing recovery during the taper, managing nutrition and hydration during the taper, and other details related to tapering.
Part II, Technique, includes chapters 11 through 15. Chapter 11 discusses bike fitting and mounting, essential skills for the road, and race-day skills. Chapter 12 covers how to set, improve, manage, maintain, and train your bike and run cadences. Chapter 13 goes over the key concepts of how to assess your running form including head, neck, and eye position; breathing; and head-to-toe body position. Chapter 14 explains the importance of setting up your transitions correctly, how to move from the swim to the bike and the bike to the run quickly, and how to have a great swim start. Chapter 15 focuses on how to reduce drag and create propulsion in the water by using body position and an efficient swim stroke.
Part III, Competitive Strategy, includes chapters 16 through 20. Chapter 16 covers everything you need to know about open-water training, tactical race aspects, rules, prerace warm-up, and specific swim tactics. Chapter 17 helps you understand the differences between cycling in a nondrafting race versus a drafting race as well as the skills used in each. Chapter 18 discusses how important it is to understand your limits when it comes to training and racing for triathlons as well as how to strengthen your weaknesses, increase your strengths, and individualize your training. Chapter 19 focuses on getting you mentally prepared for race day by evaluating your mental skills, describing mental skills strategies, and teaching you how to practice mental skills. Chapter 20 helps you prepare for traveling to a race by teaching you how to pack your bike and race gear, how to travel comfortably, and how to arrive at your destination relaxed and ready to race.
Part IV, The Triathlon Lifestyle, includes chapters 21 through 29. Chapter 21 provides you with strategies to help you fit training into your daily schedule while balancing your work and personal life by using time management skills and building a support network. Chapter 22 is a comprehensive discussion of the technological milestones that have been key to triathlon development and how to choose the best swim, bike, and run gear to match your skill level. Chapter 23 discusses what qualities you should look for in a coach, from education and background to philosophy and programs, as well as how a coach can help you with physical and mental skills, fitness assessments, and testing and time management.
Chapter 24 is dedicated to helping you promote an athletic childhood for the children in your life, how to get kids started in triathlon, and how to create champions of sport and life. Chapter 25 covers the most common injuries seen in triathletes, including specific swimming, cycling, and running injuries, and how to treat injuries and when to seek a medical professional’s advice. Chapter 26 explains how to use the nutrition periodization concept and how to eat based on your physical activity and what phase of training you are in. Chapter 27 discusses the physiological role of water and hydration and the specific fluid needs for athletes before, during, and after training and competition. This chapter also covers the adverse health effects related to hydration. Chapter 28 covers other multisport activities beyond just triathlon including duathlon, off-road triathlon, winter triathlon, and adventure racing. Chapter 29 covers how to assess your athletic range and depth of fitness and how to be a lifelong triathlete through safe and effective training.
Much of a triathlete’s swim training will take place in a pool. Internationally, both short-course and long-course pools are measured in meters, and pools in the United States are moving toward this standard. For this reason, meters is the unit of measure we have chosen for pool distances. However, we realize that some readers will be training in yard pools. In this case, readers can swim the same number of yards as meters stated.
This book is a basic guide and resource for the safe and effective development of a comprehensive triathlon training and racing program. It is an absolute must-have resource for coaches and athletes who are interested in their first triathlon or competing in their 50th triathlon. It is loaded with invaluable training information that experts in this book have spent years developing. The authors hope that athletes, coaches, and triathlon enthusiasts will gain an appreciation and a better understanding of what it takes to train for and compete in a triathlon. We hope you enjoy the book!