Triathlon Schedule

The triathlon is one of the most beautiful sports out there. I know it's actully three sports, don't start nitpicking with me. :)

The diversity is wonderful, and the longer you've been doing it, the more you'll love it.

Triathlon is, of course, an endurance sport. Training for one endurance sport and peaking at the right time is pretty difficult. Training for three sports is a massive task.

If you want to create a triathlon training schedule, I'll assume you have the basic knowledge of training priciples, especially about supercompensation. If you don't know about this, read about it and you'll wonder how you ever did without this knowledge! (Read the basic gist over at Triathlon Schedule.)

So you know that you should not train too hard too often (because you'll actually get worse) and that you should not train to little. How do you figure out how this is done?

Well, one thing that athletes should learn, is to listen to their bodies. Training is still not (only) science, and this is an important thing that is all too often underestimated. Please take some more rest when you're feeling tired all of the time.

Another thing is to test. You could test your blood for oxygen after training sessions, but I'll assume you don't have the resources for this. You can do little tests in training. Time 200m or 400m swim distances in training sessions weekly. Do the same things while running and cycling. Don't test sprints (less than a minute or so). Sprint times are far less important for endurance athletes than distance tests.

If you feel you're getting worse (and depending on the workouts you've done that week, it's normal to perform less after a few hard workouts), try to do some extra technique training sessions. Your body will recover and you'll get a better technique.

Of course this is a very simplified explanation on how to schedule your triathlon training sessions. There's no way a hub page can tell you everything there is to know. If you want to know everything about creating a triathlon schedule, I suggest you find a coach or buy a good book on the subject.