Training Tips for Beginner Triathletes
Written by Todd Walbert, Triatlon and Swim Coach at Grit Endurance. Learn more about Coach Todd here!
I am thrilled that you have chosen to pursue Triathlon- one of the greatest ways to challenge yourself, improve your fitness and outlook on life. Your Grit Endurance coaches and teammates will be with you on every step of your journey!
Endurance sports require an immense amount of dedication and motivation; and triathlon will transform you in ways you cannot imagine. Your training will be both challenging and rewarding. This tips in this article will help you stay centered, motivated, and healthy as you prepare for your first race day.
The Motivation
Understanding why you chose to pursue triathlon in the first place will keep you going in the tough workouts. Whatever your initial motivation, keep it simple and nurture it.
Set achievable goals and milestones for yourself- not just race goals, but training goals. Setting a mini goal within a workout can keep you fired up through the end. For example, “Can I take one second off this next 100 freestyle?”
Share the suffering! Working out with others provides a high level of both motivation and accountability. Join in on the many group activities your team offers.
The Physical Aspect
Learn to understand what your body is telling you about your fitness, effort level, and injury risk. Knowing the difference between an intentionally high heartrate due to workout design or unintentionally high due to illness is key to performance.
Rest! Training is designed to stress your body a bit more each time you work out. Your body responds to this stress when you are recovering during rest. Whether this means not skipping the rest intervals during a workout, or taking the occasional full rest day during training, make sure you allow enough recovery.
Soreness is expected (and temporary.) You will be using combinations of muscles in ways you have not experienced. Over time you will come to understand the difference between soreness and pain. This is critical to avoid injury.
The Training Plan
Ensure the training plan you use is appropriate to your experience and fitness level. Consider signing up for personal coaching with a Grit Endurance coach for a custom approach to your journey.
Regardless of the training plan you use, learn why it is structured as it is. Know the difference between the long run, track runs, and hill runs and why it is important to work on all of them.
You do not need to train all three disciplines (Swim, Bike, Run) every day.
The training plan is not gospel! You will not die if you miss a workout. While Grit Endurance plans provide an optimal training path for each athlete, there are other ways to get there. If you miss a workout due to your schedule, illness, or life in general, just skip it and move on.
The Workout
Each workout has a specific purpose and intensity level. Understand why you are doing a specific workout and try to stay within the appropriate intensity level. Long runs should almost never be executed with the same intensity of track workouts.
Understand what is being measured for each workout. Your Grit Endurance coach may be looking for ranges of Heartrate (HR), Pace, Power, or Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE), depending on the gear you are using and the purpose of the workout.
Most workouts will focus on a single discipline of triathlon and sometimes even just a single aspect of a single discipline--swim drills that zero in on a part of a stroke as an example.
You may see some two-part workouts. These may be labeled “brick” or “transition” workouts and are designed to train your body to transition from one sport to another.
On the fly adjustments to your workout are sometimes necessary. If the weather is extreme, you are having a bad day, or conditions are otherwise sub-optimal, it is ok to slow down or adjust what you are doing to accommodate. Sometimes, a walk-run strategy is just what is required to keep going.
Swim workouts can be done in a pool or open water. We highly recommend that athletes train in the open water at least some of the time to increase confidence and capability.
Bike workouts can be typically completed indoors on a trainer or outdoors. We recommend outdoor riding when feasible to enhance bike-handling skills on the road.
The Other Stuff
Train your nutrition! Proper fueling and hydration does not come naturally to most athletes. Work with your coach on how much your body requires for performance and use it during your training process. Long runs and rides provide the ideal testing grounds for fueling and hydration training. If you are training for a specific race and intend to use on-course available products, you should also use them in training.
Train your transition! Practice how to optimize your gear layout so that you can seamlessly move from swim to bike and bike to run with everything you need.
Learn basic bike maintenance. You should be able to change a flat without assistance as well as troubleshoot other minor bike issues. This is critical if you plan to do any bike training alone.
Learn how to use your triathlon watch/computer. Understand how to use the gear within each sport and practice using multisport mode if you want to use it during a race.
The Gear
It is entirely feasible to train for and complete a triathlon with just a pair of shoes, a bike, a helmet and shorts and t-shirt. Here is what we recommend at a minimum for each sport. (items in bold text are required)
Swim- Tri shorts, goggles, swim cap
Note on wetsuits- If you are training in or racing in cold water, a wetsuit may be required. Otherwise, they do provide additional buoyancy and speed in the water. It is also possible that wetsuits may be banned in particularly warm water, so it is best to practice open water swimming with and without wetsuits.
Bike- Bike, Helmet, Flat Kit
Run- Running Shoes
Optional Gear
Bike shoes and clipless pedals- provide a highly stable platform for consistent pedaling
Triathlon/Running Smart watches- We highly recommend that you use a smartwatch while completing workouts to gather data that can be used to optimize your training. If you already use a smartwatch (like Apple Watch), you likely do not need to purchase anything new.
HR Strap- While most smartwatches use a built-in HR sensor, we recommend a chest-based HR strap for greater reliability and accuracy
Bike Power Meter- An expensive accessory that measures the power each pedal stroke produces, a power meter allows for very precise optimization of bike workouts.
Bike Trainer- Allows an athlete to train on the bike indoors all year.
Your coaches at Grit Endurance hope you find these tips useful as you begin your training journey into the world of endurance sports. Please contact us with any inquiries about the team or personal coaching!