Intro to Training for the Triathlon

A triathlon is a sporting event consisting of three events: swimming, running, and cycling. Triathlons thus focus on endurance and versatility, which makes training for triathlons a complicated process. There are various theories about training, whether triathlon training is any different from training for cycling, swimming, or running individually. One unique part of the triathlon, however, are the transitions from one even to the next, which can require their own practice.

In this free video series, triathlete Dave Campbell teaches you how to train yourself and condition for a triathlon. Dave covers each event in turn, the running, cycling, and swimming sections. Dave will give you tips on strength and endurance training, transitions between events, the importance of stretches and increasing flexibility. You will learn how to run with longer strides, bike with more endurance, and swim with strength. It is all here.

"Hi I'm Dave Campbell, welcome to our how-to video for triathlon. I've been competing in endurance athletics for thirty years, and triathlons for ten of those years. And you as a tri-athlete, are an endurance athlete. I think it's best to think of yourself as that. And as a tri-athlete, you need to train yourself as a cyclist, as a swimmer and as a runner. All of those avenues you need to train with an eye toward triathlon. So participate in activities that give you the most bang for your buck. So emphasize quality over quantity. You have a limited amount of time to train. Most people who do triathlons have families, have careers, etcetera and so you need to make what you do count, and that's what we're going to talk about today. One thing you can do is use activities, group activities, group bike rides, your local running club, a local 5K, things like that, events in your community to build skills, to build speed, to test your fitness at key points in the year. But think of yourself as an endurance athlete, you can do all those things, not just a tri-athlete. I think too many tri-athletes get stuck into real fixed rate speeds of training and they don't do enough diverse things in and of those three sports, but you can always keep an eye towards the triathlons. So if you do your local running race, you can even brick it. You can do it to where you do a bike ride before it, show up at your local running race and then do a 5K and make it work for you. We're going to talk about structuring a year 'round training plan for you as a tri-athlete. One thing that's real important to remember is you're not an elite runner, or an elite swimmer or an elite cyclist, so you can't compare your mileages that you're doing for triathlon to the guy in the local running club who's specializing in the marathon. So quality is going to be the emphasis and making what you do count. So let's get started."