The triathlon is an endurance race that begins with swimming, is followed by bicycling and ends with running. There are four kinds of triathlons--sprint, international, long and ultra. The sprint triathlon is a half-mile of swimming, 12.4 miles of bicycling and 3.1 miles of running. The ultratriathlon is 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of bicycling and 26.2 miles of running. The amount of exercise required to prepare for such long races makes understanding the science of human physiology crucial.
Training Muscles
General aerobic exercises are not enough to prepare you for the triathlon. You must train by swimming, bicycling and running because your neuromuscular pathways--the connection between your brain and your working muscles--for the three sports are different, according to "Swim, Bike, Run." Training in a specific sport improves your neuromuscular pathway for that sport. "Scientific literature has shown that swimming will not bring about better running performances, and vice versa," write authors Glenn Town and Todd Kearney.
Resting Muscles
You should not perform any exercise on consecutive days because your "skeletal muscles start to break down when exercised intensely more often than every other day," according to the Merck Manual of Medical Information. Your muscles are sore the day after a workout because intense exercise causes "microscopic tearing" and bleeding. Consequently, you need to swim one day, bicycle the next while your swimming muscles heal, run the next day while your bicycling muscles heal, and continue this pattern. "When the muscles heal, they are stronger," the manual reports.
Speed Training
Preparing your muscles for a triathlon requires you to train long enough to prepare your neuromuscular pathways to function at the "developmental" speed you need during a race. You should swim, bike or run at developmental speed for 45 seconds every three minutes, according to "Swim, Bike, Run." By training at a faster speed, you are overloading--creating a stress that damages your body temporarily but leads to it overcompensating for the stress in future training sessions if it's rested properly.
Improving Your Heart
Your heart can be safely exercised daily. Training it to function at higher rates is important preparation for a triathlon. First, you need to improve your fitness level by exercising so your heart rate is between 45 and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate, or 220 beats per minute minus your age, according to "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease." If you're 40 years old, your heart rate should be between 81 and 144 (180 times .45 equals 81).
Endurance Training
You reach your peak endurance performance by training for longer periods and more intensely. Longer workouts while your heart rate is between 45 and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate increase your maximum oxygen consumption, store more fat in your muscles and increase your fuel supply. More intense workouts--those that increase your heart rate to 80 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate--improve your tolerance to lactic acid, so your body can perform at high speeds during long races.
References
- "Swim, Bike, Run"; Glenn Town and Todd Kearney; 1994
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
- The Merck Manual of Medical Information; 1999
- "Essentials for Health and Wellness;" Gordon Edlin, Eric Golanty, Kelli McCormack Brown; 2000
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