Triathalon Training Workouts

The triathlon is one of the more difficult sporting events, requiring a participant to perform swimming, biking and running back-to-back-to-back. Mastering the triathlon enables an athlete to reap great rewards physically and mentally. To prepare for a triathlon, an athlete needs to train hard, engaging in a variety of workouts.

Swim Drills

Referring to a triathlon, John Mora states in "Triathlon 101": "Name another sport that calls a two-hour race a 'sprint' with a straight face!" He also says that the key to success in swimming is technique, and minimizing effort while maximizing results, which leads to better performance. Mora suggests a drill called Side Balancing for what he calls the most critical position for balance. To do this drill, you must kick on one side of your body with the lower shoulder touching your chin and look at the pool bottom. Do short distances at first to get used to it, and swivel your head upward to get a breath. Switch sides and repeat. Once mastered, this drill can be done the entire length of the pool.

Bike Drills

Mora notes that if a triathlete has an aversion to riding the bike, he must overcome it, because the majority of time in a triathlon is spent on the bike. Begin with rides of five to 15 miles. Next, progress to rides of 20 to 100 miles to help build riding intensity and endurance. Time trials help you build endurance and gain the experience of riding at race pace, typically done at half of the upcoming race distance. Finally, there are workouts composed of several hard effort repeats uphill, and a recovery pace ride downhill. Those repeats increase strength and power that help you go faster on the bike.

Running Workouts

Some triathletes who grew up as swimmers or bikers struggle with the run portion of a race. Gale Bernhardt, in "Training Plans for Multisport Athletes," says that endurance running workouts are a good place to start. This involves staying at a moderate, non-race pace, and doing runs of four to six miles daily to build a solid aerobic base. Once this base is established, you can move on to doing strides for speed training. Strides involve a 15-to-20-minute warm-up, then a series of of four to six hard-effort runs, followed by 1-to-2-minute recovery jogs. Depending on the pace, these workouts could cover a total of six to eight miles. Strides help with form and muscular coordination.