Many people complete a couch-to-5K training schedule to get active, improve fitness and run a 5-km race for the first time. If you want a more varied challenge which will increase your fitness and endurance, a sprint-distance triathlon may be a good option. A triathlon features three sports -- swimming, cycling and running -- performed consecutively. If you have been a couch potato in the past, make sure to check with your doctor that you are healthy enough to start a triathlon training schedule.
Swim Training
If you are not comfortable with swimming, some lessons with a qualified swim instructor are a good way to ease yourself into this sport. For the three to four months before your triathlon date, you will need to be going swimming at least twice every week, with each swim session lasting somewhere in the 30 to 90-minute range. In a sprint triathlon, the swimming distance is typically 750 meters in open water, or 400 to 500 meters in a pool. Open water swims -- in a lake or the sea -- are most common, and you will need to do open water swim training before race day.
Cycling
The cycling section of a sprint-distance triathlon is 20 km or just less than 12 miles. In the months before your first triathlon, you will likely cycle between two and four hours per week. If you have identified cycling as your weaker sport of the three triathlon disciplines, you may spend more time cycling and less time running and swimming. If you are going for the longer, Olympic-distance triathlon as your first race, you will need to train so that you can cycle 40 km -- just less than 25 miles -- after swimming and before running.
Running
If you are new to running, or if it has been a long time since you jogged or ran, you will likely start up your training with a mixture of walking and jogging workouts. It is important you don't push yourself too hard at the beginning of your training, as this could be a shock to your cardiovascular system and the muscles you haven't used in some time. Overall, you will probably jog or run for roughly one-third of your overall weekly training time -- BeginnerTriathlete.com indicates that between four and 12 hours of training weekly is usually sufficient for a first triathlon.
Bricks And Transitions
Triathlons require a good level of physical fitness and endurance because the cycling and running sections of the race occur when you have already been exercising in at least one other sport. Toward the end of your triathlon training, you will need to work bricks and transition practice into your schedule. A brick is when you train in one sport -- for example, cycling -- and then go straight into another workout -- typically, running -- with no break between. Bricks also give you a chance to practice transitioning from one sport to another -- swimming to cycling, or cycling to running -- in the shortest possible time.
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