Triathlon Blog

Low Jeremy writes about what he says you must know about triathlon suits:

Triathlon suits are normally wet suits. Nonetheless, they are matters of personal choice. Anyone can choose their suits according to their best judgements and no one can restrict them from doing so. But whatever freedom is given to the racers, they still must choose what is ideal to them.

Being the type of suit that provides most of the advantages in using the principle of cold and heat absorption, wet suits seem to rank top among all choices.

But not all wet suits are alike. There are those that were specifically designed for SCUBA diving, surfing and those that are perfect for triathlon races.

From the suit’s simplest form, they have undoubtedly morphed into varying classifications that optimize the use of wet and cold system.

Basic physics tell us that heat transfers from a hot object towards a colder one. This law is so simple that you can bet it and argue otherwise ’til your wit’s end. No triathlon suit can prevent the exchange of cold and heat. After all, that is not the work they were intended to do. However, many are so entirely engineered to make as much delay of the heat transfer as physical science would allow.

It is critical for a triathlon swimmer to preserve as much heat as his suit will allow because delay (even by a second or two) can create a large discrepancy between you and the racer running before and after you.

The loss of heat in water are dependent on several variables including the total mass of the person’s body, a person’s physical exertion, the materials used in creating the triathlon suit and the temperature of the surrounding water itself.

The ideal triathlon suit, or any wet suit for that matter, is one that is made of three layers. The outer protective layer, the insulation layer and the wicking layer.

The outer protective layer is obviously the one that coats the whole of the suit. The more popular material used for this is the neoprene. This works well yet very delicate that simple scratches may actually cause the suit to get serious damages.

The insulation layer, on the other hand, appears in many varieties. The most usual choices include wooly bear, open-cell foam, type-B marine thinsulate, and radiant barriers.

The wicking material acts as the absorber of skin’s moisture thus keeping the racers’ skin dry. When the body is wet, it looses much heat than normal. The wicking layer of the skin prevents this from occurring.

This content is provided by Low Jeremy and may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more info on Triathlons, please visit http://triathlon.articlekeep.com

Gabriel Adams offers the following triathlon training tips:

A triathlon is one of the most brutal and taxing sports that you can take part in. However finishing a triathlon can also be one of the most rewarding things that you can do in a lifetime. The worst thing that you can do is signing up to compete in a triathlon without training properly. Many people think that if they are a good athlete and they are in good shape, then they can compete in and finish a triathlon without too much trouble. This is not true.

Competing in a triathlon is not like competing in any other sport. The first step in training for a triathlon is choosing which type of triathlon you would like to compete in. The different types of triathlons are the Sprint, Olympic, and Ironman triathlon. The Sprint is the easiest of the triathlons and the Ironman is the hardest. If you are a beginner, you should compete in the Sprint triathlon a few times, before moving on to one of the longer competitions.

Now that you have chosen the triathlon that is best suited for you, you need to start training. The triathlon is comprised of swimming, biking, and running. When deciding how to train, you should decide which one of these three disciplines you are the best at doing, and which one you are the worst. Then focus on spending more time training on the discipline you are the worst at doing.

Once you start training for the triathlon, you need to make sure that you continue to train, because stopping for any length of time will cost you many of the gains you have made. You should alternate days for training on the different disciplines, and also work in weight training and stretching sessions as well. You should also choose one day for resting where you do no training at all. This will allow your body to rest and gain its strength back for the next training session. Keep working towards your goal every day, and you will be finishing a triathlon in no time!

About the Author: Get your Outdoor sports equipment such as Timex watches, Bushnell binoculars, and more on our site.

Ben Greenfield wrote an article called How to Get the Most Out of Your Triathlete Training Program:

1. Baseline Measurements

No training program should be designed without first determining proper training zones and intensities. The more specific the better. Raise your eyebrow when a training program simply instructs you to go at “race pace”, or “long easy effort”. Instead, each recommended intensity needs to include quantitative values. This means that your cycling hill interval workout should not just be “6-8 long hill repeats”, but should also prescribe power or heart rate training zones; such as “6-8 hill intervals of 4 minutes at an average of 300 watts”, or “6-8 hill intervals of 4 minutes at a heart rate of 154-165″. In order for a training program to prescribe such intensities, it is necessary for you to take baseline measurements.

The most common baseline measurement is a series of time trials that allow you to determine your approximate anaerobic or lactate threshold, or what is sometimes called the “maximum lactate steady state” effort. Basically, this just means that before designing your training program, you must spend 20-30 minutes in each of your sports (i.e. swimming, cycling, and running) determining what your maximum *sustainable* pace is. Generally, this corresponds well with the point at which your body is removing lactate as fast as it is accumulating, and you are beginning to breath rapidly to “blow off” carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. Your training program’s intensities, or zones, are then based off the heart rate or wattage at which this state occurs. If there are no baseline measurements, the success of your training program will be sub-optimal, at best. During the first two to three weeks of taking on a new athlete, I run them through a battery of tests that help determine these training zones, so that I can write their workouts to be biologically specific.

2. Periodization

Periodization is the process of breaking a training program year into smaller periods, or units of time duirng which the training occurs at specific volumes and intensities. By arranging these periods in the correct sequence leading up to your races, peak performance can be achieved without overtraining or injury. A training program that has you at the identical training intensities and volumes, week in and week out, is not a periodized training program. A very basic example of periodization would be “base training”, during which you build your aerobic system and teach the body the work more efficiently in the presence of lactic acid; followed by a “build” in training intensity and volume as you become fitter and stronger; then a “taper” as you approach race season, where your body absorbs the benefits of the “build” cycle; and finally a “recovery” period after racing season, in which you joints heal and your body recovers from the season. There is no perfect periodization scheme, but any good training program needs to lay the groundwork for training in a structured and periodized format, as opposed to training the same way the entire year, then “laying off” for a week or so before the race. Periodizing a training program is difficult and time consuming. During the first week that I take on a new athlete and design their annual training plan, I’ll spend 4-5 hours ensuring that just the basic periodization is “perfect” - and it usually still needs changes as the season progresses!

3. Training Specificity

Your training must be race specific. If you’re preparing for a marathon with 3 weekly tempo sessions, 1 weekly speed-work track session, and 1 long weekend run, you’re spending way too much time in an anaerobic, carbohydrate burning zone, and your body is not learning how to work in an efficient aerobic manner. This means you’re going to be full of lactic acid and high blood acid during your marathon and have a very uncomfortable race, if you even finish. Beware of any training program that doesn’t have you “training like you race”. This means lots of practice with race specific fueling, race specific intensities, and race specific courses or topography. If you have a flat, fast race approaching in three weeks, you shouldn’t be wasting much time with hill intervals, and vice versa. All my athletes must provide me with a complete list of their planned and desired races, so that I can ensure their training actually is race specific.

4. Holistic Philosophy

Your training program can’t just prescribe workouts and nutrition. It must take into consideration stress levels, amount of sleep, resting heart rate, weight, fatigue levels, etc. Your training program must listen to your body. If you try to “push” through a prescribed workout, just to follow the rules, this may not be the best idea. It’s also nice to be able to look back and see how the resting heart rate was leading up to a bad race, versus a good race, or how the weight fluctuates before signs and symptoms of overtraining occur. All the athletes I train are recommended to keep track of these variables on their daily training log.

5. R&R

Rest and recovery must occur! While for those of us with busy lives, this may mean that your rest week takes place during the visit to the in-laws at the end of one month, and happens during your long week of deskwork in the middle of another month, your must decrease training intensity and volume at regular periods throughout the training year. Some training programs might include every 4 weeks and some every 3 weeks, but all programs must allow your body to stop, then soak up like a sponge all the benefits of your hard work. Otherwise, you’re just chipping away at yourself until sickness or overtraining forces you to stop.

I hope this information helps you in choosing your training program. If you’re interested in coaching with Pacific Elite Fitness, just shoot me an e-mail at elite@pacificfit.net. I’ll help you choose a plan that works for you from a scheduling and affordability standpoint, then have you set-up within a few days. Don’t wait too long to plan, and as always, train smart!

Ben Greenfield runs Pacific Elite Fitness at http://www.pacificfit.net, an online portal for personal training, triathlete coaching, and free fitness and multi-sport advice. He resides in Liberty Lake, WA, where he works as director of sports performance for Champion Sports Medicine, a training and testing lab for athletes. Ben graduated from University of Idaho with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sports science and exercise physiology, and is certified as a personal trainer and coach by the National Strength & Conditioning Association. Ben also offers individualized personal training, multi-sport coaching, training program design for athletes, lifestyle wellness and diet advising, and corporate consulting for workplace fitness programs. To learn more, visit http://www.pacificfit.net or e-mail Ben at elite@pacificfit.net

I like the funny title of Ben Greenfield’s article, How To Absolutely Suck In Your Next Triathlon. Read the article below:

For some of you, this article comes a bit too late. You’ve had a great season and it’s too late to mess up in any more races. For others, you’ve still got time to bite the bullet and suck it up in your next event.

Ready for me to spill the beans on how to have a horrible race, and maybe even a PR (Personal Ruin)? Read on, O Ye of Low Self-Expectation.

1. Don’t warm up for your three sports. That’s right. Forget to print the Mapquest directions, arrive at the race late, and have barely enough time to dip your toes in the water before the starting pistol fires (who am I kidding…does *anybody* use a firearm anymore to start a race?). Since a warm-up in each skill - running, bicycling, and swimming - will distribute blood flow for specific individual muscle requirements, allow for enhanced lactate buffering, and improve heart stroke volume and respiratory muscle elasticity, you want to completely avoid this step. Especially avoid any race pace accelerations, which remove any overnight staleness and heat the body’s core temperature to necessary pre-race requirements. I suggest tucking a small pillow or hammock into your race bag. That way you can take a pre-race map, and awake to the sound of the other athletes churning into the water.

2. Hold back on the swim start. Don’t charge out into the water, fight for your space, and psyche-up mentally and physically for a fantastic, fast race. Instead, wade timidly into the water, ease yourself into race pace, then get kicked in the nose by multiple other slow starters as you try to weave your way through the crowd. A good method to achieve this objective is to tie two bricks to your feet with a small piece of twine, then remove the bricks at about the halfway point, when you finally feel like trying to swim fast.

3. Never practice or attempt the “shoes-on-pedals” start. You’ll never be able to do it anyway, right? Just fumble with your cleats for awhile, hope that you won’t have to run any more than 2 feet before clipping in, and add 30-40 seconds to your transition time. As a matter of fact, don’t practice swim-to-bike transitions at all in your training. There’s so much more to worry about, and who cares about free time? You can just run 10 seconds faster for every mile to make up that lost time.

4. Avoid the aero position at all costs. Stand on every hill and every pass, come out of aero for all your hydration and nutrition, and sit up for all the corners. No matter that the momentum transfer is an enormous waste of energy, and that wind tunnel tests have verified that the aero position is (shock!) the fastest. Besides, it’s uncomfortable, your back hurts, and even though you plan on racing in triathlons for the next decade or so, that $100 biomechanical fitting fee just can’t be worth it.

5. See number 3. Also don’t try “shoeless dismounts” coming off the bike. Even though this shaves precious seconds off your transition time, and makes you look like a rock-star, practicing this in a non-race situation might result in an inconvenient foot rash or maybe even crashing your bicycle in a grassy park while traveling at a neck-breaking 8 miles per hour. The same rule still applies - don’t practice transitions, bricks, or any of the “logistical nightmarish activities” in your training. What a headache, anyways.

6. Walk the first mile of the run. It feels comfy and nice. Nobody wants to endure that death march through the first 5000 feet or so, when those precious quads are still bombed from the bike. What is this, a race or something?

7. Do not estimate your fuel and hydration needs, or take into consideration the fact that your body can assimilate 4.1-4.6 calories of carbohydrate per minute, and needs the equivalent of approximately 1 water bottle per hour, not to mention regular electrolyte dosing, and small amounts of protein and fats, as well as a pre-race meal with low-glycemic index carbohydrates and minimal fat and fiber. It is a pain to do, often requires a calculator, and may even necessitate a bit of pre-race planning and packing. Instead, see what yummy suprises are in your race swag bag, and eat these colorful morsels when you start to feel hungry on the bike. If you’re not full, continue to eat, perhaps accepting the peanut butter and jelly sandwich another racer offers you as you stand by the side of the road, attempting to change a flat tire, which you’ve never attempted to do, but it can’t be that difficult…

Ben Greenfield runs Pacific Elite Fitness at http://www.pacificfit.net, an online portal for personal training, triathlete coaching, and free fitness and multi-sport advice. He resides in Liberty Lake, WA, where he works as director of sports performance for Champion Sports Medicine, a training and testing lab for athletes. Ben graduated from University of Idaho with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sports science and exercise physiology, and is certified as a personal trainer and coach by the National Strength & Conditioning Association. Ben also offers individualized personal training, multi-sport coaching, training program design for athletes, lifestyle wellness and diet advising, and corporate consulting for workplace fitness programs. To learn more, visit http://www.pacificfit.net or e-mail Ben at elite@pacificfit.net.

Low Jeremy gives advice for a triathlon training program:

Training program is largely dependent on the character of the person undergoing it. The type will be dictated by the experiences the trainee has had, the level of performance he gives and can give, the body physique and a number of others.

It will definitely start with a comprehensive plan that will focus on your strength and weakness to develop both of them, one to avoidance and the other to ways that will maximize it.

A good plan is never good enough if it cannot even start. You have to visit first your physician to know the general applications you might do with your body. The adjustments in diet, habits and lifestyles and the extent of use you can endure.

Once a check-up is done, the next best thing you can do is to seek the intervention of a professional trainer (if you are planning to take triathlon a lifestyle). If you’ re not, you can always become a weekend warrior and train whenever it pleases you.

Train on your weak sports and give your best shots on your forte. Training must be gradual and so you must expect a gradual change. No winners won because they sacrificed overnight. In fact, the best triathlon athletes train years before they achieve the Iron Man title. It is always that way, there are no quick fixes to achievements.

Training on any of the fields is recommended to be performed by joining a crowd. This practice won’t only help you gather helpful tips and first hand information but will also adapt you to the similar environment during the race.

The equipments need not always be top of the line. The technology used in developing them will surely help you gain your advantages yet these don’t always tell it all. Often, everything lies on your skills and the products of your hard works as produced from your training program.

When off training, making situations like those that resemble your training periods would prove to be good extensions of your training momentum. This will help optimize your race-like attitude. You may also practice transitions and brick training in here to create an environment for your body to get used to.

A training program does not only include training for the race itself. It also integrates plans after the competition. Usually, this involves recovery period that should be planned systematically since most competitors receive muscle injuries due to rigid training and harsh experiences during the competition

This content is provided by Low Jeremy and may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more info on Triathlons, please visit http://triathlon.articlekeep.com

Mike Herman writes about men’s triathlon clothing:

In the world of triathlons, men triathlon clothing may be the difference between doing well and winning the race.

In these days of high tech fabrics and unique methods of clothing construction, what you wear has never been more important.

If you are competing in worn, torn clothing, consider revamping your wardrobe and your racing attitude by choosing the latest kinds of clothing.

The rise of technology advanced clothing is perfect for anyone who wants to gain a leg up on their competition and enjoy newfound success in the sport of triathlons.

Perfect For Land Or Sea

Since triathlons take place both on land and in water, it makes perfect sense that mens triathlon clothing should accommodate both environments.

Today’s latest pieces of triathlon clothing take its cue from the amphibians that occupy both types of living.

Instead of having to change outfits between each stage of the race or suffer through bulky, heavy, inappropriate clothing that can chafe, aggravate, and hamper your movements, these technologically advanced pieces of clothing are custom made for triathletes by triathletes.

Type Of Clothing

When it comes to the typical triathlete’s apparel , there are many options in the specific types of clothing available.

Typically though, there are two main options: wear a two piece uniform of shorts and a shirt or wear a sleek one piece outfit.

The difference between these two types of clothing is vast, and the preference is strictly a personal one.

If you are wondering what type of triathlon outfit would be best for your specific style and needs, you are strongly urged to try both types.

Some individuals find the one piece suits a dream, since they fit your body like a second skin.

Other athletes stand by the tradition of wear separates during their racing and stick to the basics.

Triathlon shorts are available in two main styles: trunks and form-fitting shorts reminiscent of traditional bicycling shorts.

Both types of these shorts are custom made for running, swimming, and riding in a triathlon.

The trunk style of triathlon shorts are made in a similar style of swimming trunks, but featured a padded crotch region to make riding your bicycle more comfortable.

Similarly, form-fitting shorts are made with less padding which, unlike bicycle shorts, are more comfortable for running and swimming.

Both of these types of shorts are made from technologically advanced fabrics that are capable of drying quickly and weigh next to nothing.

The Water

When the water temperature is incredibly cold for those early morning or late season triathlons, look no further than wet suits.

Although typical wetsuits are bulky, thick, and cumbersome, the triathlon wetsuits are sleek and lightweight.

These wetsuits were first engineered in the mid-1980s by triathlete Dan Empfield.

Fed up with the old fashioned wetsuits suitable for scuba diving but not triathlons, Empfield created a suit that was lightweight and allowed considerable mobility, but was still warm for those chilly waters.

Unlike other wetsuits, the texture of the construction fabric is slick, which allows the athlete to slide through the water with the greatest of ease.

For this reason, triathlon wet suits should not be used for any other sporting event, especially surfing, since the material is fragile and the fabric can easily tear when it comes in contact with sandy surfaces.

Finally, Empfield’s wet suits were made to be donned and taken off quickly and easily, which allows you to save precious minutes during the transition periods between each stage of the race.

Just like your regular clothes , wearing the right outfit to a triathlon can greatly affect your performance. For this reason, take special care when purchasing the outfits for your favored sporting event.

What You Need Is At Gear4Triathlons.com . Find The Best Triathlon Gear That You Need To Bring Your Workouts and Races To The Next Level.

Ben Greenfield writes 5 open water swim tips for triathletes:

1. Try your race goggles in open water swims *before* the actual race. The visibility that you experience in the pool will be noticeably diminished in the open water. It doesn’t make sense at all for something as simple as goggles to severely affect your swim, so esnure that you’re confident with your current specs. If they leak, fog, or offer poor sighting in the open water, get a new pair. A company called Aquasphere makes a great swim mask with good face hugging capabilities and awesome visibility.

2. Swim with high elbows. The choppy open water will take your smooth swim stroke that you’ve practiced in the pool and completely swallow up your recovery and entry unless you get the arm sufficiently above the water. Practice a high elbow recovery by “zipping” an imaginary zipper up the side of your body with each stroke.

3. Sight off landmarks, not buoys. With the splashing, extra bodies, and overall commotion, buoys can become very tough to see in some open water swims. Attempt to focus on larger, more visible objects, like stationary boats, bridges or houses on the shore. Try to line these up as close as possible to your swim course, and you’ll have a much easier time staying on target.

4. Swim on the perimeters. In a large triathlon with many participants in each wave, you’ll experience less frustration and be able to maintain a steadier pace if you stay to the outside or inside of the group. While drafting may not be as readily available, you’ll waste much less energy changing your pace to match the group. Just beware - in you swim on the inside of the group, there will be quite a bit of position jockeying as you approach the turn buoy, so be ready to fight off other swimmers.

5. Practice swimming with groups. Many of us get used to a relaxing, solo swim in the pool or open water, then completely panic when a hundred other bodies are thrown in the water along with us. Swim at the local beach during busy times, swim at your pool during “family” swim time, join an outdoor or indoor master’s swim group, and get used to not having the water to yourself. This will help you experience more choppiness in the water, assist you with unexpected changes of pace, and train you, both mentally and physically, to adapt to the movements of other bodies in the water while staying relaxed.

Pacific Elite Fitness, at www.pacificfit.net, now offers swim stroke video analysis. Contact elite@pacificfit.net for instruction on how to shoot your video and send it in for professional video analysis. For local Spokane, Couer d’ Alene, or Post Falls athletes, underwater filming is also available. Call Ben at 208-883-7705 for more information.

Ben Greenfield runs Pacific Elite Fitness at http://www.pacificfit.net, an online portal for personal training, triathlete coaching, and free fitness and multi-sport advice. He resides in Liberty Lake, WA, where he works as director of sports performance for Champion Sports Medicine, a training and testing lab for athletes. Ben graduated from University of Idaho with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sports science and exercise physiology, and is certified as a personal trainer and coach by the National Strength & Conditioning Association. Ben also offers individualized personal training, multi-sport coaching, training program design for athletes, lifestyle wellness and diet advising, and corporate consulting for workplace fitness programs. To learn more, visit http://www.pacificfit.net or e-mail Ben at elite@pacificfit.net.

Kevin Koskella writes about tapering for a triathlon:

You may have been training for weeks or months already, but now it is 2 weeks before your race and it’s time to think about resting. Many triathletes find this more difficult than swimming 5,000 yards, biking the hills, or running a half marathon!

Here are some things to keep in mind if you are beginning your taper or rest period before your race.

1. Do longer warmups and warmdowns. You can keep your distance up, but start to add more to the beginning and end portion of your workout. This ‘active rest’ will assure that you are well rested for your race but not out of shape.

2. Avoid big meals and sugar. Tapering is an adjustment for your body, and your immune system may not be as strong during this time. Big meals and carbohydrates like sugar will wear your immune system and leave you susceptible to colds and flus. Keep in mind that as your workout intensity decreases, you must decrease calorie intake accordingly.

3. Get as much sleep as you can before midnight. Ideally, get to bed by 10:30. The sleep you get before midnight is the most crucial to your recovery. You will feel more rested if you can do this for at least 2 weeks before your event.

4. Lay off the strength training. This is more of an individual call (some people feel better if they are doing some strength work all the way up until the event, others will be too broken down unless they take a good 2 weeks off), but at the minimum, you should go lighter in the weeks leading up to your event.

5. Avoid caffeine. It may be tough if you are a coffee addict, but 2 weeks of not having that morning cup will give you more natural energy for your race. Take it from 6-time Ironman champion Mark Allen- he practiced this for every race and it worked pretty well for him!

6. Increase your meditation or yoga. Less time working out means more time to prepare mentally! If you don’t do yoga already, don’t start now. However, find some quiet time during the day to get away from work and working out to clear your mind. Think about how easy that swim will be since you are well-prepared with Tri Swim Coach!

7. You will have more energy during your rest or taper period. Don’t be tempted to use it! Save it for your event and you will be glad you did.

Have a great race!

About the Author: Kevin operates the website http://www.triswimcoach.com/, a resource for beginning through intermediate level triathletes looking for help with swimming. The site features a free email newsletter offering tips and articles on triathlon swimming. Kevin has also written an electronic book titled “The Complete Guide to Triathlon Swimming” which is sold on his website in downloadable form at http://www.triswimcoach.com/.

Doug Wilson writes about triathlon training with a heart rate monitor:

Training with a heart rate monitor is one of the most important things you can do for several reasons. First and foremost, your primary goal should be to train safely. Never begin a training regimen without first getting clearance from your physician. You don’t want to put yourself in a dangerous situation and compromise your health or your life by elevating your heart rate into dangerous levels. Training with a heart rate monitor will help you stay within safe limits.

Second, most people tend to over train. They may think that they need to have the “no pain, no gain” philosophy. This actually impedes your ability to achieve greater gains in your performance. If you consistently over train, you are setting yourself up for injury or at least burnout. If you get injured, then you will have to stop training to allow yourself time to heal and you will end up at square one anyway.

Also, as your heart rate elevates, your body will transition from a primarily aerobic fat-burning mode into a cardiovascular mode and then into an anaerobic mode. Once you are into the anaerobic mode, your body will begin to draw on the energy stores in your muscles (glycogen). Not only are those energy stores limited, but you will also create lactic acid buildup in your muscles (which causes that soreness and burning after a workout).

There are a number of ways to calculate your maximum heart rate. The simplest formula is (220 – your age). For example, if you are 30 years old, your maximum heart rate would be (220 – 30) = 190. You should never exceed your maximum heart rate.

Generally speaking, if you train at a level that is between 55% to 65% of your maximum heart rate, then you will be training in a primarily fat burning aerobic mode. Between 65% and 75%, you’ll be in a primarily cardiovascular mode. Between 75% and 90%, you’ll be in a primarily high-intensity or anaerobic mode.

You’ll probably be surprised to know that you can actually train at a lot lower (easier) level and have incredible gains. It may initially feel weird to train at an easier heart rate level, but here’s what happens. First, you can go a lot longer in your training. Your body will adjust so that your metabolism increases over time. Your body will become very efficient at burning your body’s fat stores, which will enable you to feel like you can go forever. Your cardiovascular system will improve and you will probably have less joint and muscle pain.

Over time, your speed will continue to improve, but your heart rate will stay roughly the same. For example, let’s say you begin to train in a heart rate range of 127-134. When you begin training in this range, you might be just fast-walking or jogging lightly in order to stay in the range. You might be running a 12:00 mile. Over time, though, (a few months, maybe) you’ll find that you work down to a 9:00 mile and still stay within the same heart rate range. Eventually, your performance gains will level out. Once your pace levels out consistently for a month or two, it will be time to alter your workouts to intensify and do some harder intervals and anaerobic sprints for a few months. For example, you might need to train in a range of 134-152. (Again, your actual ranges will vary based on your age, your level of fitness and the advice of your physician).

You’ll find that as you work through the more intense phase of workouts for a few months, your performance will show similar improvement until it eventually flattens out. Once it does, you’ll then need to transition back to the easier aerobic phase. The difference is, you’ll be running at a much faster pace. You might be running a 7:00 mile now at the original heart rate range of 127-134.

If you keep working out using this training methodology, you can eventually run (or bike) very fast for sustained periods of time at a relatively low perceived level of difficulty. Your race times will dramatically improve.

There are a number of heart rate models and brands on the market (see our reviews of heart rate monitors). Most of them have a chest strap that is worn around the torso. The strap has electrodes that contact the skin just below the chest/breast area. The one I use has flexible electrodes and is very comfortable to wear for extended periods. Usually they transmit your heart rate to a wristwatch unit. The watch will display your heart rate and most will provide audible beeps if your heart rate falls outside of a programmed range. Some units will also transmit heart rate data to your computer to use with various software programs.

I use some training software when I train. The software allows me to enter information about myself such as age, gender, fitness level, the amount of time I have to train each week and the type of race I want to train for. It then calculates workouts in blocks of 3 weeks at a time. At the end of each 3 week period, there is a fitness test where I run a very specific distance at a very specific heart rate. This data is plotted over time so that once the software detects that the time to run the specified distance is no longer improving, it then switches the workouts into the anaerobic mode and it includes intervals and higher intensity workouts. The software lets me download the heart rate information from my heart rate monitor after each workout. Each workout is given with a specific heart rate range and a specific time frame. It doesn’t matter how far you run or bike – it only matters how long you do the workout in the heart rate range. For example, it might say to warm up for 15 minutes in a range of 108-127 BPM (beats per minute) and then do 40 minutes in a range of 127-136 BPM and then cool down for 15 minutes in a range of 137 to 80 BPM.

The bottom line is, you really can’t (and shouldn’t) train without a heart rate monitor. The benefits far outweigh the dollar cost of the monitor and you will have a much better training experience and help yourself to avoid injury and safely improve your performance.

Doug Wilson Triathlon Gear- How to Train with a Heart Rate Monitor

Mike Herman writes about triathlon training for beginner athletes:

If you are new to the wonderful sport and are a triathlon training beginner, welcome to a new and exciting chapter in your life!

This competitive sport is a thrilling road race, bicycle tour, and swim meet all in one.

Whatever your reasons for beginning the sport, you will soon find there are a few critical steps when starting your triathlon training for beginner athletes.

Steps for the Triathlon Training Beginner to Work On

The first key step is to develop a realistic training plan.

Know your strengths and weaknesses.

The emphasis on realistic should be noticed, as many individuals push themselves too quickly and end up injured.

The second key step is to ensure you are healthy and in shape before tackling your first triathlon.

If you are interested in triathlon training and are a beginner , look into options available in the community.

Plan a trip to your local gym and check out if they have any triathlon training for beginner triathletes.

Most gyms have programs developed for introducing this sport to interested individuals and provide the expertise and training necessary.

Also, contact a group or organization that sponsors triathlons.

These groups are great resources for information for developing a training schedule as well as information on the sport.

Once you have practiced and believe yourself to be ready, look into participating in your first triathlon.

Check out an event schedule online or through your local contacts.

The World Wide Web is an excellent tool when searching for triathlons for participating in as well as techniques and plans for developing your skills.

Even after you consider yourself a triathlete, remember that training never stops.

Work diligently towards honing your skills and strengths while minimizing your weaknesses.

Develop a strategy for tackling the sport and begin to compete in events outside your local area.

Participating in a triathlon is an excellent way to complete any goals and improve on your personal health.

Find more at Triathalon Racing. Do you have what you need to improve your workouts and your races?