Train for Your First Triathlon

Determine What Your Goals Are

Figure out how long you want your first triathlon to be. How you start your training for your first triathlon will depend largely upon you and what shape you are in. Do you want to do a half sprint, a full sprint, or an Olympic triathlon? We will start slightly ambitious and go for a sprint length triathlon. Doing a 15 mile will allow you to test yourself, help you familiarize with the transition areas, and allow you to test your equipment.

Starting out

Obviously you are not going to be able to just walk out of your house and start running for five miles, or swim a half mile. You would spend yourself, not to mention possibly damaging your joints. You have to work into things, so you ease into it. Begin with a walk / run program. There are many websites out there with programs for this, and they are effective at getting you running in weeks. If you are overweight you may want to start out with riding a bike and losing a bit of weight before attempting jogging or running. Your joints will be grateful to you. Something else you can start out with is high rep strength training.

• Never increase your training duration or distance more than ten percent over the previous week.


• Always have one week a month be a rest week of sorts. This is extremely important.


• Try to train for your single event three to four times a week.

Focus on either bicycling or running for between two to six months to build your aerobic capabilities. Once you have done one for the range given, then move to the other. Do not attempt to do two or even all three until you are in the kind of shape that will allow for it without hurting yourself.

Plan for swimming, running, and biking

Once you have yourself built up and ready from your previous training regimen, it will be time to train for all three sports at once. In general for a sprint triathlon, you will only have need to train two times a week in each of the three sports. That equates to six days with one rest day. You could also have one day where you do two of the three events, and then the next four days you only train for one. Then you can have 2 days off a week.

Thirteen weeks to race day

Despite what you might think you can lose weight in a weight lifting routine if you keep it serious and do not slack off. It would need to be a high rep / low weight routine so that you do not bulk up. Combine this with your jog routine. It will also help build bone density, and strengthen your joints. At first all of this exercise will leave you sore. After a few months you will feel better, you will be less sore, and you will have more energy.