Triathlon Training Articles
Long-form articles on training, race execution, and the decisions that move the needle for age-group athletes. No supplement reviews. No marginal gains theatre. Just the stuff that actually matters when you're training on limited hours with a real race on the calendar.
New here? Start with these guides:
• The Time-Crunched Triathlete: Maximising Limited Training Hours
• Why You’re Not Getting Faster: The Forgotten Role of Technical Skills in Triathlon
• Full Distance Race Strategy: Calm Execution Beats Chaos
• Strength Training for Triathletes: Build Strength and Crush Races
Triathlon Transitions: The Fourth Discipline
Most age-groupers lose two to five minutes in T1 and T2 every race. Here is the physiology behind why both transitions feel disorienting, the order of operations that removes the wasted time, and the training that makes it automatic.
Your Race Week, Done Right
Most athletes taper too long, cut too much, and arrive at the start line flat rather than sharp. This is what race week preparation actually looks like when the structure is right: why volume holds through mid-week, why intensity stays in until the final days, and how the seven days before your race either confirm the training or quietly chip away at it.
The Noise in the Kitchen: A Practical Guide to Training Nutrition
Most age-groupers eat the same thing on a rest day as they do on a threshold day, skip meals before early sessions, and spend money on supplements that replace nothing a fridge full of real food cannot do better. Here is what training nutrition actually looks like when you strip the noise away.
Signal over Noise
The endurance industry is crawling with Fixers: people with a surplus of opinions and a total deficit of skin in the game. They will sell you a ceramic pulley wheel, a ketone ester, and a wind-tunnel-tested aero bottle before they ever suggest you just ride your bike consistently. The hardest part of modern performance isn't the physical load. It's the mental discipline to say "no" to the noise.
The Myth of the Bleeding Hero: Redefining Greatness for the Age-Group Triathlete
The endurance world loves the romance of suffering, but pushing through pain doesn't make an amateur athlete great. It just breaks them. A breakdown of the biological toll of 'toughing it out' and why the ultimate competitive advantage is leaving your ego at the door.
Beyond the Numbers: The 3 Durability Benchmarks That Build Real Performance
We have more sensors than sense. The modern triathlete is drowning in data yet becoming more fragile. Why? Because we are optimising for vanity metrics like FTP and VO2 Max, numbers that only matter when you are fresh. But the race doesn't happen in the first hour; it happens in the fourth. This manifesto challenges the "ceiling" mindset and introduces three benchmarks to measure your true Durability. Stop chasing the peak. Build the floor.
The ‘No-Nonsense’ Gear Manifesto: Equipment That Actually Survives the Sport
We face a paradox in triathlon: as equipment becomes more "advanced," it becomes less robust. From bikes that can't survive a flight to "wellness" metrics that convince you you're tired before you even start, we are stuck in a "Gear Trap." In this deep dive, we explore why the fastest equipment is actually the stuff that works every single time.
Structuring Your Season: The Science of A, B, and C Races
Racing without a strategic structure is biological trauma without a plan. How to use A, B, and C races to organise your season and peak when it matters.
Open Water Swimming Tactics: Sighting, Drafting, and Race Execution
The transition from the pool to open water is where most age-groupers lose their race before it begins. It is not about fitness. It is about the cost of transport. Here is how to fix your navigation, drafting, and starts without adding volume.
Ironman 70.3 Race Strategy: Pace to Run Well
Most bad 70.3 runs are paid for on the bike, usually in small, stupid ways that felt “fine” at the time. Overbiking in a 70.3 rarely looks dramatic. It shows up as little surges into wind, pushing climbs to “hold speed”, coasting and punching out of corners, and letting adrenaline decide the first third of the ride. This Ironman 70.3 race strategy breaks down how to pace the bike to run well, with two pacing frameworks (power and HR, plus Easy / Moderate / Medium / Mad), a T2 to 5 km execution plan, fuelling targets that match the pacing, and the warning signs that tell you to correct early. Controlled work buys you a run you can use.
Run Off The Bike: Fix The First 10 Minutes
If you want to run off the bike well, you don’t need more suffering. You need less chaos. The first 10 minutes off the bike are a messy handover: your body is switching movement patterns under load, your pacing brain is overexcited, and your legs feel heavy after cycling even when the pace looks “easy”.
When Motivation Is Gone: A Practical Playbook
When motivation disappears, it’s rarely a character flaw. It’s a signal that your body or brain is in debt. This playbook shows how to triage the problem using simple markers, reduce training friction, and apply a minimum effective dose week that protects fitness without digging a deeper hole.
Form Under Fatigue: How To Keep Moving Well When It Really Matters
Form under fatigue is the difference between racing well and falling apart. This piece shows how to keep your swim stroke, bike position, and run mechanics intact when you’re tired, and how to train it without turning every week into a survival test.
Coming Back After Time Off: Why You Don’t Need to Start From Zero
Time off is part of real life as an age group triathlete. You don’t restart from zero, but you also don’t get to pretend nothing changed. This piece gives you a simple way to return to training without panic volume, hero sessions, or chasing old numbers too soon.
Mental Fatigue, Life Stress, And Why Your “Fresh” Legs Still Feel Heavy
Most age-groupers blame tired legs on fitness, but the real limiter is often a tired brain and a life that never lets up. This article unpacks central fatigue, life stress and poor sleep, and shows you how to use honest self-monitoring, better communication and smarter training structure to actually feel ready to perform.
Keeping Joy and Longevity in Triathlon: Why Athletes Burn Out Young, and How Age-Groupers Can Stay in the Sport for Decades
Athletes are retiring younger, not because they are weak but because sport can swallow everything. This article unpacks burnout, identity and joy in triathlon, and shows how age-groupers can protect their love of the sport and stay in it for decades, not just seasons.
What To Do in Winter – Off‑Season Triathlon Training Principles
Winter is not a five month hiatus or a time for aimless base miles. Here we treat the off-season as a strategic reset, building discipline-specific strength, sharpening skills, using indoor and outdoor sessions intelligently, and avoiding the common winter mistakes that leave triathletes flat by spring.
The Quiet Athlete: Winning Without Needing to Prove It
Quiet confidence is boring and effective. This piece shows what secure training looks like when nobody’s clapping, how it holds up under fatigue, and how to stop chasing validation every session.
Training with Rhythm: Female Physiology and Triathlon Performance (Part 2)
A practical guide to training with rhythm. Pacing, strength work, fuelling and recovery choices that fit real weeks, plus how to adjust when your body is not playing along. Useful if you’re tired of guessing.
Training with Rhythm: Female Physiology and Triathlon Performance (Part 1)
I discuss women's triathlon training, addressing common misconceptions and the significance of tailored approaches. Even though women have unique physiological characteristics, effective training principles like consistency and adaptation remain constant.