Anyone can come up with a good plan, but few people have the willpower to see those plans through. If you're going to compete in a triathlon, you must have determination. If you aren't determined, you will never achieve your training or race day goals.



When you're planning for a triathlon, you need to get to know your strengths and weaknesses; you want to make the most of your strengths and reduce your weaknesses, both physically and mentally. By following a proper training routine, you will learn more about yourself and develop a strategy for improving yourself all the way around.

Everything begins with a triathlon training plan. You need to ensure that you are working with attainable goals in mind.

You are much more likely to carry out your entire plan to the end when you are able to reach small goals continually. When it comes to triathlon training, you aren't just training your body. You are also teaching your mind how to handle fatigue and ignore the negative voices nagging at you to give up.

The length of your training will be determined by the kind of triathlon you'll be participating in. A mini triathlon may only require that you train for a few months or so. An Ironman Triathlon will be much more demanding, so in that case you'll probably need to train up for at least a year.

Triathlons consist of three different sports, so it should come as no surprise that even diehard athletes take a long time to prepare for these races. If you're good at two of the sports but weak in a third, you'll want to concentrate heavily on the sport you're least good at. Once you've gotten good at it, you can begin focusing on improving your performance in all three events.

Your triathlon training should also cover the transitions from one sport to another. This will really test your endurance, because it stresses your body to make it use one set of muscles and then switch to another.

Just as an example, if you go from swimming to running all of a sudden, your body will need time to recognize that different muscles are being put to use. You need to know well in advance what this transition is going to feel like. It's also important to know the order of the events so you can plan correctly.