How to Improve Your Running in a Triathlon

Triathlons are races that involve a combination of swimming, cycling and then running.

The sport is very different than a single discipline race where you only run or swim or cycle, because switching up your muscle groups and transitioning between disciplines involves a new skill that beginner triathletes will need to practice.

As a running coach, I am most often asked how to improve your running time after cycling.

Running is made more difficult after cycling because you are beating up your quads and are hunched over your handlebars for a good amount of time, and then have to completely transition into an upright posture with tired legs (and back and arms for that matter) in order to try to eke out whatever you can in the run.

Cycling posture also affects your breathing, which then carries into the run and making it more difficult.

The first thing you can do is to add brick workouts during your training, wherein you go out for a good ride on your bicycle and then go immediately into a run. (You can also practice the other transition by hopping on your bike after getting out of the water.)

You may also want to add strength training to your weekly routine.

I recommend doing a lot of full body exercises using either just your body weight or a simple set of dumbbells.

There isn't a huge need for anything more complicated unless you are training for something specific (although a pullup bar is nice too.)

Exercises that utilize a lot of different muscle groups at the same time are best, such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, pushups, and pullups.

Isolating muscles is a waste of time if you aren't a body builder.

A good way to work in some strength training into your schedule is to do tabata intervals, which are 4 minute sets each.

You can start out with 10 seconds of "work" followed by 20 seconds of "rest" and then as you get into better shape you can reverse that and do 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest.

This type of interval training will get your heart rate up and will help you see fast results.

Whatever you do, remember that you still need rest during the week.

I know a lot of triathletes that do 6 hard workouts per week (2 each running/swimming/biking) because they figure that the other disciplines don't fatigue the same muscles - but you really do need to give yourself time to recover from each workout even when going cross discipline.

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Blaine Moore is a running coach in Southern Maine with 20 years of training and racing experience, which he shares on his blog at http://news.RunToWin.com - If you would like to get regular tips and training advice along with his his report, The 3 Components of an Effective Workout, then sign up for his newsletter at: http://www.RunToWin.com/newsletter.html
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