with Joe Friel’s Training Bible for Triathletes (or some such title).

THen check out the postings at slow-twitch.com.

Short answer: yes to intervals, especially of the 10 min at threshold, 10 min recovery, 10 min at t-hold variety.

(and investing in some form of measuring device: hr or power (especially power) is worthwhile.

If finding time is a problem, which it usually is, get a trainer. Training indoors is no fun, but it’s the only time I can ever do intervals. Next, pick your favorite sporting event, say football, and come up with a program that follows the game.

1. Pick a team and when that team has the ball, go at threshhold.
2. When the other ream has the ball, recover and cruise
3. When there is a commercial, get out of the saddle, gear appropriately and act like you’re climbing a mountain

It’s definitely not the most structured workout, and some cycling die-hards would probably scoff, but it’s fun, which if you’re not a pro, is what it’s all about.

By half-time, you have cranked out 90 minutes of a pretty intensive workout while not missing the game. The only thing left is to tackle a 4-pack of Sammy Smith’s while watching the second half and putting back all those calories you just burned.

I usually get up early and ride on weekends, but it’s tough to also try to swim and get to the gym—also on weekends. It’s easier to lift, run, or swim on week nights, but cycling at night is actively scary.

like you i was one of the first in swim, and in bike was poor too, I limited myself to go on the wheel.
if you interested in triathlon only, you have to focus more in running. Because if you running a lot you loose the weight (in swimm you tend to be heavier), need for running (very important) and in cycling too.Cycling is important for that little climbs and recovery from that.
Another important training is the transition for bike to run: every week in one train i used to do about 40km, 60km of bike and next (stop only to change the equipment) about 50 minutes (10km) for running.

If you are good already in running, focus a little bit more in bike, To be good in cycling i think are no mistery, you have to do a lot of cycling, hours. (my coach, Sergio Santos used to say this)

I race duathlons myself, since I can’t swim worth a damn. One key workout you are going to want to do is a bike/run brick workout once a week. This will get you used to running after riding. I wouldn’t even worry about swimming since you are a swimmer and swimming won’t lose a triathlon for you. Next thing I would do is do a 30 minute time trial and use a heart rate monitor to get a good heart rate to set a threshold level for training purposes. Do this after a good 15-20 minute warm-up. I say 30 minutes because most of your bike legs are probably only going to be around 20k or so and 30 minutes is good enough for a good heart rate reading. You can’t use speed as a measuring device as every course will be different and weather conditions will probably different as well. Heart rate is a good indicator, unless you have a power meter laying around. You can do the same thing for the run as well. As far as the intervals, you can always do some informal speedwork and that will get you faster. There really is no 100% correct way to do it. If you have fun doing it, you’ll keep doing it. If you’re not having fun, you won’t do it.

He’s our resident trainer.

Everything I learned came from him or Joe Friel’s Cyclist Training Bible, an aptly named book.

go old school and just ride, a lot. like the cannibal.

there are many ways to gain fitness and speed, but intervals are the best once you have a good base. by a good base I mean you need to already have some LSD (not the hippy kind; Long – steady – distance) and then work in the intervals as prescribed above.

I would agree that I need to spend more time on the bike, period, but I also know that I need to work my runs more. To put it in perspective, my last tri was a sprint. I spent:
- 12 minutes in the water and running to the transition area.
- 44 minutes on the bike
- 26 minutes running.

In terms of averages, I think my run was the worst—8:25 pace. In an Olympic distance event, that would have been okay, but in a Sprint, it was slow.

By comparison: I came out of the water 5th. I came off my bike maybe in the mid-40’s to mid-50s. But I was okay with that, honestly; I mean, I knew I wasn’t gonna finish 5th overall. But then I lost time in the transition, and then dropped to 99th after the run (out of almost 400). However, if I’d either run 8-minute miles or biked in the 41-42 minutes range, I’d have held on at about 50th. So I think that’s a reasonable goal.

I like to do brick workouts, but I want to spend the offseason building a base in the seperate disciplines. Hence my question about base training: long rides or intervals?

I think I’m hearing to build a LSD base first and then transition to interval work later. No?

Thanks again!

Just book ’em, Danno.

(Come on, somebody had to . . .)

buy a new one – with really shiny carbon wheels. And white tape and a white saddle to match your white shoes so you look all euro and shit.

I know, no help, but I couldn’t resist.