Beginner Triathlete - Beginner Q&A articles

Keep in mind that the taper period is as important to your body as all of the long hours you’ve put in the pool, on the bike and on the road. It is meant to help you rest, recover and rejuvenate.

From smoking like a chimney to triathlon training

First set of race wheels and it sounds like something is wrong

After your first triathlon, how many days off should you take to rest? How should you start your training again?

We’re going to discuss, really, how simple it is to lose weight if you have the right weight loss information. I’m going to give you a few weapons to put into your weight loss arsenal in this segment.

I am not going to buy a tri-suit before my first tri - I want to make sure I am going to stick with this before I spend a lot of money on it so I want to figure out what will work best.

Should I have time goals for the first sprint? Should I just finish the race at a reasonable pace? I'm not sure how to approach this.

When running or biking, is it best to work towards increasing distance, stamina, working with heart rates, intervals, speed, drills, etc.?

I have pedals with the cage and when I ride 2+ hours my legs feel much more tired then if I took out my husband's bike with clipless pedals. Do clipless pedals truly make the difference?

Should I be working on getting faster at running by doing the longer distances and working up slowly over time or run faster for shorter distances now?

It's extremely frustrating and I even get in a bad mood when I run. I think I might have increased my mileage too fast. I have a hard time catching my breath now too, even at short distances.

How important is it to train on the actual road vs. treadmill and on a real bike vs. spinning classes?

USAT and membership and racing.

Know that base training is not a component of training that is going to necessarily make you faster, but it will make you stronger and give you more endurance to last through the longer races.

I recognize that my 45 minute jog Wednesday night does not really count as a ”long” run, but for me it was! Yesterday I felt fine…but man, today the legs are SORE.