Times per week

I'd say at least twice a week in each discipline with periods of each discipline more often. I think it is a good idea to focus on swimming for a month, running for a month and cycling for a month, with maybe once a week of the other two disaplines, before starting to do an actual tri program. Then two or three times a week in each disapline should be fine. I've noticed short distance triathlete tend to train for less time more often and long distance triathletes tend to train longer less often. At the elite level many of these athletes are looking at 30 hours plus a week no matter what distance they race at. I think it is important to train at least ten hours a week to be a decent age group athlete. The rest of the break down is very individual. Don't be afraid to try things and think about how you've responed to exercise in the past. I am not an every day trainer. I get burnt quickly if I do train every day. I do best on four days a week others get good results training twice a day every day. Then think about intensity. Do you respond better to longer easier workouts or to shorter faster workout? Everyone resonds well to long hard workouts provided they are fit to begin with and that they take the proper time to recover and get enough sleep but that is high risk training and you need an objective observer or coach to watch you closely.

Edited by owie 2004-01-23 7:08 AM

I just remembered reading that Peter Reid does one week of run focus training, a week if bike focus training and then an easy week. I wanted to try this type of training but never committed to. Maybe someone on this site can try it and get back to us on how well it worked.
Paula Newby Fraser apparantly trained twice a week in each discipline but did long hard workouts.
I've read that many pro's train for endurance twice a week and do two weeks hard and one week easy. That is how I like to train.