It's fair to say our Head Coach Ben knows a thing or two when it comes to progressing one's running alongside the bike and swim - Ben is a certified IRONMAN coach, he has completed 6 full distance IRONMAN events having qualified for Kona twice and he has completed countless 70.3's too.

When training for the run in a triathlon, your training plan doesn't need to change drastically from training for a run of a similar distance. The main difference is that you should look to drop the number of running days that you train to allow time in your week to swim, bike and strength train. We would recommend dropping 1-2 run days, so if you are used to running 5 days a week, see how you manage with 4 runs, and don't be afraid to drop down to 3 if it is all getting too much juggling multiple disciplines.

Look to progress your cycling and swimming mileage in a similar way to how you do for running. Build up gradually, take deload weeks and do a combination workouts - from easier ones, to faster ones, to longer steady sessions. You should aim to be in a place where you can comfortably complete each dicipline's distance in isolation, so that you're then able to push the pace of all 3 back-to-back come race day.
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As there is little impact on your body when swimming, this is a great session session to do whilst recovering from a long run.

You will hear this term a lot when you look into triathlon training. Brick Training essentially means running straight off the bike. This should be done fortnightly as a minimum but don't compare your paces to if you were running fresh. Start with these as short, easy runs and work up throughout your training to being able to complete a long run straight off the bike.

Nutrition is going to play a huge part not only in your race but also throughout your training. You will have probably increased your energy expenditure significantly by increasing your training load, so it's important that you also increase your energy intake to ensure you stay fuelled. Check out our day-to-day nutrition guide for additional support on this.

Due to not being able to consume food when swimming, the bike section will be important in ensuring you get enough nutrition onboard to fuel your run. Within your training, get familiar with fuelling on the bike and find out what nutrition strategy works best for you. It is important to note that everyone is different.
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Lastly, enjoy the process - a triathlon is not easy to train for and it takes a significant amount of discipline to ensure you have covered all three areas sufficiently. However, you will learn a lot along the way and we can assure you that once you have done one triathlon, there is no looking back!