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Find out how to train and compete at your very best in this most challenging of sporting events.

It’s hard to believe that the modern ultra-distance triathlon celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in less than six months’ time.

It seems only yesterday that a US Navy officer, Commander John Collins, organised the first ever Ironman event in Hawaii following a heated debate over which endurance athletes were the fittest. Commander Collins combined the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4m), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (112m) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2m) to create the ultimate long-distance multi-sport race in 1978. The winner of this first event was Gordon Haller, and the rest is history.

Today the Ironman is a premier annual event on the international triathlon calendar, and the sport of triathlon continues to go from strength to strength, having been made an Olympic sport in 2000.

Naturally competition is fiercer than ever, at all levels, and there’s an increasing amount of scientific research into the best ways of training for, and competing in, the triathlon.

So it’s no longer enough simply to swim, run or cycle harder – or further – in your regular training, if you’re serious about competing at your personal best. The old sporting maxim – ‘train smarter, not harder’ – has never been more appropriate.

And no longer is it the case that the fastest, or even the fittest all-round athlete necessarily wins on the day. As modern triathlon has become more popular, and more competitive, so the strategy and tactics of competition have become increasingly sophisticated.

That’s why our latest workbook is such a timely edition to the Peak Performance series.

Training for Triathlon delves into the very latest research into triathlon-specific training and competition – then shares these secrets with you. The recommended retail price of this ground-breaking book is $59.99. But through the Peak Performance shop, you pay only $39.99! That’s a full 33% saving!

Throughout this brand new special report, we dissect the major current debates over the best methods of training for triathlon, plus pre-event preparation and the optimum strategy and tactics on the big day. We present the very latest scientific findings – and spell out in plain English their significance for the serious triathlete.

Every page of this 91-page report draws on the latest evidence-based sports science thinking into the triathlon – new findings that probably won’t percolate through to the general sporting press for many, many months, if they make it at all…

So it’s a rare opportunity to assess the latest sports science research for yourself, and decide how best to integrate it into your triathlon training and conditioning.

When you receive your copy of this brand new report, here are some of the startling facts you’ll learn:

• details of a swimming technique that could ensure you’re first out of the water

All in all, 91 pages of cutting-edge information every serious triathlete and coach needs to know – and integrate into their training and conditioning programs, as well as their competition strategy and tactics.

And you’ve got a full 30 days to decide whether or not you want to keep the workbook or return it for a full refund.

So make sure you’re one of the very first triathletes to benefit from the training, conditioning and competition secrets in this brand new book!

Why, if you want to win a triathlon, it’s no longer enough simply to swim, run and cycle…

Triathlon is a demanding multi-discipline sport – arguably the most demanding of endurance sports. As such it calls for high levels of endurance in the water, on a bike and on the road.

But, while triathletes understandably spend most of their time swimming, cycling and running, they also need a supplementary resistance-based conditioning programme if they’re serious about competing at their very best.

The challenge is: how to design a program that will deliver maximum, proven benefits given the considerable weekly training commitments that the triathlon demands?

In Training for Triathlon we set out the parameters for such a programme. Our approach is guided by two key criteria:

• What kind of strength development can deliver a performance improvement? The answer depends on two factors – the strengths and weaknesses of the individual athlete and the nature of his/her sport. Obviously an article like this can only address the second factor, so the programme set out is generic rather than specific. However, it is comprehensive enough to provide a reasonable starting point for a more individualised programme, one constructed by you and/your coach based on an up-to-date assessment of your particular strengths and weaknesses.

• How will the strength workouts enhance rather than detract from your weekly training schedule? Any serious endurance-trained athlete finds it difficult to commit to – and recover from– extra training time, so a strength programme for triathletes has to yield the maximum results with the minimum expenditure of additional time and energy.

The programme we outline has two objectives at its core:

• The enhancement of the skill, power or efficiency of the sporting movement
• The reduction of the likelihood of injury

As such, it targets target performance for running, and injury prevention for both running and swimming.

In all, four routines are detailed, each containing no more than six exercises that should be completed once a week. Strength routines 1 and 2 take about 45 minutes each, while the core and jumping routines should take around 20 minutes.

This level of time investment is realistic for triathletes and allows for a beneficial rather than a tiring effect.

Each of the 18 exercises is described in detail, along with diagrams where necessary, and requires little or no equipment to complete it. So you get all the information you need to judge which exercises are right for you, and to start putting them to good use right away.

A conditioning programme to help you master the all-important transition from cycling to running

For the vast majority of triathletes, the cycle-run transition in triathlon represents a huge psychological barrier. But this widely-acknowledged perception that running is much harder after cycling is more than just the mind playing tricks. For the cycle phase presents some serious physiological challenges that triathletes have to overcome as they begin their run.

In triathlon, the cycle-run (CR) transition is associated with a number of changes, including an impairment in running economy. Specifically, there is a 2-12% decrease in running economy during the early part of the run phase (when compared to running economy in the ‘fresh’ state).

The most obvious external cause for this deterioration is a change in running mechanics, which is often apparent as a slightly forward leaning posture. It is thought that this abnormal posture and the perception of poor coordination after the CR transition may be due to the inability of the neuro-sensory system to adjust quickly to the sudden change of posture from cycling to running.

However there are also some less obvious and more fundamental physiological changes induced by the cycle phase. The fact that breathing discomfort also seems to be elevated during the early stages of the run phase provides some clues about the origin of these physiological changes.

In Training for Triathlon we report on the findings of some important recent French research into the issue of how to ease the cycle-run transition for triathletes – and most, interesting of all, what steps you can take in your weekly training and conditioning programme to minimise the likely effects of this on race day.

The discussion includes details of two different training programmes you can follow in order to better prepare yourself for the event. One programme has been shown to yield a 5% performance enhancement, and the other a 4.6% improvement!

Here’s how to ensure you get the right balance between effort and recovery

It’s now widely understood that well-timed rest is one of the most important factors of any training programme, as the effects of training sessions can be negligible – or even detrimental – if insufficient rest and recovery is built in.

During training, performance temporarily decreases but begins to rise during recovery. After a certain amount of time, performance rises above the pre-training level because the body is preparing to handle the next training load better than before. If the body does not receive the next training load within a certain period of time any performance gain begins to slowly decrease.

However, if the next high-intensity session is held before the body has recovered from the previous one performance will remain lower than it would have been after full recovery. Continuous hard training with insufficient recovery will slowly lead to lower performance and a long-term state of overtraining.

And if you become overtrained, even a long period of recovery may not be enough to restore your performance to the original level, so you end up worse off than you were at the very beginning of the season!

The trouble is, the signs of overtraining are often hard to pick up, until an athlete has already overreached him or herself. In large part this is because athletes are, most of the time, inherently motivated to go hard. What’s needed is an objective monitor of effort expended, and its effect on a individual’s level of fatigue.

Now, new research into just such an objective assessment tool is revealed in Training for Triathlon.

We report on how this monitoring system, where and how to get the necessary data, and how to put the information to best use.

It could be just the information you need to ensure you have your most competitive triathlon season yet!

How to train your mind to deal with the special demands of ultra-endurance effort

The world’s best triathletes aren’t just physically fit, they’re mental giants as well. They’ve trained themselves not just to run, swim and cycle to their physical limits but also to push themselves to remain psychologically positive over long distances and durations even while enduring considerable physical fatigue.

The good news is you too can train your mind to develop emotional control. And focusing on emotional control can and will lead to improved performance.

In Training for Triathlon we explain how you go about developing emotional control:

1. learning to recognise the emotional profile you associate with success – is it positive or negative?
2. assessing that profile – how do you go about rating your performance?
3. visualising success – how good are you at ‘tasting’ what success feels like to you, even in advance of the event?

Finally we give you some pointers on the best way to use self-talk to control that ‘inner voice’ inside your head.

A new breed of carbohydrate drink promises a genuine improvement in endurance performance

The marketing of sports drinks is a highly-competitive – and lucrative – business for the manufacturers concerned. But for the athlete and coach it can be a confusing subject. Which drinks, if any, offer a real competitive advantage, and which are more hype than substance?

It often seems you’re better off taking many manufacturers’ claims with a large pinch of salt!

Now the indications are that recent sports science research into carbohydrate absorption and utilisation could herald a new breed of carbohydrate drink – one which promises genuinely enhanced endurance performance.

In Training for Triathlon we present the findings of this recent research – and suggest possible strategies for coaches and triathletes alike who want to capitalise on this important new information.

First we explain the importance of consuming carbohydrate during endurance events, and the background to modern carbohydrate drink formulation. Then we present recent research on the potential benefits of mixed carbohydrate drinks made using this new formulation, and make recommendations for endurance athletes.

What do you think about this new supplement that could be a ‘magic bullet’ for triathletes?

Genuine advances in sports nutrition are rare, which is why the discovery back in the 90s that creatine supplementation really did improve anaerobic performance created such a stir. However, apart from caffeine use, there’s been no equivalent ‘magic bullet’ supplement for aerobic athletes, such as triathletes.

Now there are signs that situation is about to change…

New research on a naturally occurring compound found in a number of foods, including fish, rice, green leafy vegetables and soybeans, is proving very intriguing indeed – and so we report on its findings in Training for Triathlon.

This substance is naturally occurring, but is also required for the functioning of all mammalian cells. In humans it’s found in particularly high concentrations in the membranes of cells with a high metabolic activity such as the brain, heart, liver and skeletal muscle.

Recent research suggests that it is involved in a number of membrane-related functions in cells, including how cells communicate with each other, the regulation of the release of hormones such as acetylcholine, dopamine and noradrenaline secreted by nerve cells, and the way in which tissues respond to processes involving inflammation.

Researchers noticed that supplementation seemed to enhance higher brain function – even in healthy individuals with no signs of cognitive decline. Of particular interest was the effect on the secretion of stress hormones such as cortisol following exercise. Chronically or excessively elevated levels of these stress hormones are known to be associated with immune suppression and tissue breakdown – not good news for athletes!

The next part of the story came when researchers looked at the effects of long-term supplementation on post-exercise cortisol production following strenuous resistance training. They discovered that not only did this substance appear to blunt the release of cortisol following training, but that it also led to lower perceived levels of post-exercise muscle soreness.

Most recently, research on a group of 14 endurance cyclists yielded a 29% increase in exercise time to exhaustion. The researchers concluded that their study had been the first to identify the ergogenic properties of this supplement but that further studies are needed to substantiate these initial findings and to investigate how these ergogenic effects might occur, the optimum doses and the best time to use it.

Currently, the scientific consensus is that the substance has no negative side effects – and a growing number of ergogenic benefits. The only major known drawback is cost: a tub of 60 x 500mg capsules purchased in the US typically costs in the region of $20-25, with UK prices significantly higher still. So athletes need to ask themselves whether that money could be better spent on improving dietary fundamentals or other aspects of training.

Whether or not you choose to experiment, there’s still much to learn about exactly what benefits this exciting new supplement may be able to offer, so triathletes and their coaches should keep their eyes peeled for new research in this exciting area.

A new swimming strategy that could put you on the winner’s podium!

Most of the sports science research recently devoted to investigating the determinants of successful triathlon performance has focused on the cycle-to-run transition, since significant correlations have been reported between cycling or running time and overall triathlon performance.

The influence of swimming on subsequent cycling time has been relatively neglected.

However, a new study from France has demonstrated that improvements in your swimming strategy can significantly improve subsequent cycling efficiency and might therefore be expected to improve triathlon performance in general.

The most important findings of this study, which we report on in Training for Triathlon, are:

• Using this technique resulted in a significant mean decrease of 7% in heart rate values during the last 4 minutes of swimming by comparison with swimming alone, while post swim lactate values were significantly lower;
• RPE (rating of perceived exertion) values recorded immediately after swimming indicated that perception of effort was significantly lower;
• Cycling efficiency was significantly improved in the trial, with VO2, heart rate and lactate values significantly lower;
• A significantly lower pedal rate was observed during the subsequent cycle.

Who knows, perhaps the information in this section of Training for Triathlon could put you on the winner’s podium in your very next event!

Details of your special discount offer

As a member of our Peak Performance web site, you qualify for a copy of Training for Triathlon at a special discount. Place your order today and you pay just $39.99 (£19.99) instead of the full price of $59.99. You save 33%.Plus, delivery is free!

Training for Triathlon is one of a series of special reports from Peak Performance, the sports science newsletter. This book is not available elsewhere.

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Training for Triathlon is published by Electric Word plc, publishers of the Peak Performance and Sports Injury Bulletin subscription-only newsletters, and the Successful Coaching and Your Personal Trainer web sites.