I Want To Do Triathlons. How Do I Start Training? | Ask The Coach

Coach Ani de Leon is a Certified Level 2 Triathlon Coach by the International Triathlon Union and has completed coaching, camp requirements and attended coaching courses such as Endurance Performance Systems Camp in Melbourne, Australia under Tony Benson, Noosa Triathlon Camp in Sunshine Coast, Australia under Nick Croft, High Performance Training Camp in Goldcoast, Australia under Col Stewart, and the Timex Multisport Team Camp, Coach Ani’s other significant highlights include : The first Filipina Ironman World Championships Qualifier and First Female Multisport Coach in the Philippines, Founder/Coach SuperTriKids Triathlon Youth Dev’t Program, Founder/ Coach of First All Womens Running Clinics (Pinay in Action) in the Philippines, Founding Member of First All Womens Cycling Team in the Philippines (Team Davids Salon), and lastly, perhaps the most important of all (for us at least!), she’s our first In[FOCUS] Athlete too!

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So you want to sign up for your first race? Before you do that, you need to start training first!  So, how exactly do you start? That’s exactly the question Mark Reyes asked our resident online coach, Ani de Leon-Brown.

From Mark Reyes :

Your Question:  hi! I would just want to ask po kung how would I start to learn triathlon? I’m eager to learn the sport po. I don’t know where to start. I know how to swim, bike and run. I just don’t know how to start a proper training.

From Coach Ani :

Hi there!

Start slowly, then when you are used to the consistency or the routine then you can keep adding more sessions, intensity, or mileage.

For example:

First two weeks: Set aside 3x a week for training, 1 Swim, 1 bike, 1 run, all at easy pace.

Weeks 3-6weeks: Set aside 4x a week for training, 1 Swim plus Run, 1 Run, 1 Bike plus Run, 1 Swim plus Bike. Start with short sessions (20-45min) then towards the 6^th week you can make them longer, up to 1.5hours.

Weeks 7-10: You can now follow a more structured triathlon training plan, aim to do 3x of each sport in a week. Don’t forget, you can still to combine or do separate sessions in a day. Make sure to have a well-balanced program working on endurance, speed, strength, and technique.

For example:

Swim Sessions in a week. 1 Endurance, 1 Speed, 1 Technique

Bike Sessions in a week. 1 Endurance, 1 Speed, 1 Strength (hills)

Run Sessions in a week. 1 Endurance, 1 Speed, 1 Strength (hills)

Good luck!

Coach Ani