Triathlon Training Time Saving - 3 key hacks

oliverbridge7
Nov 1
3 min read

Updated: Nov 5

Time pressured? Struggling to improve? Trying to balance multiple sports goals at the same time? Triathlon advice for training and racing from things I have learned over 15 years of trial and error, lots of reading, talking and getting to a place I never thought possible when I started.

It's regularly shown in studies that triathlon requires the most amount of time training than any other sport in the world. That building on endurance takes dedication and patience. This is one of the reasons I love and respect triathlon but it's also one of the hardest things to face up to, particularly as amateurs. Unlike most pros (some still work almost full-time! Blows my mind) amateurs have lots of stresses, commitments from family, work and other things. Also when you're not a pro it can sometimes feel silly to spend so much time on things, balance is key.

I am someone that has not been able to do the hours of the others that I race around but have still managed to achieve at a high amateur level in both triathlon and running.

Here are some tried and tested hacks >

#1: The Commute

The commute is an underrated way to get extra miles in, no matter how short the individual commute distance is. Really put extra effort into figuring this out and how it can work for you. If it becomes routine then you're racking up hours and hours of extra training.

If you need some inspiration my commute has changed over time and is currently just around 5km cycling down a hill and 5km back up a hill that is about 115m elevation, really short right!

However over a year of 52 weeks and an average of let's say conservatively 3x time a week (if you take away holidays and days working remotely) that is 1,404km and 17,940m climbing.

Going up Mt. Everest twice. Not bad for taking my laptop to and from places!

If you get really into a routine and have the energy before or after your work day then you can also change your effort levels, get used to how long parts or hills takes you on average to run and try to beat your time, be a traffic light sprinter if cycling to get some intervals in.

#2: Get a Turbo machine

This completely transformed my hours.

The benefits of Turbo I write about HERE but in general, whilst expensive they are so worth it over time. It becomes exponentially easier to fit in training, you can hop on and off with minimal fuss and time.

Without going into how good the virtual platforms are now for making it exciting, the second big reason it is a training hack is that there isn't any traffic, no pedestrians crossing, no freewheeling downhill - you get so much more distance done in over a period of time and without any time your body isn't working.

#3: Endurance sport doesn't just mean long and easier

This isn't something just for a hack, this is key to a training plan of mine but certainly if your time restrained then this is very important. Do hard, high effort training - that stuff that really gets you into your highest heart rate zones and has your muscles screaming, Zone 5, Zone 6 stuff.

If you are stuck for time often or just can't do so many days, make those days harder, it will do more do 60 mins hard than 90 mins easy.

If you've got your own experience, please LEAVE COMMENTS, I'd love to know others views!

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