, irrespective of distance. A good way of doing all this is to contact your local triathlon club, Masters swim class,cycle club and athletics/running club, as many have taster sessions and qualified coaches to help you train throughout the winter. The group

There’s no denying it: triathlon is the sport of the moment. Statistics show more than 100,000 Brits raced the triple last year, turning out at 400 different UK events. Single-sport athletes looking for their next fitness challenge, those fending

in waves of 150 or more, things can become hectic and it is possible you may find someone swimming over you, under you or even across you. The swim usually becomes calmer after the first 100m or so as the faster swimmers pull ahead and the field becomes

, to start with, building up to a total of 12 miles per week. By the fourth week you can start putting in short stretches of jogging on the level bits, but no more than 30 seconds or 100 yards of jogging at a time.If you are already fit enough to start

at some silly 200m intervals or other sorts of rubbish lots of running clubs have you doing. If you are fit then most of your running should be jogging - nice and effortless. A lot of those that take offence at the word jogger should be pleased

picking up the pace and eventually the walking breaks went. A few years on, I'm now a marathon runner and gone from a size 14 to between an 8 and a 10. So stick at it, it's worth it in the end. Oh, and by the way,you'll burn a lot more calories outside