With three disciplines to consider, it's easy to make mistakes when you're eating and drinking during training and racing. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's easy to avoid triathlon's common nutritional pitfalls if you plan ahead

100m at race pace. CYCLE 20 minutes, checking gears, tyres etc.Evening RUN: 15 minutes with 3 x 30 seconds fast strides, alternating with 60 seconds recovery jog. Sun CYCLE: Warm-up: 10-15 minutes steady. Main: 1 hour 15 minutes easy spinning

's the message from Sam Murphy, author of Triathlon: Start to Finish. "To establish the correct nerve-to-muscle pathways, you need to perform an action lots of times," says Murphy. "Because they practise, elite athletes can run a triathlon almost as fast

Have you ever finished a race in a sweaty, sopping mess, your kit wallpapered to your body and your hair looking like you've just been for a fast spin in a washing machine? Sweating is an inevitable - and essential - by-product of exercise

. This will loosen up your muscles and raise your core temperature. When you're performing sets, do not use fast, jerky motions, because that's a sure way to hurt yourself. Do not let your lower back do the work and if you feel pain, don't ignore it. Rest for 30

How to use the schedule | Session KeyWeek 1Monday RestTuesday Swim session AWednesday Run session: 5-minute warm-up jog, 4 x (1-minute jog, 2-minute run), 3-minute cool-down jogThursday Bike session: 5-minute warm-up cycle, 5 x (20 seconds fast

in and swim 400m front crawl fast," says Hauth. "Simulate the uncomfortably fast swimming right at the beginning of a race, then gradually swim another 400-600m, slowly stretching out the stroke and settling into your distance freestyle pace."Pick up the pace

potential in time for your races.For most of us, summer is a reminder of why we took up triathlons in the first place. Coach Dan Bullock (www.swimfortri.com) says, "It's just great to be outside. When the time comes to get away from the chlorine and straight

is plenty. If you are training for a sprint- or standard-distance triathlon, building your long training sessions to twice the race distance is the best approach. If you are preparing for a half-Ironman distance race, aim towards 1.5 times the race distance

these points - the difficult one is swimming. In a race we cannot keep looking at our heart-rate monitor or stopwatch," says Bill Black, who coached the GB Men's Triathlon Team at the Sydney Olympics. "But if we train at a certain pace in the pool we can keep