stroke to help develop bilateral breathing – breathing on both sides) 12 x 25m, done as a 25m drill with a 10-second rest followed by 25m full stroke and a 10-second rest Main-set pyramid (all with 20-30-second recovery) 8 x 25m, 4 x 50m, 2 x 100m, 1 x

. You would be better served doing, for example, two back-to-back 15-minute efforts at your 25-mile time trial pace, or some other planned session that is specific to your Olympic-distance triathlon.      It is also important to acknowledge

.Review your training planIf you had a training plan, how well did you follow it? How can you improve your plan for next time? Does it need to be more realistic - you're probably never going to be able to do 20 hours' training every week. Review your races

, injury. Be assured, you are not alone.World-class triathlete Richard Stannard (10 times the fastest swimmer in the London Triathlon) was gearing up for a great 2009 season when, at the end of May, he was hit by a car while training on his bike

easy to maintain motivation at this time of the year, according to two-time Ironman 70.3 champion Emma-Kate Lidbury (eklidbury.co.uk). "People often overlook the mental aspect of training and racing. It can become very difficult to keep going

continuous swim of 750m and the second, a 20K bike followed by a 5K run. For an intermediate, a December target could be a 1500m swim in 32 minutes, a 40K bike in 1:15 and a 10K run in 50 minutes. A good March target would be combining any two disciplines

, and that's something I really care about."To develop mental resilience, Ben Bright suggests occasionally attempting a training set you've never achieved before, such as 15 x 100m front-crawl intervals with 10 seconds' less rest than usual between each. "I

, it's time for 'fourth gear': do maximal sessions like 4x2K track runs and 10-mile time trials." - Will Clarke"Winter is the time to work on weaknesses, make changes and try new ideas. Winter training is about flexibility and compromise, so do not set

as an opportunity to evaluate what you have done and what you want to achieve, and then plan your training for when you return home. "Remember that we improve while we rest and recover," he says. "So take a book or magazine and find out more about triathlons

for people with disabilities) shaved two minutes off his time to finish in 1:17; James Smith (Tri 4) improved by nine minutes, with a time of 1:24, and Paul Thomas (Tri 6) slashed more than 15 minutes from his 2008 time to cross the line in 1:47. Something