. Just don't overdo it - you're not trying to pack on huge amounts of muscle, so go for weights you can lift 10-12 times per set. A helping hand across the disciplines "You can improve your swimming by doing upper-body and shoulder exercises," says
that the challenge of completing a fast transition is one of the most fascinating and fun parts of a triathlon. The swim-to-bike transition requires that you deal with blood accumulation in your upper body, while the bike-to-run transition places the emphasis onto
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
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
1. Sleep well"In reality, trying to sleep well the night before a race never works," says triathlon coach Rick Kiddle (www.rickkiddle.com). "The best sleep will be the night before the night before. Many athletes can survive with little sleep
-road terrain is that you are running on an uneven surface, so you need to prepare your body for that," says Barden. "If you were to do all of your training on the road, you might initially feel OK in a cross-country race, but your body will fatigue a lot