How to Train for Olympic-Distance Triathlon

Triathlon

August 26, 2024

Are you feeling inspired to race your first triathlon? Check out our guide to training for your first Olympic-distance race.

What Is the Olympic Triathlon?

Olympic-distance triathlon involves a 1500m swim, 40K (25-mile) bike, followed by a 10K (6.2-mile) run. Together with sprint-distance racing (half the distance of Olympic), it’s an ideal distance to tackle if you’re new to the sport and want to see what it’s all about.

At an elite level, it’s the only distance that is featured in the Olympic Games (hence the name!) and was first introduced as an Olympic sport back at the Sydney Games in 2000.

While elite athletes typically take less than two hours to complete an Olympic-distance race, the average age-group (amateur) time is around three hours (2:53 for men, 3:07 for women). That’s obviously not an insignificant amount of time to be exercising non-stop, so training and preparation are highly recommended—and you’ll certainly enjoy the experience more if you’ve logged some consistent training miles! Read on to find out how.

Getting Started in Triathlon

Before you enter your first race and begin training, it’s always a good idea to assess where you are and ask yourself a few key questions, such as:

How much time do you have available to train each week?
What’s your training and injury history?
Do you want to hire a coach or follow your own plan?
Do you have training partners or a team you can join?
What are your goals and why are you doing this?
Do you need any gear?
Are you good at fueling and refueling? If not, how can you improve this?
How much sleep do you get each night? If it’s less than 7 hours currently, what steps can you take to improve this?

Having clear answers to the questions above will help you get started and help keep you consistent and accountable as your training progresses and your race nears. We’ll also help answer some of these questions in this article.

Training for Olympic Triathlon

In an ideal world, you’ll have 16 to 20 weeks to prepare for your first Olympic-distance triathlon, but depending on your training history, it’s also possible in 10-12 weeks (if you have previous endurance experience and/or a high level of general fitness). If you have no prior experience of endurance sports then you’ll want to give yourself as much time as possible so you can get your body used to a training program and progress without risk of injury.

A good training plan will feature various phases or blocks, which are typically a base phase then a build phase followed by a race or peak phase. A 20-week plan, for example, might feature a six-week base phase (where training is mostly lower intensity and higher volume), a six-week build phase (where volume stays high and more intensity is introduced), followed by an eight-week race/peak phase, which will feature a lot of race-specific workouts and will also include a taper.

You’ll want to train based on the amount of time you have available each week, which sounds blindingly obvious, but you’d be surprised at the number of people who erroneously think they’ll get fitter if they try to shoehorn more training sessions into their week. Unfortunately all that happens is you sleep less, your training suffers, your family and friends rarely see you, and you’re soon left questioning your life choices (OK, well maybe just your tri choices). So, for this reason, it’s highly recommended to be conservative about how much time you have available each week to train. It’s far better to bank 16 weeks of seven hours a week than two weeks of 15 hours, one week of five, and then call it quits.

In an ideal world, you’ll have 16 to 20 weeks to prepare for your first Olympic-distance triathlon, but depending on your training history, it’s also possible in 10-12 weeks.

Your History Matters

When it comes to training for your first Olympic-distance triathlon, be honest with yourself about what your sporting and injury history looks like. If you’re someone who’s been active all of your life and you’ve had very few or zero injuries then great. If you're someone who has been less active or has had injuries in the past, then you’ll want to ease in gently and be mindful of how you progress your training. Slow and steady always wins this race. If working with coaches, always tell them your injury history before starting a program (and all good coaches will ask you for this).

Coaches and Training Partners

So let’s talk about coaches and training partners. There are a ton of triathlon coaches out there. A quick Google search will likely leave you feeling overwhelmed and wondering what to look for. It’s very easy for coaches to offer cookie-cutter online training programs without offering too much in the way of 1:1 coaching, so if you do feel you want a more personalized and tailored approach, it’s a good idea to find a coach in your local area whom you can meet up with in person and they can offer live feedback. Ask for recommendations at your local tri team or club. Triathletes are a fun species and they love welcoming newcomers into the sport and sharing wisdom and experience. When it comes to finding a coach it’s hard to beat word-of-mouth recommendations from seasoned triathletes. Look for coaching qualifications such as USA Triathlon’s Level 1, 2, or 3 certifications.

Of course, you don’t have to find a coach and many prefer to DIY, especially for their first race. Joining a local team and finding others to train with can be an invaluable way to learn. It also makes training fun and sociable, and gives you a level of accountability that you simply won’t get training alone (trust me: it’s way easier to get out of bed at 6 a.m. if you know there are five people expecting you to show up).

If you are going to create your own training program be sure to set out a macro plan (all 16 or 20 weeks, for example) with the overall goal for each week being clear. You can change sessions week-to-week if needed, but knowing the “big picture” objective before you begin is important—and will do wonders for your motivation too.

Olympic Triathlon Training Basics

We’ve outlined the phases of training you’ll want to undertake, but how does that look week-to-week? This will ultimately be determined by how many hours per week you have available to train, but typically somewhere between six and 10 hours is a good benchmark for those starting out with Olympic-distance training.

If you are going to create your own training program be sure to set out a macro plan (all 16 or 20 weeks, for example) with the overall goal for each week being clear.

Remember that consistency is the cornerstone of all endurance sports training. We cannot emphasize enough that it’s more important to train eight hours a week for the entirety of your plan than to start with double that and burn out within a month.

Ideally, you’ll be training each sport two to three times a week. If you have a particular weakness (e.g., swimming) you might want to set up your training so you’re swimming three times a week and running or riding slightly less. This can always be varied in each training phase too.

When it comes to swimming, you’ll want to be comfortable covering ~2K in the pool each session. Biking is typically more time-consuming so you might want to have more time available to ride, ideally logging three bike sessions per week with the longest one being 30-40 miles.

If you’re totally new to running, build up gradually, as running is the most corrosive of the three sports and the one most likely to cause injury. Shorter, more frequent runs are often easier on the body than logging long runs and then being sore for days. If you can, aim to run three times a week, building up to the longest run being 7-8 miles.

The triathlon brick session

Ah, brick workouts—every triathlete’s favorite. A brick workout is the name given to a workout that involves pairing two of the three sports, so you might do a swim-to-bike session or, more commonly, a bike-to-run session. These workouts should definitely feature in your race-specific phase, but aren’t needed in the base phase and will likely first make an appearance in your build phase.

It’s usually wise to use one of your weekly run and ride sessions as a bike-run brick, even if the run off the bike is short (just 10-15 minutes can have the desired training effect of getting your leg muscles acquainted with the jelly legs feeling of running after riding). If you have a pool that will allow it, it’s also great to set up a bike trainer on the pool deck and do a swim workout followed by a bike set. (This is something you’ll likely find a local tri team doing at swim practice as race season nears).

A brick workout is the name given to a workout that involves pairing two of the three sports, so you might do a swim-to-bike session or, more commonly, a bike-to-run session.

Triathlon transitions

In any triathlon race (not just Olympic distance) the clock starts when the race begins and does not stop until you reach the finish line. Your transition time is included in your overall time, with T1 (transition one) being the name given to the change from swim to bike, and T2 (transition two) being the name given to the switch from bike to run.

While no one ever won a race in transition, it certainly pays to practice them pre-race (usually during brick workouts) and on race day know exactly how to find your spot in transition (where you’ll set up all of the gear you need). This is especially important come race day when, once you’re mid-race and your heart rate is elevated and the adrenaline is flowing, it becomes even harder to find your gear.

Open-Water Swimming

Another key skill to ensure you practice well in advance of race day is open-water swimming (and read this article, Master Open-Water Swimming for Triathlon). Getting used to swimming in open water (and with a wetsuit on) can take some time and is a very different experience to swimming at your local pool.

While you always know what you’re getting at the pool, the opposite is true in open water. Whether you’re swimming in a lake, river, or the ocean, there are plenty of variables to consider that simply aren’t there in the pool: tides and currents, surf, water temperature, visibility, marine life, and proximity of other athletes, to name just a few. If you’re nervous about open-water swimming, know that you’re not alone. It can be anxiety-inducing for even the most experienced of athletes. It’s definitely a good idea to seek out a coach and/or local tri team so you can learn from those who’ve been doing it a while—and so that when race day arrives you know what to expect.

DID YOU READ? You’re Not Really Training in Zone 2 (You Just Think You Are)

The Gear You Need for Triathlon

Triathlon is a gear-heavy sport and there are a few items you’ll need, but there’s also plenty you don’t—at least while you’re just starting out. Items that we would consider to be essentials include:

Swimsuit
Goggles
Swim cap
Wetsuit (rentals are available)
Bike (any bike can be used in a race, including mountain bikes)
Tri suit: this is a one or two-piece suit that can be worn throughout the entire race. While not strictly a must-have, it will make your race experience more comfortable and you’ll save time not needing to change between disciplines
Helmet (a CPSC-certified helmet is a requirement for any USA Triathlon event)
Race belt
Sunscreen
Sunglasses
Body lubricant (chafing is a very real thing in triathlon, so investing $10 in body lube will save many parts of your body from being rubbed sore)
Water bottle
Flat/repair kit (necessary when riding outside where punctures are inevitable. You’ll need a portable pump, replacement inner tube, and tire levers)

Ask any elite athlete the secret to their recovery and even as proud owners of every recovery gadget out there they’ll likely still tell you that sleep is the greatest (legal!) performance enhancer

Sleep, Rest, and Recovery

A key part of success in any training program is adequate sleep, rest, and recovery. It’s no secret that it’s not training that makes you fitter—it’s the rest and recovery afterward that triggers the adaptations needed. For this reason, it’s important to prioritize sleep and rest when you’re training for your first race. Even adding 30 minutes to your nightly slumber can bring significant gains. Ask any elite athlete the secret to their recovery and even as proud owners of every recovery gadget out there they’ll likely still tell you that sleep is the greatest (legal!) performance enhancer available.

Be Race Day Ready

Race week arrives. You’ve done all the training. You’re fit and ready to go. Don’t fall down at the final hurdle, which is often race week logistics. Triathlon can be a complicated sport to prepare for; it’s not like rocking up to a 5K run where all you need is your run shoes. You’ll likely be racing somewhere new where you don’t know the course, you’ve got a ton of gear to get ready, and the pre-race Portapotty lines will always, always be longer than you ever thought possible.

Be sure to take some time in the weeks leading into your race to do some basic prep work: make sure you know the course, where to park, where transition is, be aware of basic race rules and regulations, check all of your gear and get your bike booked in for a pre-race check with a local mechanic if it gives you peace of mind. You’ve done the hard work by logging weeks and (hopefully) months of consistent training, so do your best to not let first-time nerves and logistical headaches affect that. It’ll all contribute to you feeling happy, fit, and ready to go as you’re standing on that start line for the first time.

Now all that remains is for you to put your training to good use and push yourself on race day. Enjoy it all—and remember, if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen!

Written by

Emma-Kate Lidbury

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