Triathlon training can be a long and arduous process to establish a level of competition in three different sports. It is overwhelming, but also fun. You will not be bored because there is always some level of improvement in any of the sports. However, there are many areas in triathlon beyond the actual sports that you must practice. You need to practice transitions, brick workouts, and nutrition.

Transitions

In every triathlon race, there are two transitions that you will need to practice. Each transition time counts toward your total time and is part of the race. You’ll want to practice these transitions to get back as quickly as possible without damaging your gear or forgetting important pieces of gear like sunglasses.

The transition called T1 is from swimming to cycling. The transition called T2 is from your bike to the race. The transition from swimming to cycling begins the moment you exit the swim course. You may have a watch like the Garmin 910XT where you press the lap button to indicate that you have completed the swim and that you are concentrating on the transition. You will have to practice taking off your wetsuit, putting on your bike shoes and socks if you need them. While this may seem mundane and ordinary, you will need to practice to make this as efficient as possible.

The transition from bike to run is a bit easier as you just have to put on your running shoes, belt and cap. This transition is usually the quicker of the two. You’ll want to make sure you have the correct nutrition during the transition to propel you into the next discipline.

You will need to arrange your elements for each transition in order so that you don’t have to fight for any elements. I left my sunglasses in T1 once because they just weren’t in a place where I would have to pick them up. I had to suffer 56 miles of wind in my eyes that I have contacts from. This was not a good choice.

A good way to practice these transitions is to do brick workouts which we will discuss below.

BRICK WORKOUTS

Brick workouts combine two sports in one workout. Typically brick training combines biking and running, however you can easily do that with the swim-to-bike transition. On each day that you have a brick workout, try to incorporate some practice into your transitions. You can place all your items as you would in a normal race. Then when you finish one of the disciplines, run to the transition and switch. Speeding up transitions will help your overall time, but it will also help you not to panic.

Brick workouts will also help your legs and body adjust between the two different sports. As you transition, your body is learning to change the blood supply from one area of ​​your body to the other. For example, in swimming you primarily use your upper body to propel yourself through the water. When you get out of the water, your legs have to spring into action (literally), so you’ll need to feel that fit. The big transition from being on the bike where you’ve been using certain leg muscles to running can be tough on your body. Practicing this transition through brick workouts will allow for a successful race day.

NUTRITION

Your body needs to be prepared for the nutrition you plan to use on race day. You can’t introduce a new piece of nutrition on race day and guarantee that you won’t have a hard time. Your use of gels, nutrition bars, certain foods, Gatorade, or any other nutritional item should be practiced and tested during your training to ensure its success. Too often when someone tries to incorporate something new on race day, they will have massive gastrointestinal issues that can cripple their race success. Don’t let this happen to you. Practice your nutrition over long training days to make sure your body is ready to digest whatever you plan to put in.

Practice in triathlon training is vitally important to your success, but don’t overlook these main components of a successful race day plan.