If you knew that practicing swimming drills would make you a more efficient swimmer, developing a fast cadence would make you a better cyclist and save you energy on the bike, and doing sprint work on a track would teach you economy and make you a faster runner, would you do them? Or have you perhaps fallen into the habit of always training the same way?

You can go to the pool seven days a week, swim thousands and thousands of yards but that won't necessarily develop a strong swim leg for the triathlon. Long distance swimming doesn't always mean beating out lap after lap in the pool. My mother used to say, "you get good at what you practice". If you are practicing a nice comfortable stroke that you can do forever you will get really good at that nice comfortable stroke. You can even do a very inefficient stroke and get so good at it that it feels comfortable. You can probably even swim long distances doing your very comfortable, inefficient stroke but you won't be swimming very fast. Technique is very important in swimming. Being strong and having great endurance is not enough. You must learn to be an efficient swimmer in order to conserve energy and make progress. Trying to 'muscle' your way through a triathlon swim is wasted energy besides being exhausting. Drills should be a part of every swim workout. Along with always working to perfect your stroke technique, you will also need to include intervals in your workouts. The best way to develop speed is to practice improving your interval times. Trying to maintain the same pace for several repeat 100's, 200's, 300's or even 500's is far more effective than swimming a straight 2000, 3000 or more. Swimming a lot will make you more comfortable in the water but to get efficient and fast you must do drills and incorporate intervals and sprint sets into your practice.

Are your bike training rides all the same? Do you pride yourself on being able to ride for hours and hours at a time or knock out 100's of miles a week on your bike? Endurance in riding a bicycle is definitely important but just because you can ride a bike for a long time doesn't necessarily convert to fast bike splits. A swim coach I once knew, used to say, "it's not how far you can swim or how fast you can swim, it's how far you can swim fast!" The same principal applies to cycling. Practicing going fast, as in sprints, is good, and great endurance is something for which we all strive. But in a triathlon, you need both. Karen Smyers once remarked that even a Sprint triathlon is a distance event.

If you have always felt that pushing a big gear is the way to go fast, I urge you to consider developing a fast cadence. A fast cadence is the most efficient way to ride a bike. Remember Lance Armstrong and how he defeated his competitors climbing the Pyrenees by spinning up the mountains. In a triathlon saving your legs is important. The bike being the longest leg of the race means that you need to be wise and learn to be efficient in your riding. Spinning up a hill, as opposed to muscling in a big gear, saves a lot of energy and you are going to need that energy when you get off your bike to do the run. The longer the race the more stress your legs are going to experience. Pushing a big gear is okay if you are strong enough to maintain 90 rpms or better continuously for the duration of the bike leg. Coach Troy once told me, "he who can push the biggest gear the fastest, wins"! There is more to riding a bike than just pushing the pedals around. A poor form can be very uncomfortable and can be the cause of inefficient cycling. If you are not sure of your form on the bike, have a knowledgeable person observe you and make suggestions for improvement. Practicing correct form on the bike is just as important as practicing running and swimming drills.

Every training ride should have a purpose. Some days you will be working to develop your endurance base. Some days you will work on your technique and cadence. At least once a week you should include a brick, doing an aerobic run immediately after an aerobic ride. Later in the season you will incorporate speed work in your training. There is a host of ways to improve your cycling. At least seventy-five percent of your triathlon training should be aerobic, but to become a better competitive cyclist you need to incorporate drills and speed work into your training program.

Running is the most physically stressful discipline in your triathlon training. More athletes are injured running than they are swimming or cycling. Miles and miles of running each week in the expectation that you will become a faster runner is not necessarily true. Just as in the other disciplines of the triathlon sport you need to train different aspects of running to reach your full potential.

The brick, which includes a run after the bike ride, will teach your legs to adapt quickly from cycling to running, or at least you will learn to tolerate the discomfort better. Most of your runs will be aerobic but once a week, some speed work/intervals is a good idea Speed work is necessary in order to train your fast twitch muscle fibers and also keep you from falling into a rut of always running the same pace. If you want to develop power and speed, interval training on a track will make you faster than anything else. If you live where there are hills, occasionally doing some hill repeats will also make your legs strong and help develop your quads and hamstrings. For the ultimate in developing strong legs, if you live near a beach, running in the sand will really give you a workout.

Everyone is familiar with the long run. We used to call this run LSD, long slow distance. But you don't want to go TOO slow. Today we more often refer to the long run as endurance training. When doing your long run, you will definitely want to stay within the middle to lower part of your aerobic zone. Joining with a group of like minded runners or triathletes for your long run makes the time go by faster and keeps you energized instead of getting bored.

Triathlon training is, or can be, time consuming, depending on the distance of the race for which you are preparing. If you want to make the very best use of your time, if time is a precious commodity, then you will want to make sure your training is effective. Make your training count by doing quality workouts and don't waste your time on 'junk' miles or boring, repetitious yards in the pool. Remember, you get good at what you practice. So make sure you are practicing correctly. To make the most of your training time, have a plan. Plan your training workouts and follow your plan just as you 'plan your race and race your plan'. If you don't know how to make out a training schedule, or you do not have the time, or if you feel uncertain as to how to include all the necessary elements into your training, hire a coach. A good coach can save you hours, days, and months of ineffective training. Novice triathletes frequently do what is called 'random training'. They simply do what they feel like doing each day or whatever the weather dictates. You can spend years training that way and never see much improvement. Don't waste your time. Get smart and get fast!

Bobbie Williams is an Age Group Triathlete and Coach.

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