What is a beginner triathlete? Is a beginner triathlete a person that signs up for a first time Ironman? Or perhaps a beginner triathlete is person who has no athletic background, never did endurance training and now want to finish a sprint triathlon. All of us a SmartTriathlonTraining were beginner triathletes one day. Some beginner triathletes come from single sport backgrounds. They can have great experience and swimmers and runners but be total beginners in cycling or running. Regardless of your background rest assured that our custom plans will fit your backgound, your race goals and fitness. That is the beauty of triathlon training and what makes it exciting. You can be a college swimmer and be a total beginner on the bike thus allowing you to still be considered a beginner triathlete.

The first thing you want to do as a beginner is set out a date for your triathlon and sign up for it. This date is what your training will be geared for. If you have trouble deciding on a date contact us we can help you based on your situation. Once we have a date we can work together with the right plan for you.

For the great majority of beginners our recommendation is to at least do each sport twice a week. Doing a sport less than twice a week will not allow your body to adapt to the training stress. Add to this 2 sessions of strength training and now you have 8 sessions each week. That is the bare minimum we recommend in order to avoid injury and to have a gratifying experience on race day.

The other common question a beginner has is what distance to race first. We recommend you start short and let your body build appropriate endurance. So even if the big goal down the road is to finish an Ironman, set out an initial goal to do shorter races. Read our explanation of each of the most common race distances, Sprint, Olympic, Half Ironman and full Ironman.

We look forward to working with you. Feel free to contact us us with any questions.