Triathlon's rule of 3

I am often approached by aspiring athletes and asked how long will it take for me to get to a good level at Triathlon? Like most coaches I try to start to answer that question by firstly trying to understand by what they mean by 'good'. Like many things 'good' is a relative term, what's fast to one person will seem positively pedestrian to another!

If you read Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outliers' he believes the amount of time it takes to get you to a Mastery level at any skill based activity is 10,000 hours or 20 hours per week for 10 years. That could be playing a guitar, riding a bike, or learning a language. The old adage that their are 'no overnight successes' comes to mind. In the case of sport, sure sometimes people burst onto the scene with seemingly little background its then we start to find out a little more about them and it reveals years of background work in a different but compatible sport, or just the fact that they are now placing a good deal more focus on that area of their life but have been competing for a long time. Chrissie Wellington and Rebecca Romero are two such examples.

In taking on Triathlon we need to understand what we are getting into as the requirements of the sport are different and varied. We we are competing in 3 different sports one after each other, all with very different physiological and psychological demands.

If we use the example of a standard distance event (1.5k/40k/10k). In the swim we are horizontal for any where between 17 min's and 60min's depending on the event and our swimming ability, we are often immersed in really cold water that chills us to the bone and disorientates us, then we quickly have to get ourselves upright, run to our bikes where we then spend anywhere between 55min's and 2+hours hunched over a set of tribars stressing our lower backs and hamstrings, finally we are off our bikes and upright again running as hard as we can, for anywhere between 29 min's and 1hour+. So even if you are already an accomplished athlete in one sport its going to take time to get you up to speed in the others.

How long? in my experience their is a rule of 3 that applies in Triathlon to which their is few exceptions. Physiologists tell us that the body takes 3 months or 12 weeks to really adapt to exercise, that why coaches often produce 12, 24, 36 week training programmes. Each 3 month period allowing the body to adapt. In my experience to get 'good' or really competitive as an age grouper typically takes at least 3 years. If you come from a predominant running background as many triathletes do, it takes 3 years to master the swimming technique and the power development and handling skills on the bike. If you are from a bike background, again the swimming development and running skills will take the 3 years of improvement. Those from a swimming background have the double edged sword, good swim technique and a well developed cardio-vascular engine that really helps, the drawback is often recovery from lower limb injuries that can plague swimmers that start in the sport because they are now spending so much more time stressing those parts of their body. 3 years again seems to be the time band that it takes to overcome these issues.

I am sure we can all think of a few examples of athletes that are performing well after 1 or 2 years in the sport, but are they at their potential yet? Probably not. Improving at triathlon is about small incremental gains produced almost unnoticeable from session to session of consistent and progressive training. Each session providing another layer, like skins on an onion. Too much work and we get ill and injured, too little and we are not stretched enough to develop our physical and mental capacities. So patience is the key my friends the rule of 3 demands consistent, quality work to make those dreams of a podium finish or a Hawaii spot a reality.

Rob