Build up to Age-Group Triathlon Champs: Part 1

This Sunday I'm competing in the world Age-Group triathlon championships in Hyde Park. I've written a couple of blogs this week for Financial News to illustrate how someone working in the city balances training for triathlon alongside a day job. I thought I would post them on here too, so here is part 1 about my training:

"Having stepped up from the marathon to compete at triathlon this year, I have had to adjust my training, which has previously focused on running, to incorporate two further disciplines.

My background in athletics has allowed me to appreciate the volume and type of training required to be competitive at running, and I have converted this knowledge to help prepare for the swim and the bike.

Intensities across the disciplines vary - for example an hour's steady running can be equivalent to three hours of cycling, and I find myself far more fatigued after an hour's run compared to an hour's swim. As a result, I have found the duration of training for triathlon to be significantly longer than when I concentrated solely on running.

It is important to focus on the discipline where more training can make the greatest difference. This may not always be your strongest discipline, and the other two disciplines may slip as a result.

I have made a concerted effort this year to improve my cycling, which has come at the expense of becoming slightly slower at running and swimming, but achieving a faster cumulative time overall. To put it in perspective, in the three months leading up to the London Marathon in 2012, I ran 720 miles and cycled a fraction of that, while in the three months before this Sunday's age-group triathlon I will have run just 150 miles but cycled 2,750 miles.

So what does a typical week's training look like for me? Here is a sample from July:

• Saturday: 3km swim in the morning, 40-mile bike ride in the evening
• Sunday: 20-miles on the bike in the morning, including a 10-mile Time Trial and followed by a 3-mile run. A 30-mile bike ride in the evening
• Monday: 3km morning swim, 8-mile run in the evening
• Tuesday: 25 miles on the bike in the morning, strength and conditioning work in the evening
• Wednesday: 3km swim in the morning
• Thursday: 23 mile bike ride in the morning, 8-mile run in the evening
• Friday: 30 miles on the bike in the morning
• As well as this, I commute to and from work by bike, which adds another 55 miles

This particular training schedule works for me and I structure it around my working day. It requires getting up at 5:45-6:00am every day to ensure I have enough time to exercise before work, and a degree of self-discipline is needed to train again in the evening, but I find the end-goal provides enough motivation for this.

I started to ramp up my training in May and have kept it up for the whole of the summer. Now, with just days until the race, I can begin to taper knowing that I have done as much as I can to prepare."

Here is the article online