1. Plan your training rather than just winging it – you may end up doing too much high intensity training and over doing it, or just doing what you find easy rather than what you need to do.
2. Enter a race so you have something to work towards.
3. Train with others as it always help to get you out the door when you would rather stay in bed or watch TV.
4. Seek advice from a coach or an experienced athlete that you trust to help guide you through training.
5. Don’t be worried that you don’t have the most expensive gear – it’s you that makes the bike go fast, not the bike.
6. Be flexible and listen to your body, if you have a planned hard session but feel absolutely knackered, do an easy session or have a day off, let your body recover then do your hard session on another day.
7. Make sure to work on technique, core and flexibility. They might not be the sessions that leave you dripping in sweet, but they are beneficial sessions which will help you be a stronger more consistent athlete which in turn will make you faster.
8. If you are doing a race you haven’t done a race before try and find out as much information you can about it before you go so you can be as well prepared for it as possible.
9. When going to a race make sure you get there in plenty of time because registering, setting up transition, checking out the course layout and getting warmed up and into your wetsuit can take longer than you think. The last thing you want is to be rushing around pre race – that is when you forget something.
10. Enjoy racing. Why do something that you put so much time and effort into if on the day you get too stressed? Don’t worry too much about times and what other people are doing – you end up not enjoying it. We all do triathlon because we enjoy it, so make sure you enjoy it too.