The Triathlete Guide to Sprint & Olympic Triathlon Racing

by Chris Foster, Ryan Bolton (Contributor)

The Triathlete Guide to Sprint and Olympic Triathlon Racing will help you discover the speed, thrill, and challenge of triathlon’s most popular race distances. Not everyone has time to train for long-course triathlons. By pursuing triathlon’s shorter distances, you can enjoy all the total body fitness benefits of the swim-bike-run sport and discover the unique challenges of short-course racingall while enjoying a life outside of training. This complete guide from former pro triathletes Chris Foster and coach Ryan Bolton shares all the know-how you need to find speed and enjoy successful racing in sprint and Olympic-distance triathlons. Foster, now the Senior Editor of Triathlete magazine, shares his pro advice for how to set a smart race strategy, how to master triathlon pacing, how to execute fast transitions, how to train to improve your weakness and race to your strengths. Bolton offers smart, effective sprint and Olympic triathlon training plans so you can get started right away, no matter your background. Sprint and Olympic triathlons are triathlon’s most popular distances for good reasons. Experienced triathletes returning to the short course will enjoy a break from long, slow hours of training and rediscover the joy of speed. Active people looking for a new challenge can jump right into triathlon’s most beginner-friendly distances. The Triathlete Guide to Sprint and Olympic Triathlon Racing makes it simple to get back up to speed in the world’s most rewarding endurance sport.

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2020

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

While I completed one mini-triathlon back in my early 30's, I had over a ten year break before doing my first sprint two years ago. It happened mostly on a whim - a friend had a free slot because of a cancellation, and with a two day lead time I jumped in to the water with a wetsuit I had bought the day before. I've never been a particularly good athlete but I've completed some 10+ half marathons and century rides on a bike, and so the race went quite ok. Also, it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The next year I did a few more, collected more gear, took some swimming lessons and read (well, watched a lot of YouTube) on the various topics of triathlon. While this obviously does not make me an expert, it did give me a bit of background to compare against when reading the The Triathlete Guide to Sprint.

The book is roughly divided into two sections. The first part talks about the sport itself - origin, gear, technique and how to train for it in general. The second part is spent in detailed training plans where the author offers three separate plans depending on your goal and starting level.

I'll be honest - I've always been too lazy to follow a proper training plans. This is probably the reason I've never been very strong in any sport. I mostly just glazed over this section. To my eye it appears fine. With a simple Google you can find similar plans a plenty, but here the author goes into more detail explaining why each segment is where it is. For me, this would make me more likely to follow the plans as I could understand the logic of it. Still, if you are not buying the book in order to follow one of the plans, this section does not give you all that much.

The first part is a lot more fruitful, and if I had had this book a year ago I would been quite happy. All the basics are clearly defined, and especially the section on how races happen would have been wonderful to read - doing your first triathlon can be daunting as there are a lot of moving parts. The individual sections on running, cycling and swimming technique are understandably thin, but do a good job in explaining the main areas to concentrate on - giving you a good list of 'what you do not yet know but should'.

As a bonus, the appendixes contain discipline-specific drills and workouts to help balance your training. This I also found very useful and again something I wish I had known much earlier. The swimming section is very nice and being the most complex and technical of the three has the greatest value when practiced correctly. And while I've been running for 30 years, there were a few new ideas in the running section for me as well.

All in all, if you are "tri-curious" and thinking of your first race, or have already completed one and become hooked, this book will be a great read. If you are more advanced, perhaps the training plans will give you value and I'd wager you will find things you did not know in the other sections - or at least reaffirmations of what you already knew. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking about doing a triathlon and found this to be a good primer. About half the book is about some basics (history, gear, stately, etc.), while the other half gives three 16 week training plans. The plans are pretty aggressive, so I’m not sure that I’ll use them for just an entry level sprint triathlon. But might be something I return to if I keep it up.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for the beginner triathlete.