Have you seen people in a triathlon, and thought I would like to try that, but I don’t have the time? It seems everyone is increasingly busy, and time is a precious resource. An event that involves three different sports sounds like huge time commitment. What if you could complete your first triathlon, and change your lifestyle in two months using only four hours a week?

Most people can carve out four hours a week to do something they really want to do. The current Neilsen ratings say the average person watches four hours of TV a day, or 28 hours a week. Would you be willing give up one day of TV for a healthier lifestyle?

Now we got the excuses out of the way, lets get down to business. How can I be ready to race a Tri in the two months in only four hours, a week?

I suggest your first race be a sprint distance tri. Typical distances for a sprint are 500M swim (15 mins), 12 mile bike (35 mins), and a 5k (30 mins) run. Each leg of the race should take 30 minutes or less. We will use that 30 min time domain to structure the majority of your training. If you are already proficient in one of these sports, you can concentrate on the other two.

A typical week will look something like this:

As you can see there are seven workouts broken up over five days. The two rest days are important to let your body rest, and feel like you have a life outside exercise. The double workout on Wednesday and Sunday could be done back to back inside to maximize your time. You can do your 30 mins in the pool, then hop on a spin bike or the treadmill to finish up. The swim days are flexible throughout the week. The only restriction is to not run and bike on the same day. Save your legs!

Does this sound like something you can do? Don’t be intimidated by the amount of workouts. Each workout is short enough to fit in your daily schedule, and leave you feeling energized. Also, there is flexibility in the schedule. If you can’t get to the pool on Wednesday, just move it to Thursday.

In future posts, I will layout the structure of each work during the week. In the mean time, let’s get moving!

If you have specific questions, please leave them in the comments. I will be happy to help.