Tri from Scratch

Why another book on triathlon?

Triathlon is an addictive sport that is growing in popularity all over the world. Along with this, new books are published about triathlon every year. What's special about this one? This book is written for a specific type of person. This book won't serve you unless you:

1) Are wanting to get started in triathlon. In other words, you're a beginner rather than an expert.

2) You're busy. In other words, you don't have a lot of free time to do extensive amounts of training.

This book is written for people who are feeling a bit stuck for how to get started when they don't have the time to follow a demanding training schedule. You might be a parent with young children. You might be a mum or a dad and all your free time is taken up with cooking, cleaning, and looking after your children. You'd love to get fit, get healthy, get outdoors, go swimming, and so on, but you just can't see how.

You might be a professional of some kind. You have a demanding job. You need to travel. Work requires that you work late into the evening and have to get up early. Client deadlines make managing your own personal exercise schedule hard. Whatever your situation, this book is written for you if you want to get into triathlon, but you just can't see how you can manage it.

Here's my story in brief: two years ago my wife and I went on holiday with our young (pre-school) kids. I was exhausted and worn down by work, and spent the whole week wanting to doze, crash, eat carbohydrates, eat chocolate, drink coffee, or drink alcohol. I felt unbearably lethargic. I resented myself for being such an unfit dad; but I just felt like I was in some kind of weary stupor that I couldn't break out of. And I was only 35! My joints felt stiff and slow, and I felt exhausted every morning I woke up. Sometime during that holiday I decided, I'm going to get healthy; not just fit, but healthy and fit. I'm going to enter a triathlon. I can't not try to do something about this lack of energy and vibrancy.

At the same time, an internal voice was saying, 'How?! Your job is too busy, and family life is so demanding. When are you going to get the time to train for a triathlon? And you can hardly swim!' But I continued to say to myself - I'll have to learn and find a way. I can't not try.

6 months later I completed my first triathlon (a sprint distance). A year after that I completed my first half-ironman (1.9k swim, 90k bike, 21k run). And I tell you honestly - I never trained more than 3 hours a week. Most weeks, less than 2. My work and family commitments forced me to read and learn widely about how to train smart to overhaul my health and fitness. This little book gives you the key principles I learnt along the way.

I'm not writing this for elite athletes - I'm not an elite athlete myself; please don't buy this if you want to hear from a veteran or an elite athlete. But if you're someone wanting to get started and who feels stuck and constrained at the same time, then I really believe I can help - I've been there, and walked the journey, and kept records of what has really worked.

There's great news for you. It really is possible to get started in triathlon, and to become proficient in this wonderful sport of swimming, cycling, and running even when you have a very limited amount of free time. 

This book covers everything you need to get started in triathlon and everything is written from the perspective of someone who doesn't have a lot of time to train. This book is all about learning to train smart; how to do more with less.

Let's jump in!