<:: Welcome to Slowtwitch.com ::>

This is your final week. Your race is upcoming, you're in the "taper" and the training is mostly done. Let's talk a little bit about where you go from here, shall we?

The hard part is the training, and you've done that. The easy part is sometimes the part athletes forget to do: Where is the race? How do you get there? Is your equipment in good working order?

Performance increases are not straight-line, rather, they're like the stock market: lots of ups, a fair share of downs, but up over the long haul Well, maybe that's a bad analogy considering the past decade.

You're nearing the end. You're probably ready to race now. So, it's mostly a case of hitting your taper, not getting injured, improving here and there, and staying enthused.

Your long swim week under your best (you did do this, didn't you?), how 'bout let's try switching to another event, and we'll try to make some progress on the bike?

Swimming is a big fat hassle, until you're good in the pool, and then swimming is the easiest leg of the triathlon, and when I say easy, I mean by far it's the easiest.

Every now and then you'll have an easier week, and some will be harder. Like this week. You are a bona-fide athlete now, and I'll be treating you like one.

We're going to start varying effort levels, week to week. But first, let's talk about wetsuits. At some point you'll want to consider investing in one.

Have you thought about what you're going to wear in your first triathlon? No, I don't mean whether the colors match. Rather, do you have one garment to swim, bike and run in?

What about nutrition during training? Gels, bars, gummies, things like that? Yes, it's time you started to think about these sorts of things.

You're more than halfway to the goal. You could certainly do a triathlon right now. In fact, you'd probably be fitter right now than plenty of people who're going to be doing the race with you. Isn't it a great feeling to be getting fit?

What is the most important muscle in your body? Of course you know the answer to this. It's your heart. That thing is just one big muscle, and when you think about it, it's pretty miraculous.

As you will see herein, the theme this week is "Let's explore!" In so doing, you'll be using your fitness to do some good things for your mind and your body.

You're more than a third of the way to the goal. In a couple of weeks you'll be halfway to the goal. You could probably do a triathlon right now and survive.

We've added some long sessions: one long run (1 hour) and one ride in which we're looking for a given distance to be covered (30 miles). You're entering the big time!

Your building fitness and ability in all three sports now. Let's talk about how swim, bike and run relate to each other in terms of time spent and fitness gained.

This is the week you're finally firing on all eight cylinders. By now you've got all the meaningful paraphernalia you need for all three sports, and you're ready to start riding. Good, because your riding starts this week.

Running and swimming? Good, those are the most important events to master. But you want to start riding the bike, don't you? Let's talk about that.

In the first two weeks we've covered a lot of ground. You've gotten yourself going, and you're sort-of kind-of sputtering along in two of triathlon's three events: the swim and the run.

This week's training theme is the swim. Not swimming per se, but doing the groundwork that'll get you ready to start your quest toward swim prowess.

It's been almost 20 years since this schedule debuted, aimed at the rank beginner wanting to compete in a triathlon. With a spruce-up, here it is back on the Slowtwitch servers.

As we used to say in the 70s, "This is the first day of the rest of your life." Have a peace sign tank top and a Keep on Truckin' bumper sticker? Great, you're ready to start your first day of tri training.