Easy Ways to Finish Faster in Your Next Triathlon

We’re always looking for ways to become a faster triathlete, from training for hours to putting fancy elastic laces in our run shoes so we don’t waste precious seconds tying them in transition. We use aerodynamic race wheels and wear carbon-plated running shoes, and will purchase basically any piece of equipment that’s designed to make us faster.

But becoming a faster triathlete doesn’t always require a lot of time or money. Outside of training harder and buying more speed, some straightforward execution factors will also save you time on the course. With that in mind, here are eight easy ways to finish faster in your next triathlon.

1. Swim continuously

Swimming freestyle continuously from the time you enter the water to the time you hit the swim exit is the fastest way through the swim leg. It’s easier said than done for some triathletes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work to improve upon your swimming consistency.

If your triathlon swim leg gets interrupted due to anxiety, you’ll want to learn, practice, and utilize techniques to minimize those interruptions. First, it’s important to understand that when your anxiety skyrockets, your nervous system goes into fight-or-flight mode. To return to swimming, you first need to quiet your nervous system and bring yourself to a state of calm.

Lara Hammock, a licensed social worker, says “The key to controlling your anxiety while swimming is being aware of your racing thoughts without believing them.” She recommends using grounding techniques as soon as you start to feel any anxiety to bring yourself out of that fight-or-flight state: “Longer out-breaths (inhale for four and exhale for eight) will begin to calm your body. Also, paying attention to your senses – naming things you can feel, smell, taste, see, hear – will serve to bring your focus back to the present and turn off your fight or flight response.”

2. Swim in a straight line

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Once you’re swimming continuous freestyle, swimming straight from buoy to buoy is the fastest way out of the water. Accomplishing this requires two skills: sighting, so that you know what direction to swim, and either swimming straight or knowing that you don’t so that you can compensate for that.

First, figure out if you naturally swim straight or have a tendency to veer to the left or right (which is pretty common): Swim a length in your pool with your eyes closed; if you hit a lane line, you don’t swim straight. Then, practice sighting during your swim sessions leading into race week. On race day, you’ll sight frequently – every 6-8 strokes – to correct any natural tendency to veer off-course and maintain a straight line to the next buoy.

Want to really optimize your swim path? Preview the buoy layout before starting the swim; more often than you’d realize, the buoy layout isn’t a perfectly straight line. Knowing when to swim buoy-to-buoy and when to swim say, from buoy three directly to buoy six (not in terms of cutting corners, of course) will give you the shortest path from the start to the finish and minimize the time you spend in the water.

3. Nail your transitions

To quote fellow triathlon coach Dave Sheanin, “The first rule of transition is: don’t be in transition.” Spending needless minutes dawdling in transition will unnecessarily inflate your race time, so be efficient: get in, do what you need to do, and get out.

To be specific, start by bringing into transition only what you need, so that you don’t lose time sorting through piles of gear you won’t even be using. Set up your gear efficiently, bike gear here and run gear there. You can get even more efficient by placing gear in the order in which you’ll need it: socks first, then shoes. Finally, don’t do standing still what you can do while moving – no one needs two feet firmly planted to put on a race belt and run hat.

For more on speedy T1s and T2s, check out our step-by-step guide to triathlon transitions.

4. Pedal on the downhills

All too often triathletes coast or soft-pedal downhill and easy-pedal on slight downhills. Using all of your gears to maintain consistent pressure in the pedals when going downhill – often thought of as free speed – will get you from T1 to T2 that much quicker.

Taking advantage of this opportunity starts with not expending greater effort on the uphills; your goal is to maintain a consistent effort level across all the miles of the bike course, whether they’re up, down, or level. Then, since you haven’t exhausted yourself going uphill, you don’t need to use the downhill as a recovery and you have the energy to continue pedaling.

While pedaling, you also need to pay attention to the pressure you’re putting on the pedals. If you use a power meter, watching your power number and holding it steady regardless of the grade of the road will help you do exactly that. If you don’t have a power meter, get attuned to the sensation of putting pressure on the pedals so that you can quickly identify when you are not. When you find yourself soft- or easy-pedaling, changing gears will help you find that pressure – and speed – once again.

5. Don’t over-bike

Here’s how triathlon math works: save five minutes by cycling harder, lose twenty minutes by walking when you should be running. Biking at the appropriate effort level on race day – the level that allows you to still run to your potential off the bike – will ensure that your triathlon equation gets you to the finish line in the quickest time possible.

Biking at the right effort level requires defining that “right” effort level, and that gets sorted out in training. You need to test your bike effort-level targets (heart rate, power, or perceived effort) in training through executing long rides with several significant intervals at race-effort. Those effort-level targets are proven once you can complete your rides without fading during your final race-effort interval and can back up the rides with a strong run off the bike. Then you need to take those proven effort-level targets and actually stick to them on race day.

Here’s how triathlon math works: save five minutes by cycling harder, lose twenty minutes by walking when you should be running.

6. Roll through bike aid stations

There is (almost) nothing you need to do at a bike aid station that can’t be accomplished while moving. Yes, the aid stations offer the opportunity to replenish your on-bike hydration and fueling – but you can get those refills without stopping your bike if you plan for that ahead of time.

Yes, there are some things that are harder to do while moving on a bike, such as adding powder or tabs to a water bottle or opening packaging. So devise a fueling and hydration strategy such that your bottles are pre-mixed, open the packaging race morning while setting up everything else in transition, and plan to swap out those bottles that aren’t designed for being refilled on the go. Even you are new to the moving water bottle handoff, slowing to 5mph is faster than stopping altogether. (But practice those hand-offs before race day! Here’s how to do it.)

7. Top off your tank (the right way)

You have to fuel your engine if you want your body to perform. All the months of training to build up incredible fitness and speed won’t matter if your body is depleted and running on fumes or is dehydrated or your electrolyte levels are off. To take full advantage of your swim, bike, and run fitness on race day, you need to keep your body fueled, hydrated, and balanced.

Your fueling needs could range from 30g of carbs per hour for a sprint-distance race to 75-90g of carbs per hour for a full-distance race. Hydration needs are individual and vary widely, averaging 20-24 ounces of fluid per hour but ranging from eight to 50 ounces per hour. Like hydration, electrolyte needs are individual and vary widely, averaging 500-700mg of sodium per 24 ounces of fluid but ranging from 300-2000mg per 24 ounces. So do your research, understand your personal hydration and electrolyte profile, have a plan, and stick to it on race day.

8. Start slow to go fast

Running too quickly off the bike is a common triathlete experience. But like bike/run split math, those few minutes gained in the early miles often translate to two to three times that lost once the too-fast miles catch up to you. The challenge in pacing the run properly is that the first too-fast miles off the bike often feel deceptively easy.

To combat this pattern, think of the first twenty minutes on the run as a reality distortion field, where how your run pace feels has no connection to the reality of the effort. During that time, focus on not exceeding a pre-set target run pace. Once you’ve gotten past that initial twenty minutes and can trust your perceived effort again, find an effort level that allows you to run strong but saves one final “gear change” for the final third of the run (or, in the case of a full-distance triathlon, that you feel you can hold through the final miles). This descending run plan will maximize your fitness and get you to both your fastest run split and a strong finish.