The Triathlete Guide to Sprint & Olympic Triathlon Racing

I liked that suggestions : were given to improve swimming, running and biking skills, three different training plans were provided depending on one’s abilities, details to prepare for race day. I did not like how technical the workout plans were.

The book outlines everything from the very start of a new triathlete's journey to full training plans for all levels. I consider myself an experienced/advanced triathlete and I purchased the book for the 16 week training plan by Ryan Bolton. It was worth the purchase and would be even more valuable to a beginner.

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.