“From the Ocean, I will swim until my strength is gone. On the surface I will appear strong, when the weakest I will ever be”

-J. Pérez. Marine Corps Officer

In 2017 I signed up with my son Juan Felipe for a 5K running race. At the end of the event, he said, «Dad, 5K is nothing.» Until then, that was my comfort zone. Due to SOF’s (special operations forces) periodic standardized physical fitnest tests, I was used to running this distance fast and comfortably. Reflecting on the observation of my son, I decided to leave my comfort zone and raise the demand level.

With the above in mind, triathlon seemed like an interesting option to try to take the level of physical training to a new dimension. So, I did it, I got involved on the triathlete life.

The triathlon types and distances

Sprint: 0.5km to 0.75km swim (0.3 to 0.5 mile), 20km to 22km bike (12.4 to 13 miles), and 5km run (3.1 miles). Super sprints are slightly shorter races: 0.4km swim (0.25 mile), 10km bike (6.2 miles) and 2.5km run (1.5 miles). The sprint is the most popular distance in the sport. Beginning triathletes most often select sprint distances as their first events.

Olympic: 1.5km swim (0.9 mile), 40km bike (24.9 miles), and 10km run (6.2 miles). The official distance of the Olympic event, this event requires a good fitness base

Midle Distance: 1.9km swim (1.2 miles), 90km bike (55.9 miles), and 21km run (13 miles). Half Iron events are far more challenging than the shorter distances and sometimes are used as qualifiers for Ironman triathlons. Don’t attempt a race at this distance until you’ve competed in sprint or Olympic events.

Full Distance: 3.8km swim (2.4 miles), 180km bike (111.8 miles), and 42km run (26.2 miles — a marathon). Each of the legs alone in this event challenges even the experienced endurance athlete. Train for full distance only after you’ve had experience in shorter races and completed at least one midle distance.

I have enjoyed every swim, bike and run training. So far I have participated in all the distances with the exception the full distance. I think all the types are interesting but each one needs a different training program. At the end of this publication there is an example of the BLW 12-week triathlon midle distance training program and some breathing workouts from the Warrior Breathing Training Program (WBTP). The WBTP aims to help you achieve an improved respiration (IR) and thussupport your overall readiness as a reacreational triathlete.

Now we will analyze the 5 principles that manage to bring the practice of this sport (it applies to almost every sport) to peak-performance levels.

5 Peak Physical Performance Principles

First Principle – Solid Mental Focus

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

-Albert Einstein

All challenges start in the mind. A positive mental attitude makes a difference. A solid mental focus can be trained. Visualization and focus must be included in the schedule. We can learn to control the mind, and thus exploit its potentials to help us overcome challenges and achieve goals.

Paul “Bear” Bryant, a famous American football coach used to say “Mental toughness is a choice you make. It´s not some gift that some people have and some don´t. It´s a choice and the choices a man makes become a habit”.

In this order of ideas, the configuration of the mentality is an individual responsibility and it is up to each person to forge a solid mental state that helps him to face better future obstacles.

So, a strategy focused on strengthening one’s mentality through scheduled visualization sessions is defined, allowing us to communicate with the unconscious part of our mind to increase performance. /A-box-breathing/ workout is an exellent tool to practice visualization. This mental training produces immediate effects. We only need the will, motivation, and ability to talk to ourselves.

This is how this key process is defined, if you want to be successful in triathlon, you need to have the mentality to put training as a priority. If the training is insightful, the mindset is strong. For the results to be effective, particular emphasis is placed on planning and execution, and thus, we reach the second principle.

Second Principle – Execute the Plan you Set

For the elaboration of the plan, the Systematic Design of Personal Training (SDPT) is taken as a reference, which is adapted from the military training design process.

It is essential to guide the training objectives according to the events in which you are going to participate. In military training we say «train as you fight, fight as you train». The quality of training is determined during planning, in the design phase of the SDPT. It is here where the individual seal is captured. The end product of the training is an optimal performance in the scheduled event.

Each person guides the planning and organization of the training, giving shape to the SDPT, which includes five phases; analysis, design, elaboration, implementation, and evaluation. The analysis phase studies the topics related to the purpose, its macrostructure, and the time window in which it will be developed, to determine the list of essential tasks for the fulfillment of this purpose. The second phase is the design, which defines the training objectives and the evaluation system that allows diagnosing the level of progress. Once the objectives are established, comes the elaboration of the detailed training program (DTP), with careful planning that includes the weekly training schedules.

As for the implementation phase here is where the DTP is launched. At the end of each training program, the cycle closes with the evaluation that collects data on the effectiveness of training to make the respective improvements and changes necessary to start again with the continuous cycle of SDPT.

In 2018 for my first middle distance triathlon race I followed an adaptation of the training program proposed by Dan Golding, in his book “Triathlon Winning at 70.3 How to Dominate the Middle Distance”. This 12-week training plan worked tremendously for me.

Third Principle – Train the Breathing

Training the breathing is for me the most important principle, in addition it is the central theme of Breathe Like a Warrior. The element of breathing is often forgotten by many people. It is a key factor that is not included in the training.

It is essential to include exclusive breathing training sessions. One recommendation is to follow the Warrior Breathing Training Program (WBTP), explained in detail in the second publication of Breathe Like a Warrior Series, BLW II.

Additionally, to the exercises included in the WBTP, when I train running, I use the rhythmic breathing method that Budd Coates clarifies in his book Runner’s World Running on Air: The Revolutionary Way to Run Better by Breathing Smarter. I find this breathing technique extremely powerful allowing me to sustain a superior running speed at a lower heart rate. One thing I added to my training with rhythmic breathing, not mentioned by Coates, is only nose breathing during moderate efforts.

Rhythmic breathing creates a relationship between your breathing cycle (inhale/exhale) and your stride cadence (foot strike). It´s a 5-count or 3:2 pattern, for most of your running. Inhale for three steps and exhale for two. This 3:2 breathing pattern Works well when you are running at an easy to moderate effort, which is the majority of your running when you want to do speed training and racing the 2:1 pattern comes into play.

Fourth Principle – Resting is a Powerful Necessity

A good training plan includes rest days. Adequate recovery time is extremely important. The body needs a period of rest during the training program. It is no easy to design a program. The results and positive effects depend on alternating between physical workouts and recovery breaks. That´s how supercompensation works; it is the theory explaining the adaptation of the body to a specific training stimulus. The process of alternating stress and rest is necessary to become more fit.

When the workload of training stimulus is too high, and the recovery breaks are not frequent you will likely experience overtraining. Overtraining comes hand in hand with a negative effect on the immune system, carrying the risks that this entails. I made this mistake during my preparation for a triathlon event in 2019. I paid the consequences; my body was weakened by overtraining and caught a bacterial infection during one of my open water swimming training.

I was unable to train for 4 months due to the infection caused by this germ. The most important thing in this story is that I learned the lesson. Resting is a powerful necessity and has become an unwavering principle in my training programs. To optimize this powerful necessity, it is very productive to include mental and muscular relaxation routines in addition to the triathlon training program. It is important to specifically stretch the muscles that are most demanded during each workout. Wolfpack yoga (WY) is an excellent option to speed up the recovery period.

Fifth Principle – Breathe to Fly

So, we arrived to the time for flying. This is my favorite principle. If we follow the four previous principles, we will be able to enjoy a peak performance during all triathlon trainings or any other sport, they work with almost any physical activity as well.

The focus of the training should be intensity. This doesn´t mean the training stimulus of the workouts must be at the highest possible intensity. The experts in physical training divide the physical effort into 5 zones. The basic concept of this theory of zones is that on a scale of values from one to five, one is the minimum level of demand and 5 is a physical activity carried out with the maximum effort.

All the zones must be used in your training. To reach the peak performance you must get the emphasis on 40 percent volume and 60 percent intensity (volume is the combination of frequency and duration). Frequency refers of how often you work out, while duration is a measure of the time length of a workout. Sixty percent intensity means, without going into detail, concentrate most of the training in zone 2.

Zone 2 is easy and relaxed, very comfortable, and quite useful for building aerobic fitness, and endurance. Zone 3 is more demanding and is preferred by most people who make the mistake of focusing their training only on this level of physical demand.

Each triathlon discipline has reference values for each area (it is not the subject of this principle and that is why we are not going to elaborate on this aspect). In the case of running, in my training zone 2, I can maintain a good cadence, with a rhythmic breathing 3:2, I can focus on the technique and maintain positive sensations, in other words, I do meditation in movement, this for me is breathing to fly.

Joe Friel, author of The Training Bible says that the aerobic endurance is the ability to keep going for very long time at a low intensity. It is improved by doing long, relatively easy, steady workouts in heart rate, power, or pace zone 2.

In summary, achieving peak performance in triathlon is a matter of applying the appropriate methodology, which begins with the configuration of a solid personal mentality to gradually lead the body to increase its level, following a balanced training program by zones, rigorously respecting the periods for adequate rest, and above all putting an additional interest in breathing.

BLW 12-week Triathlon Middle Distance Training Program (DTP example)

The Sequence of WY

The Breathing Workouts for Triathlon

The following breathing workouts will prepare you to reach a peak performance in triathlon and are part of the WBTP. the-warrior-breathing-training-program/

1. The Delta W breathing (DW)
2. The Delta Breathing (DB)
3. A-BOX Breathing
4. Kapalabhati

IR is based on four principles:

1. Breathe consciously through the nose all the time day and night, to boost NOproduction (NO ntiric oxide, the Mighty Molecule). Few specific breathing exercises of the program are the exception of these principle.
2. Feel the diaphragm while breathing. The force of every good breath is here.
3. Improve the breath hold time to increase the tolerance to CO2 (carbon dioxide), to optimize the VO2MAX and to stimulate the release of EPO.
4. Control the exhale and make it longer than the inhale.

If you want to learn the why behind the how of the WBTP is a powerful complementary breathing training to triathlon or any other physical activity, you can download the complete Gliding from 5k to 112.9K in 12 weeks – The Triathlete Challenge here, or send us an email srjotak@gmail.com