Triathlete’s Guide to Injury Prevention: Part I
Series written by Becky Arturo, doctor of physical therapy, certified strength & conditioning specialist, USAT triathlon coach, and RRCA running coach, in collaboration with Nick Fischer, board-certified sports dietitian, both of Weights and Plates Endurance
Jump to the next posts in this series on strength and mobility training, proper form and technique, and nutrition and daily habits to prevent injury.
According to current literature, somewhere between 37-91% [1] of triathletes will experience overuse injuries, while 24-27% will experience acute injuries. Sure, the percentage of overuse injuries is a very wide range, but even the low end is pretty high.
That means that on the low end, for every 3 triathletes you know, one of them will have an overuse injury. While the data above is still a little uncertain, one thing we are sure about is the habits and routines of athletes with lower injury risk.
Although completely preventing any risk of injury isn’t possible, significantly decreasing injury risk is.
This 4-part series will review specific areas to consider to effectively prevent injury as a triathlete: the training program, strength and mobility training, form and technique, adequate fueling, and daily habits. Here in Part I we’ll explore the training program.
The Training Program
This is where decreasing injury risk really starts. Even if you are doing everything else right, you are still likely to get injured if you are overtraining, progressing inappropriately, spending too much time at intensity, lacking recovery, training the same way year-round, or starting a program that you just aren’t ready for.
Overtraining
Overtraining is a large problem in the endurance training world, especially for triathletes. We have 3 separate disciplines to work on improving both our aerobic base and speed. We also need to include strength training and many of us want to go to a few group workouts each week.
With all of those goals, it can be very easy to do too much, too fast. The truth is, you don’t always have to fit in that extra workout. A quality-over-quantity approach can help many athletes improve their performance and do so without injury.
If it feels like you are doing too much, you probably are. The right balance can sometimes be challenging to find on your own. But, the below principles can help.
Progression
Appropriate progression is the key to building your volume and intensity safely. You wouldn’t try to do a distance race without building up appropriately, so don’t try to do that in your training either.
Slowly building your duration in each discipline is about more than just progressing your abilities. It also allows for your joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments to slowly adapt to the forces each event requires.
The general rule of thumb is to progress no more than 10% of your weekly duration or mileage from one week to the next. For example, if you spent 3 hours or 180 minutes riding your bike the week prior, you should progress that weekly volume by no more than about 18-20 minutes the following week.
I’m giving a range because again this doesn’t have to be perfect. Of course, this rule isn’t perfect. If you are starting from zero, you have to start building somewhere. If you are coming off of an injury, 10% might be too much.
Likewise, if you have been training for a long time or simply took a step down a week, you can probably tolerate a bit more. Nonetheless, it’s a good guideline to use if you aren’t working with a coach and aren’t sure if you are progressing too quickly.
Intensity
Similarly, time spent at intensity should be examined on an individual basis. If you are jumping right into a new program, you don’t want to be doing too many workouts too hard.
Those harder workouts stress your body systems, and if your body isn’t ready for that intensity level, then there is a good chance something in your body will give. Even for more experienced athletes, harder workouts require adequate recovery for proper adaptations to occur in both your musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems.
If you do another hard training session before recovering from your previous hard session, then not only are you potentially causing yourself damage, but you will also lose a lot of the benefits from those workouts.
Experienced athletes may train with more accumulated fatigue to simulate late-race feelings in a long-distance event. However, this should be planned carefully and thoughtfully while monitoring for signs of overtraining.
Recovery
Now, recovery doesn’t necessarily always mean a day off. While some recovery days truly are off days, other forms of recovery could just mean an easy day at a conversational pace or doing some basic mobility work.
Generally speaking, a good spread between hard days will allow for better recovery. Many endurance athletes have a hard time keeping easy days easy and hard days hard. However, easy days serve many purposes, including both injury prevention and safely building an aerobic base.
Recovery weeks or step-down weeks should also be a part of a well-balanced training program. Usually, these are every 3-4 weeks but can vary based on your training cycle. The purpose of these weeks is to allow your body time to truly recover from and adapt to the stresses of training.
These weeks also allow you to get rid of any remaining accumulated fatigue from the weeks prior. Step-down weeks don’t mean a week completely off, but rather a “step down” in duration and/or intensity before a continual build in the weeks to come.
Periodization
Periodization is another important aspect of a safe training program. Yes, this is important on a week-to-week level for appropriate progression. However, it is also very important in terms of the yearly training cycle for reducing injury risk.
If you are training hard all year round like you would be leading up to your A race, then it’s likely just a matter of time before you experience overuse injuries. Instead, you should decrease your training load when you are not building up to your A race.
Focus on things like technique, strength, mobility, and maybe some short speed/power. While this is a hard concept for a lot of people to grapple with, the truth is that you simply cannot be in peak condition year-round, and trying to be is a recipe for injury.
Know Thyself
The last thing in terms of the training plan is making sure you are following a plan that fits you as an individual. Sure, some of the free training programs available online are great. However, they don’t take into consideration your individual strengths and weaknesses.
If your triathlon training program has you running and swimming an appropriate amount for yourself, but also has you biking way more than you ever have, you may need to make some adjustments to fit your individual needs.
See the next posts in this series on strength and mobility training, proper form and technique, and nutrition and daily habits to prevent injury.
Scientific References
- Rhind, J.-H., Dass, D., Barnett, A., & Carmont, M. (2022). A Systematic Review of Long‐Distance Triathlon Musculoskeletal Injuries. Journal of Human Kinetics, 81(1), 123–134. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2022-0011
Becky Arturo
Becky Arturo is the co-founder of Weights and Plates Endurance Coaching. Becky Arturo received her doctorate degree in physical therapy and started practicing as a sports and orthopedic physical therapist in 2019. She is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist as well as a USA Triathlon certified coach. Learn more about Becky