Training tips

Challenge Roth sits high up on the list of races long-distance triathletes talk about for years before they finally stand on the start line. The roads are lined six and seven deep in places, the Solarer Berg climb turns into a tunnel of noise and the finish stadium in Roth stays full long after dark. Even riders who have raced Kona, Nice or Hamburg still talk about Roth in a different tone.

Strength training for triathletes is functional resistance training that improves force production, posture, joint stability and fatigue resistance across the swim, bike and run without aiming to add unnecessary muscle mass. The goal isn’t to get bigger. It’s to become stronger, more durable and more efficient across all three disciplines.

Polarised training in cycling is an endurance training model where most riding is kept genuinely easy, a small amount is made properly hard, and the tiring middle ground is kept to a minimum.

Foot pain while cycling is common but it shouldn’t be part of your ride. Discover the causes behind burning feet, numb toes and sore arches – plus simple fixes that actually help.

RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, is a simple way to measure how hard a ride feels by rating your effort on a scale, usually from 1 to 10. For cyclists, RPE helps you judge intensity using breathing, muscle fatigue, focus and overall effort, even when power, heart rate or speed don’t tell the full story.

If you want better results from your riding, heart-rate zones are a simple place to start. Discover how to calculate yours, train with purpose and balance intensity with recovery for steady progress.

Heart rate variability, or HRV, is the small variation in time between one heartbeat and the next, and for endurance athletes, it’s most useful as a trend that shows how well the body is handling training and life stress, not as a one-off score that tells you whether today is good or bad. Used well, HRV can help you decide when to push, when to hold steady, and when to back off, but it only becomes genuinely useful when you judge it against your own normal range and combine it with sleep, soreness, mood and the demands of your training.

Thinking about your first triathlon? Learn what to expect, how to train and how to choose the right race with simple, practical advice to help you get started with confidence.

Outdoor cycling is what happens when you take your indoor fitness back onto real asphalt or gravel, where wind, terrain and bike handling suddenly matter again. After months of riding indoors, the change isn’t just physical, it’s sensory, technical and a little humbling at first.