My 5 Rules of Training for Marathons/Triathlons

1. No pain, no pain (not to be confused with muscle soreness-which is pleasure/pain)

2. If it hurts when you do that, stop doing that. Resume when pain is gone (see rule #1)

3. Never increase more than 10% per week in distance or time (depending on what you’re basing your training on.)

4. Once you’re well into your training, it will NOT kill you to miss a week and up to two weeks of training, due to injury or circumstances. You lose 1%-2% of fitness per week. If you miss more than two weeks, start going back in your training one week per missed week.

5. If you’re in the middle of a workout and it sucks, I mean SUCKS ASS-stop the workout and come back to it later in the week. If it still SUCKS the next time you try it, you’re either way overtrained or are wasting your time on an activity you don’t like. Re-assess your life.

I’ve been thinking about these “rules” for about 2 years now and I think these are pretty much how I run all training cycles. I’m not a world champion, but six years into endurance sports, I’m still (relatively) injury free, times continue to improve and I look forward to many more events.