Author: Gaelle Abecassis

The integration of AI technology in triathlon is already happening. We see this with the devices we’re using to capture data and metrics and apps like Humango are creating hyper-personalized training plans for endurance athletes based on their availability, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and metrics they share with the platform.

Triathlon, a sport that demands unparalleled endurance, skill, and mental fortitude, thrives on community and innovation. In a recent virtual event hosted by Humango and Challenge Family, professional triathletes Matt Hanson and Frederic Funk shared their insights on training, recovery, the impact of virtual communities, and the integration of AI technology in triathlon.

This post captures the essence of their discussion, providing valuable takeaways for athletes at all levels.

The Importance of Community in Triathlon

Many of us start playing sports for the community and camaraderie that comes with being on a team. For triathlon, when it’s you against the timer, you’re your own team. But having the support from friends, family, and your triathlon community plays a big role in not just the physical challenge of triathlon, but the mental too.

Building Connections in Triathlon

In the world of triathlon, community plays a pivotal role in a triathlete’s journey. Both Matt and Freddy emphasized the significance of having a support system, whether it’s through in-person training groups or virtual communities on Humango.

These connections not only offer practical advice and training tips, but also emotional and social support. Athletes can share experiences, seek recommendations for races, and find camaraderie in their shared passion. You know you’ve found your people when they get you, they understand why you do triathlon, and they’re doing it alongside you. It’s something you can’t get anywhere else.

Virtual Communities and Their Impact

The pandemic forced many athletes to adapt to remote training, which led to the rise of virtual communities. Coaches and athletes created online spaces to stay connected, train together remotely, and celebrate each other’s achievements.

Many of these virtual interactions often led to real-life friendships and collaborations, such as training camps and meetups at races. This blend of digital and physical interaction has strengthened the triathlon community, making it more accessible and inclusive since before the pandemic.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence Technology in Triathlon Training

The integration of AI technology in triathlon is a hot topic especially with ChatGPT coming into the fold recently and the heightened awareness of AI in general. What’s great is that AI isn’t here to replace coaches. It’s a tool to become a better coach by being able to explain to athletes what their data actually means for them.

AI Coaching: A New Frontier

Advancements in technology, particularly AI, have revolutionized the way triathletes train. Matt shared his experience with his AI coaching group, which provides personalized training plans and insights.

This technology-driven approach helps athletes understand their physiological responses better and assists coaches in tailoring their training to achieve specific goals. The integration of AI in coaching represents a significant step forward, offering precision and customization that traditional methods may lack.

For example, not having a ton of free time to sift through loads of data by an athlete to tailor their training. Humango’s AI lends itself to coaches who are as time-crunched as their athletes and need a quicker way to review data to plan their athletes’ training regimen.

The Future of AI Technology in Triathlon

While the benefits of AI are clear, there are still many questions about its inner workings. We hinted at a future session with the CEO of Humango to delve deeper into the integration of AI technology in triathlon training, which you can watch here.

This discussion sheds light on how AI, and in particular, Humango, curates and calculates training plans, providing athletes with a comprehensive understanding of this innovative tool.

Training Strategies and Philosophies

“”If the challenge of racing somebody new scares you and doesn’t motivate you, it’s time to hang up the shoes.”

Frederic Funk

It was interesting to hear Freddy and Matt’s training strategies and philosophies from a professional triathlete’s point of view. Every athlete has their own training strategy and philosophy and hearing from some of the greatest triathletes in the sport today solidifies the importance of concepts like consistency and balance.

The Role of Consistency

We’ve all heard how important consistency in training is. And both Matt and Freddy stressed the importance of maintaining a steady training regimen throughout the year.

By breaking the season into manageable blocks and incorporating regular rest periods, athletes can avoid burnout and sustain high performance. Their approach includes taking a traditional off-season after his last race of the year, followed by a gradual return to structured training.

Balancing Intensity and Recovery

Recovery is just as crucial as training intensity. Matt highlighted the importance of taking breaks even when his motivation is high because it helps him stay excited and on track for fitness gains.

He schedules a mid-season recovery week with no structure, allowing his body and mind to rejuvenate. His approach prevents overtraining and ensures he’ll peak at the right times. Freddy echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that mental recovery is as important as physical rest.

Preparing for A and B Races

Athletes often face the challenge of balancing preparation for major (A) races and smaller (B) races (and even C races). Both Matt and Freddy manage their expectations by focusing on their race plans rather than outcomes. For B races, they approach them as intense training sessions without the pressure of peaking. This strategy allows them to gain valuable race experience while maintaining their overall training objectives.

Adapting to New Competitors

“The whole point of doing what I do is so I can find out how fast I can go or how deep I can push myself, and if it takes new blood coming into the sport to get a little bit more out of myself, great.”

Matt Hanson

Competition forces you to get better and go faster. Having a healthy attitude toward your competition and know they’re making you a better athlete will keep you in the game a lot longer than the alternative.

Welcoming the Next Generation

The triathlon landscape is constantly evolving, with new athletes emerging from different disciplines. When asked about the influx of Olympians into long-distance triathlon, Matt and Freddy welcomed the challenge. They see the arrival of new competitors as an opportunity to elevate their own performance. This mindset reflects the sport’s competitive yet supportive nature, where athletes push each other to new heights.

Learning from Training Partners

Both Matt and Freddy have been inspired by their training partners. Freddy spoke about his roommate, an Austrian short-distance triathlete, whose journey to Olympic qualification was both challenging and motivating. Similarly, Matt reflected on his training experiences with Tim O’Donnell, a seasoned triathlete whose strategic approach to training taught him the importance of balancing intensity throughout the season.

Personal Insights and Experiences

“Managing expectations is just going in with a race plan, and my expectation is that I execute the race plan and let the result sort itself out.”

Matt Hanson

Training with Olympians, or just someone faster than you, will help you grow as an athlete too. Freddy experienced this when he did altitude training in Switzerland, riding and running alongside athletes preparing for the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Matt learned a lot about managing your training load and peaking at the right time from one of his training buddies. It goes to show that keeping an open mind and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone will improve your athletic performance.

Freddy’s Altitude Training in Switzerland

Freddy shared his experiences at an altitude training camp in Switzerland, where he trains alongside athletes preparing for the Olympics. This environment, filled with high-level competitors, fuels his motivation and pushes him to improve. He highlighted the stressful and demanding nature of Olympic qualification, noting the relentless travel and race schedules athletes endure to earn their spots.

Matt’s Learning from Seasoned Athletes

Matt reminisced about his time training with Tim O’Donnell, who recently retired. Tim’s ability to manage his training load and peak at the right times left a lasting impression on Matt. This mentorship helped Matt refine his approach to training, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and patience. The exchange of knowledge between experienced athletes and newcomers enriches the sport and fosters continuous improvement.

The Role of Recovery in Longevity

“It’s not just important for the body but especially mentally, it’s good to take some time off.”

Frederic Funk

Rest and recovery are just as important (if not more so) as training. When you give your body (and mind) downtime, that’s when it regenerates and grows stronger. A lot of amateur athletes assume that more is better and that’s not always the case.

You can only do so much until your body and mind force you into recovery, so be proactive before you get to that point.

Strategic Off-Season Planning

To ensure longevity in the sport, both Matt and Freddy prioritize their off-season recovery. After their last races, they take significant breaks to reset mentally and physically. This downtime includes complete rest and unstructured training focused on enjoyment rather than performance, what Freddy calls “Fit for fun.” A balanced approach like this helps them return to training refreshed and ready for the upcoming season.

Mid-Season Breaks

In addition to the off-season, mid-season breaks are vital. Matt and Freddy incorporate these breaks to prevent fatigue and overtraining. They use this time to assess their progress, adjust their training plans, and ensure they remain on track to achieve their long-term goals. By listening to their bodies and allowing for adequate recovery, they can sustain high performance throughout the year.

To Wrap Up

The insights shared by Matt and Freddy in the Humango and Challenge Family virtual event, “Will Artificial Intelligence Revolutionize Training for Endurance Athletes?”, highlight the importance of community, technology, and strategic planning in triathlon. 

The rise of virtual communities has brought athletes closer, fostering a supportive environment that extends beyond physical training.

Triathlon AI technology integration offers new possibilities for personalized and effective training plans. Consistency, recovery, and the ability to adapt to new competitors are crucial for success in the sport.

By learning from experienced triathletes and embracing innovative tools, triathletes can continue to push their limits and achieve their goals. As the triathlon community evolves, these lessons will remain essential for athletes striving for excellence.

In the beginning, you and every other athlete start their endurance sports journey with the same step. But by tracking your day-to-day progress via a coach or coaching app such as Humango, you learn what type of endurance athlete you are and what training works most effectively. 

For example, you may find that you have a diesel engine that allows you to go hard for hours throughout a marathon run or 100-mile gravel bike race, but you don’t have a gear that you can use to pull away from the pack at the finish line or on a hill climb. Or, you’ll discover that you have a race car engine with a gear that taps all-out power bursts repeatedly. Then again, your training might reveal that it’s easier to pull off hard workouts in the afternoon or early evening than in the morning or vice versa. No matter what you find, the right coach or coaching app will help you turn your athletic profile into a competitive advantage.

What Is a Competitive Advantage?

In short, anything that maximizes your strengths and optimizes your performance is an advantage. This is where coaches earn their pay. Their experience working with hundreds of athletes lets them tap a deep knowledge base that they apply to your training so you arrive at any race or event primed for peak performance. Consider them a shortcut that bypasses years of hit-or-miss learning you’d have to do on your own. 

Humango’s AI coaching app will do the same, taking your training results and parsing the data daily to determine the right balance of hard intervals, long endurance work, and recovery. At its most granular, Humango helps you figure out the best warm-up protocol before a race. Do you need 10 minutes, or is 20 minutes necessary? You’ll figure out how much rest/sleep you need each night to perform your best the next day. From a mental standpoint, this guidance reduces stress and, more importantly, builds confidence. When you know you did the work to reach your peak form, it’s easier to trust your speed, fitness, and stamina on race day.

Tools To Gain an Advantage

First, get a coach to develop a personalized training plan for you. Next, make sure they can adapt it after every workout so no training session — or recovery period — is wasted. To do this, your coach will need you to track your performance via a coaching app like Humango that accepts data uploads from a GPS watch for running and a bike computer for cycling. At the very least, you should track speed, time, pace, distance, and heart rate. A watch that measures sleep cycles and HRV can help you and your coach determine how much rest you truly need. Cyclists can also add a power meter to their bike to measure the watts produced.

Analyze all these data points, and you’ll soon understand the what, when, and how of your best performance. This information lets you and your coach map out a race day strategy optimized for your physiology and psychology. Then, once you know precisely how to set yourself up for success, you’ll get the chance to enjoy the competitive advantage you have over everyone else.

It’s a fact of basic human biology: To run faster, you must run fast. Obvious, right? Yet so many runners don’t. Instead, you can see them running at a conversational or just above conversational pace around the park or along the greenbelt, happily logging their miles. And that’s great. They’re staying fit and getting outside. But for those runners who want to go faster, it takes hard, intentional effort — a lot of it.

There is a payoff, namely, faster one-mile split times that trickle down through all your running intensities. With speed development, your hard 10k race pace from six months ago can feel like your marathon race pace today. That isn’t to say running fast will ever feel easy. It probably won’t. But when you post a faster time than your previous race, you’ll know it was worth the work. 

Sprint Training Workouts for Running

Speed interval training is how you build speed. Start with short sprints lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. The number of intervals depends on your fitness and your goal (10k, marathon, or a sub-5-minute mile). An experienced coach or an intelligent AI-powered coaching app like Humango will prescribe a set of intervals based on these criteria. Expect to be pushed hard but not so hard that you risk injury or overwork. Even more importantly, a coach will carefully manage your speed training workouts, allowing you plenty of time to recover.

In these sessions, expect to run hard and fast. In doing so, you should start to run more efficiently and effectively by building your aerobic capacity and neuromuscular coordination. Instead of taking long, loping strides as you might during a run at a conversational pace, speed work forces you to focus on a more forceful push-off to propel you forward. This will, in turn, increase your turnover rate and have you running at a higher cadence. During sprints, your arm swing will also become better integrated with your stride as you consciously swing your arms faster to force your feet to turn over faster. Through practice, these positive adaptations will make you a faster runner.

Training for Speed in the Gym

Power is a critical component of speed, and power comes from muscle. Think about the optimal body type of a 100-meter dash competitor. She’s all muscle because she needs that power to a) turn over her feet as fast as possible and b) maximize the forward propulsion of every step. The same holds for an elite marathoner turning over 5-6 minute miles for 26.2 miles. It takes muscle power to keep that up mile after mile. 

For many runners, time spent in the gym is an anathema. It shouldn’t be. Strength training can be a cheat code to build speed quickly, as resistance work can exhaust muscles in seconds versus several minutes or hours on a track or trail. Squats, broad jumps, hill sprints, and even sprinting in a pool are all practical power-building exercises for runners. Rather than dreading strength-focused workouts, embrace them. They will pay off on those long runs by allowing you to maintain higher paces longer.

A well-designed speed training program balanced with sprint intervals, strength training sessions, and longer recovery runs will literally kick your running into a higher gear. Do the hard work and see for yourself.

Of all the legs in triathlon, the open water swim leg is likely the least practiced element in any triathlete’s training. Compared to a pool, open water swimming presents a unique set of challenges. Finding a safe body of water to swim in, finding someone to swim with for safety’s sake, and acquiring a wetsuit that fits — these are just some of the reasons few triathletes practice swimming in open water. In fact, it’s not uncommon for novice triathletes to experience their first open water swim at a race. For many, it’s a rude introduction to the sport. 

But these difficulties also provide a fantastic opportunity for a triathlete to leapfrog the competition by becoming a strong, confident, and efficient open water swimmer. Doing so will propel you into the bike leg faster, fresher, and less frazzled than many of your fellow competitors. Below is a quick guide to preparing for and mastering your open water swims.

With Humango’s AI coaching app, open water swimming is easily integrated into a triathlete’s training plan. The AI-powered coach can schedule it into a training block and automatically accommodate the extra endurance needed to finish an open water workout compared to a pool workout. And depending on the results of that first swim, Humango can adjust the distance and intensity of the next one. But as with any training plan, the secret lies in getting started. 

Start Open Water Swim Training in the Pool

Due to variable conditions (chop, wind, swell, cold, difficult sighting, etc.), open water swimming may take twice as much energy as pool swimming. So, even though 3,000 meters in a pool may be no problem, you might only cover 1,500 meters in a lake — or less in the ocean — with the same effort. To prepare your body for that extra effort, try this: Don’t touch the wall on your turns at the end of each lap. Instead, do a flip turn at the “T” at the end of the lane line. You won’t have the benefit of the push-off from the wall to propel you in the other direction. 

Focus on shorter strokes and a higher stroke rate to better handle chop, swells, other swimmers, and quick direction changes. To help you get there, try tying your feet together with a band or swim buoy, which should naturally force a higher turnover. Another drill is to swim with your head up and eyes out of the water like a water polo player every other length or so. This small change will also shorten your swim stroke and raise your stroke rate as you use your arms to keep your head elevated.

Once you’re comfortable with swimming with your eyes out of the water, practice sighting. On every third or fourth stroke, lift your eyes out of the water to find a mark on the pool deck ahead of you. Don’t just glance at it; take the time to truly focus on the mark before you put your head in the water again. Sighting is one of the most important aspects of open water swimming. Getting it wrong will have you swimming off-course and wasting energy and time in the water.

Finally, learn to breathe bilaterally, that is, on either side of your body. This technique pays massive dividends in open water when facing cross-current swells, chop, and wind. By breathing away from them, you reduce the chances of swallowing water.

5 Tips for Swimming in Open Water

For many swimmers, open water swimming is more of a mental than a physical challenge. The currents, the cold water, the thrashing of a hundred competitors, and the distance make it difficult to find the rhythm and relative ease of a pool swim. Knowing this, make those first open water swim workouts more about skills and confidence than fitness. Below are the key elements to owning the swim leg in a triathlon.

1. Dial in your wetsuit.
   Wetsuits come in all shapes and sizes, and you want to find one that allows a full range of motion in your shoulders. Start by making sure you have it on correctly. Many swimmers who are new to open water don’t pull their wetsuits high enough; this creates a down pull through the shoulders, limits movement, and adds restriction to the neck area. After you ensure you’re wearing it correctly, use your first swim in a wetsuit to see if it feels right. Try a different wetsuit if it feels like you’re fighting the wetsuit after roughly 50 strokes. 
2. Find the perfect goggles.
   We mentioned how critical sighting is to a successful swim leg. To sight well, you need a high-quality pair of swim goggles that won’t fog up or leak. Try different ones until you find the pair that stays tight. And if they get scratched, get a new pair. You need perfect vision in a triathlon to stay on course.
3. Swim with a group.
   Stay safe and join an open water swim club for some practices. You can also find a swim buddy or enlist a family member or friend to paddleboard or kayak alongside you as you swim. The club can help you identify landmarks to sight so you stay out of the way of boats and traffic. They may even put out a buoyed course for you to follow with known distances so you can better manage your workload. A supporter on a paddleboard or kayak is much easier for boats to see, and they can offer a respite if fatigue sets in sooner than expected.
4. Practice your sighting and feel for the water.
   Take what you practiced in the pool to the lake or ocean. Then add this element: Sight a landmark or buoy, take 20 strokes with your eyes closed, and see where you end up. Did the current or your stroke take you off-course? If so, note it and correct your course accordingly. You may have to find a new landmark to focus on. For example, instead of keeping the buoy straight in front of you, you may need to keep it to the left of your line of sight, knowing the current will push you back on course. Once you make a turn, do it again and correct your course as needed.
5. Make it a workout.
   You need to swim strong in open water, but you don’t need to do it all at once. As you get comfortable with the water, break those hard, fast strokes into 50-stroke intervals. Go hard for 50, then easy for 50, and so on, working your way up to gradually swimming the workout as directed by your coach or training plan. 
6. Make it a workout.
   You need to swim strong in open water, but you don’t need to do it all at once. As you get comfortable with the water, break those hard, fast strokes into 50-stroke intervals. Go hard for 50, then easy for 50, and so on, working your way up to gradually swimming the workout as directed by your coach or training plan. 

If you’re training for your first or fifteenth triathlon, bike ride, or running race, guess what? You’re playing a game. In this game, the winner (that’s you) takes home the satisfaction of personal records. It could be that you ran your fastest marathon, rode your bike farther than ever, or finished your first Ironman triathlon. Your goal was the object of the game. And the various training sessions you completed were the levels you had to beat to finish that game.

In decades past, turning training into a game was limited mostly to training teams and clubs. Members could push each other with every workout with mini-games like racing to the next stop sign on a run or ride. The group dynamic pushed athletes harder than they would have pushed otherwise. However, with the advent of wearable fitness trackers such as GPS watches, heart rate monitors, and power meters (for cyclists), this training gamification expanded to solo athletes around the world. 

This flood of trackable performance data could now be uploaded to training and fitness apps, and with it, a new generation of gamification ideas for training. Not only was training more fun, it was also more effective. A 2019 study by University of Pennsylvania behavioral scientist Dr. Mitesh Patel found that by making a game out of walking for fitness, with points and virtual awards for completing various challenges or competitions, participants clocked close to 100 more miles over six months than those who were simply told to walk every day. The gamers weren’t told or asked to walk more. They just did, thanks to the gamification built into the program.

How To Turn Your Training Into a Better Game

The first step is easy: Set a goal. The second step is to find a training plan to guide you to success. Next, you’ll need to track your progress with a GPS watch, heart rate monitor, and power meter (if available) and upload it to an app that lets you see your progress. Humango’s AI-powered app does both. It takes your goal, turns it into a training program, then logs your progress via an easy-to-follow dashboard.

Once you set your objective, figure out what type of gamification environment you thrive in. Patel’s study above noted that fitness gamification participants fall into three general types: competitors, supporters, or collaborators. 

Competitors compete against others in their workouts, comparing efforts, totals, and pace splits from their workouts. Some even compete in virtual races and challenges through training apps such as Zwift or even Peloton. It even takes the form of virtual awards, badges, and digital pats on the back. The drive to get those accolades quickly is what gamification is all about. 

Supporters are the equivalent of teams or clubs — or, in the case of Humango, a global social network. As members work through their training programs, they can support their fellow members through in-app training groups. These groups feature leaderboards and comment sections for added motivation and encouragement. Perfect for clubs, coaching organizations, teams, and individuals, this feature is designed to make members feel connected to a group and, therefore, less likely to drop out.

Collaborators are those friends and family who commit to doing something together. It could be a group of bike-riding friends who want to log 10,000 total miles in one summer. Each member’s weekly mileage contribution will differ, but the group goal inspires people to do their part to reach it. And because they don’t want to let their teammates down, they stick with their training.

So, which type of fitness game works best? Patel’s study found that competition-based gamification produces the biggest gains in fitness and overall activity. But gamification of any sort can still be effective in helping endurance athletes stick with their training, reach for higher goals, and, best of all, achieve them. 

So, whatever your athletic goals may be, make them a game and start playing!

For everyone who finishes a big triathlon, marathon, or 100-mile bike ride, completing it is a momentous occasion. If you gave it your all, you’ll probably want to lie down (and maybe cry). Don’t. There’s a proven strategy for recovering from a strenuous endurance event, and it starts as soon as you cross that line. Do it right, and you’ll feel fresher faster. Plus, you should be able to maintain your level of fitness. Consider it the last 5% of your training program, the critical step that locks in those gains made over the previous months of workouts, sweat, and soreness.

The First Week After Your Race

Hydrate
You need to replace all the fluids and electrolytes you lost during your event within the first several hours of your finish. Keep sipping fluids and eating fruits and vegetables (with their high water content) until your urine is clear. Then, continue hydrating with intent for the next three days. Three days is how long muscle recovery can take. 

Eat Right
This week isn’t the time to gorge on all the foods (and alcohol) you avoided during your training. Your body needs you to keep up your training diet so it has the essential fuel to repair muscle strain, replenish vitamins and minerals, and get back to normal. Plenty of lean proteins are a must during this period, and healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, seeds and nuts, salmon and oily fish) are welcome, too, as they pack a lot of calories per serving.

Sleep
Sleep, especially the night after your race, will likely prove difficult. The tingling from your inflamed joints and muscle soreness will make deep, restorative sleep a dream. But, try anyway. Give yourself at least an hour to prepare for sleep this week. Turn off the TV and put your phone away. Do some light stretches and then focus on your breathing. Take deep breaths in and out, and be conscious of each breath you take. This should relax your muscles — and brain — and better prepare you to fall asleep. Last, schedule a good 7-9 hours of sleep each night. You know how much sleep you need to wake up rested. Listen to your body and get it.

Stay Active
Active recovery starts right after the finish line. Keep moving for 30 minutes to calm your body after the physical effort and the adrenaline rush of finishing. Walking is all you need to do. The one exception is if you’re dealing with a musculoskeletal injury that makes moving painful. If you’re injury-free, keep moving via light activity over the week. Walk the dog, take a light hike, go for easy swims or bike rides. This isn’t a workout, though. Keep the intensity to a pace that lets you breathe through your nose. The idea is to lubricate your joints and get your heart pumping blood through your muscles to accelerate their recovery.

How light is “lightly active”? When ultrarunner and author Dean Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 U.S. states in 50 days throughout the fall of 2006, his active recovery involved standing in his RV for an hour or so as it traveled to the next state. Using his legs to stabilize his body in a moving vehicle provided enough no-impact muscle stimulation to boost his recovery and help him sleep that night.

Skip the Big Projects
Just because you’re no longer training 10-15 hours a week doesn’t mean you can now paint your kitchen, redo your yard, or build that deck off the back door. Your body and mind aren’t ready to tackle these projects. Save them for the week after, at least.

What Now?

After your first recovery week, it’s the perfect time to reflect — and look forward. If you’ve had a great race or event, it’s natural to start thinking about your next one. After all, you accomplished something epic, and the endorphins and fatigued delirium feel amazing. It’s these moments where a human coach or even Humango’s AI-powered coach, Hugo, can be the voice of reason, encouraging your continued progression as an athlete but doing so on a realistic timeline unique to your goals, timeline, and fitness.

The post-race lull in training can be a psychological and physical minefield, where an athlete could do too little or too much and sabotage their growth in both cases. Do too little, and you risk losing all that hard-won fitness, strength, and stamina. You’ll start training for your next goal several steps behind where you could be. Doing too much, too fast before your body is ready for it could send you into burnout, or worse, an overuse injury. A coach, referencing your training data, even your sleep data, will slowly guide you back into form over a few weeks (or months, if desired), prescribing a program that maintains your newfound stamina and strength during this period between training seasons and then builds on it once you’re ready to go.

Unless you ran track or swam in high school or college, you likely picked up your sport with no outside group to show you how it’s done. And there’s a good chance you still practice it on your own. You log miles and miles on your bike, in your running shoes, or at your local pool. But an elite endurance athlete does it differently. They join a team or a club, working through prescribed workouts with a community of like-minded athletes. And it pays off. 

A 2008 study of elite rowers found that the team aspect quantifiably pushed them to a higher level of performance. At a primal level, this makes perfect sense. Humans are social animals, and we like to be around others who share our interests and passions. As a result, the group dynamic provides daily training motivation. Below are several more ways a group can boost your training.

Inspiration
Inspiration comes from many sources. In a community, it’s easy to spot. It could be the 70-year-old who still runs marathons and does the same workouts you do. It could be the cancer survivor who hates that day’s workout as much as you do but does it anyway. Maybe you’re the inspiration, and knowing this pushes you to train harder to live up to your fellow athlete’s vision of you.

Support
We all have days when you don’t want to exercise. Days when you can’t due to an unexpected event or unplanned surprise. Days when an injury puts you out of commission. It’s easy to feel alone and left out on these days. But these are the times when the support network of your endurance family kicks in and encourages you not to give up, not to give in, and not to worry. As a result, you’re more likely to stick with your sport, no matter what life throws at you.

New Perspectives
When you train on your own, it’s easy to stick with what works month after month, year after year. But within a community, you see all different sorts and shapes of people achieving their goals differently than you are. They may train harder but less than you. They may be driven to perfect their swimming strokes rather than exhaust themselves to build stamina. Whatever the case, you’ll learn new ways to approach your sport, and that will keep it fresh and interesting for years to come.

Coaching
Often, an organized group will have certified, experienced coaching available to design group workouts, build individual training programs, and, for competitive teams, create race strategies for both the team and for individuals. At its most basic, this coaching could be a certified fitness instructor leading a strength training session or spin class.

The Easy Way To Find a Community of Like-Minded Athletes

There are a variety of ways to join a community. You can join a gym and attend a regular class or workout. Or you can join a local track club, cycling group, or triathlon team. You can also join an online community like the one hosted by Humango. Whichever method you choose, you’ll connect with other athletes who are also training for your specific goal (marathon, Olympic-distance triathlon, or gran fondo bike ride, for example). Once connected, you can share training tips, workouts, and results with each other — and in many cases, you’ll even get to train together.

Humango’s AI coaching will guide you through a progressive training plan for your endurance sport of choice, but its community function will provide the glue to keep you motivated, supported, and inspired. The Humango community draws athletes from around the world and gives them the opportunity to join various forums, i.e., Masters marathoners, gravel bikers, and Ironman-distance triathletes. You can join group challenges, meet training partners from your town, and ask the group for tips on getting the most out of the Humango app. You can even find mentors who can guide you through, say, your first New York City Marathon since they finished it multiple times before. Humango’s global reach means that no matter where your athletic goals take you, someone in the community can be there to give you the friendly push you need. 

Humango isn’t just AI. It’s real people, too.

We all need motivation to accomplish our endurance sports goals. Heck, we need motivation to wake up each morning. And what is the most effective method to motivate yourself or anyone else to excel? Positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement, whether it’s an internalized fear of failure or a coach or teammate denigrating or punishing you for not measuring up, is ultimately unproductive. So, where can you find positive reinforcement? Outside of a race result, workout data is the most direct and immediate source of positive motivation available.

Before we go further, let’s review a motivation primer. Motivation or positive reinforcement examples fall into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic. For many athletes, extrinsic motivation is the desire to win or beat someone in a competition. But it also includes that sense of excitement a novice triathlete feels when they sign up for their first Ironman race or runner experiences when they register for their first marathon. Visualizing the finisher’s medal at a goal race serves as a powerful motivator to do the work needed to physically cross that finish line. Even comparing your workout against others on online communities such as Strava qualifies. Athletes new to a sport and unsure of their capabilities can use these extrinsic motivators to jump-start their endurance careers.

Intrinsic motivation is personal. It’s the desire to improve technique, build more power, develop more stamina, and consistently get faster. It builds confidence. Intrinsic motivation is also more sustainable. (Think of the decades people put into improving their golf game.) It’s also the hallmark of the most successful athletes, which makes sense. When the drive to succeed comes from within, they never run out of motivation to keep working on their sport.

Over time, athletes will draw on both types of positive reinforcement to stay motivated. That first-time marathoner may now set their sights on qualifying for the Boston Marathon (extrinsic) and decide to invest in training to make their running stride as efficient as possible (intrinsic). The same goes for a triathlete who spends more time streamlining their swimming stroke in preparation for their next competition instead of doing high-intensity running workouts on the track.

So, how does Humango fit into the extrinsic or intrinsic equation? First, it asks you to set a goal event to train for (extrinsic). Then Hugo, your digital coach, builds your training program and sets you on your way. As part of any progressive endurance sports training program, you’ll have training zones to stick to and target heart rates, powerwatts (if on a bike), and running paces to hit. When you collect all this data and upload it to Humango, you’ll immediately receive positive feedback in the form of a quantifiable improvement in fitness and cardiovascular stamina. 

The data will turn into a positive reinforcement loop as your speed, strength, and endurance improve. The data proves it. And more than likely, you can feel it.

 Leverage Your Data To Achieve Better Results

Use the following tips to tune your intrinsic motivation and become your best positive reinforcer.

• Go into each workout with intent, knowing what you want to accomplish. It’s easy to just show up and do the work. It’s more productive to understand what and why you’re doing it. If you have a hard day of intervals, know they’ll be hard. Know that the last interval’s work is more important than the first. Understand that a multi-hour bike ride is not only building endurance, it’s also providing a vital opportunity to learn and tune your hydration and re-fueling needs.
• Get specific and concentrate on a small part of your workout instead of trying to make everything perfect. Try to hold a higher cadence on the bike when climbing. Same with your turnover on your runs. Or you can work on pacing your intervals better so you finish them faster and harder than you started them. These are small victories that a) keep you focused and b) keep you motivated.
• Learn from your failures. Did you blow up during your speed work at the track? Look at your data to see where, why, and how to prevent it from happening again. Did you get blown off the back of the pack on a group ride? Learn from it. See each setback as an opportunity to become smarter about yourself as an athlete.
• Trust and believe in your progress. There will be days and weeks when you feel weak and slow. Fortunately, the data will be there to prove you wrong. Use it to reset your perspective and carry on.

Injury prevention never ranks high on an athlete’s reasons for choosing a training program, but it should. Left to our own devices, we humans easily fall into the trap of jumping into an endurance sport by going too fast, too far, and too often, only to succumb to a tweaked shoulder, stress fracture, or preventable illness. At the same time, training plans aren’t without their problems. If they’re too ambitious, they can lead to an overuse injury, burnout, and a weakened immune system, all of which will put an end to your training. Conversely, a good, progressive, periodized training program for running, cycling, triathlon, or swimming — any endurance sport, really — will have an injury and illness prevention program or aspect built into it. If a coach creates a program specific to your unique goals, current fitness level, and experience, you’re even further ahead.

A coach, whether human or Hugo (Humango’s digital coach), will design workouts that ask you to work as hard as your training data shows you can. Sure, these workouts will push you harder than you think you can go. However, the volume of work prescribed will be within your ability to do it. All you have to do is maintain good form, technique, and control — three elements that will help prevent injury — and you should see a positive fitness effect. Additionally, your recovery from these harder efforts will be customized to you. Taken together, a bespoke training plan and personalized recovery plan will mitigate the chances of burnout or overuse injuries.

That said, life never goes according to plan. A night of poor sleep or a stressful family or work situation can throw you off your game and training plan. So, how does a coach know when to dial back the intensity or volume to keep you off of injured reserve? They’ll monitor your feedback (“How do you feel?”) and look for signs of mental fatigue or frustration. They — or it, in the case of Humango — will also monitor your workout data, specifically the correlation between perceived exertion and heart rate while also assessing whether you could complete the workout goals for the day. If not, the coach will assign you an easy day or two to recover. They may even prescribe a cross-training day of yoga or strength training to give your body a break from doing your sport on consecutive days.

In the end, the best way to stay injury- and illness-free is to stick with your training plan and always share your workout data with your coach after each session so they can see how you’re doing in real time. Below, we’ve spelled out several ways a well-designed endurance training program can keep you on your feet, in the saddle, or in the water day in and day out.

6 Tips To Avoid Injury in Any Sport

1. Start every workout with a full-body, dynamic/range-of-motion warm-up to get blood flowing and lubricate your joints and muscles. Then, go easy for the first 10-20 minutes of any cardio workout. You want to feel comfortable, smooth, and in rhythm by the end of your warm-up. At the end of every workout, take equal time to cool down. A proper cool down will kickstart the recovery process and set your body up for the next workout.
2. Stick to your workout. When it tells you to take it easy, TAKE IT EASY. When it says run or ride at a moderate pace, stick to the pace. Don’t sweat it if an easy or moderate workout feels too easy. It’s supposed to. If a hard workout feels easy, your coach will adjust your next hard workout accordingly.
3. Incorporate strength training into your plan. Humango’s coaching app and good human coaches will include strength workouts in your program. They may strike you as a waste of time, but weight lifting and core-strength workouts are your body’s insurance policies against injury. They shore up joints and supporting muscles that your sport of choice fails to engage, which can reduce the chances of torn muscles or ligaments.
4. Switch up your goal events throughout the year. Training for a 15k mountain trail running race is different from training for a big-city marathon. The same is true for a 40k cycling time trial vs. a 100-mile gran fondo race. Different events tap different energy systems in the body; they also reduce boredom and the chances of burnout. Mixing it up is one of the keys to becoming a more resilient athlete.
5. Sleep longer. As an endurance athlete, you need more sleep than the average sedentary person. Make sleep a priority, and if you can swing it, embrace the power of an afternoon nap. 
6. Eat well and eat enough. You need fuel — a lot of it — to complete your training each day. Don’t skimp on it. A lack of energy will lead to fatigue, poor results, and a weakened immune system, which could leave you susceptible to a virus, cold, or other ailment. The same goes for hydration. Give your body the nourishment it needs, and it will adapt to accomplish whatever you ask of it.

If you’re new to running and want to see how far you can take this new passion, you may be doing online searches for “half marathon training schedule for a beginner” or “10km training program for beginners.” And you’re probably trying to digest a seemingly endless array of results. Then again, you may have your eyes set on the ultimate goal, the marathon, and your search history is full of variations of “marathon training plan for beginners.” Whatever distance you decide to pursue, take heart that millions worldwide have started from the same place — and succeeded. 

A free training plan from the internet is a fine place to start, but wouldn’t you rather follow a workout plan tailored to you and only you? Humango’s AI-powered coaching app will take you from wherever you are in your running career and provide a training plan to help you achieve your goals. And odds are it’ll likely leave you running stronger and faster than you thought possible. All you need is a goal event, such as a 10k, half marathon, or marathon, and enough time every week for the training. 

Humango can chart your progress by tracking uploaded data from your GPS watch and heart rate monitor. As you gradually gain more fitness, the app will increase the volume and intensity of your runs. Then, in the weeks leading up to your goal race, Humango will help you prepare by tapering down your efforts so you arrive at the start line feeling rested and primed for your best performance. 

With Humango, you don’t have to think about whether or not your efforts are falling short, spot on, or overdoing it. The app’s AI technology will deduce where you are fitness-wise and adjust your workouts accordingly, automatically making allowances for illness, injury, or welcome distractions like family vacations that impact the amount of time you have to run. 

Humango’s coaching really shines over time, successfully guiding you across the finish line in multiple events over the years. As you become a seasoned runner, Humango will automatically change from a training schedule for beginning runners to one for veterans. This built-in scalability keeps your running progression moving forward, regularly finding your limits and helping you push through them. 

The key is consistent training with your Humango coach. Doing so ensures that you stay on the most efficient path to reaching your goals, whatever that may be. For some, it’s qualifying for the Boston Marathon. For others, it may be running a half-marathon in all 50 states. That’s the beauty of Humango. It can get you ready for whatever running goal you set. All you have to do is lace up your shoes and put in the miles.   

How Much Time Is Needed for 10k, Half-Marathon, and Marathon Training?

By following our guide, you can get yourself in race shape and enjoy running in (instead of suffering through) your goal event. To make sure you find the training plan that’s best for you, we’ve divided our recommendations into running levels: Novice (new to running), Veteran (runs 15+ miles a week for fitness), and Expert (trains for races year-round, logging 30+ miles per week).

10K

Novice: 8 weeks to build endurance and get your body into running shape

Veteran: 4 weeks to build speed and endurance even if they regularly run 10K distances on their runs.

Expert: No additional preparation needed. You’re likely running 10k race-pace workouts and distances as part of your regular runs.

Half Marathon

Novice: 16 weeks

Veteran: 8 weeks — or 12 weeks if you’re gunning for a personal best time

Expert: 8 weeks to put in the mileage to build your stamina

Marathon

Novice: 26 weeks

Veteran: 20 weeks

Expert: 16 weeks