What is the best way to train?

I have often read about triathlon training methods to see if there is anything I should try or change in my own training program. However a lot of the time when I read about new methods I often get the feeling that authors only seem to be interested in the so called serious or full time athletes.

Don't get me wrong I do not disagree with what the experts have to say but I do think that the age group triathlete has to seriously weigh up what fits their lifestyle best. By this I mean that there obviously has to be a balance between training, family, profession, recuperation and relaxation and this balance is very highly skewed towards training when listening to the experts.

In order to explain my point I will look at weight training as an example. I do not have to be convinced of the benefits of weight training I am fully aware of them, but in order to obtain a benefit in strength the workouts have to be fairly regular and by this I mean at least 3 per week. In order to find the time to do an extra 3 workouts per week something has to give. I currently do 3 running, swimming and cycling sessions in a week and at least 1 of these would have to be sacrificed to be able to participate in a weights session. I feel sacrificing one of the core activities in my chosen sport in order to supplement the core activities of my sport is a little silly and in the long run counter productive.

I once heard that a tennis player once said that in order to get better at tennis one needs to play tennis. I will extrapolate this theory and say that to get bet at participating in triathlons one should endeavour to swim, run or ride as regularly as possible. This means that in my book you should never sacrifice a swim, bike or run session in order to engage in a supplementary activity.

If you are not bound by a job, a wife, children, lack of sleep, and are able to easily relax go ahead and try as many training activities as possible. However if you are like me only retreat to other activities if boredom or staleness means that you are ceasing to enjoy your standard triathlon sessions.