Newcastle Triathlon Squad

Our triathlon squad is based in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Our squad contains athletes of all ability levels, from juniors and beginners, through to elite professional athletes. We cater for all race distances with our sessions, and focus on continual improvement each season. We currently run up to 8 sessions per week, all year round.

We focus on quality interval training in the squad, as this is often where you need other athletes around you for motivation and to push yourself harder than you would if you were training alone. Aerobic sessions can often be done alone, as they are easier to complete, and athletes need to stick to their own heart rate (HR) zones from their programs. We find that our athletes tend to complete these with other people from the squad around their level anyway.

Speed, Speed Endurance, and Technique are the key areas we focus on at squad, and athletes work on other areas in their training programs. These aspects are crucial for all race distances. As an example, if you wanted to run a 2:48 marathon in an Ironman, 4:00/km pace must be aerobic (under your anaerobic threshold). It would be safe to say that this pace is unrealistic if you are unable to run under 17 minutes for 5km, for example. The faster you can run over shorter distances, the faster you can potentially run over longer distances, with the correct training. Whether you are training for short course or long course triathlon, these sessions are an important part of any program.

A 6 week cycle is used to allow athletes to experience a range of different training methods and session types. This variety aids in motivation, and repeating key sessions allows athletes to track their progress/improvement. A time trial (TT) is completed at the end of each cycle. We focus on developing all areas to produce a well rounded athlete with no weaknesses. Our cycling sessions include motor pacing, pushing athletes to greater speeds than they could otherwise achieve.

The program is organised to ensure adequate recovery between sessions and we use a range of facilities in the Newcastle region. This ensures that any athlete can attend our sessions, and makes it fair from a travel perspective. All of the athletes that have joined our squad have improved, so it is definitely worth the trip!