Best of 2021: The most read training articles of 2021

USA Triathlon Certified Coaches shared their expert advice throughout 2021 in Multisport Zone, the weekly enewsletter to USA Triathlon annual members. Read on for the top 10 most-read training articles of the year. 

With pools reopening around the country in 2021, we eagerly returned to the pool. Here's how to ease your way back into swimming as you return to the pool. 

In 2020, without many opportunities to race, it was easy for skills to decline while we were out of our normal routines. With that loss of familiar routines, what was once automatic before now requires some thought. To avoid complacency, let’s identify some potential weak areas and develop plans to address them.

Transitions should be viewed as a seamless part of your complete race, not an isolated entity. Like a flip turn in swimming, transitions are at once the end of one section of the race and the beginning of another. Here's how to nail your transitions at your next race. 

One of the most difficult aspects of the mental side of endurance sports is that it can’t be seen, quantified, or measured directly. Though every endurance athlete will say that the mind is essential, this lack of clarity makes it more difficult for all endurance athletes to appreciate, commit to, and gain the benefits of mental training. Here's how to train your mind for triathlon.

As a triathlete you have likely heard some things about gravel cycling but maybe haven’t tried it yet. Here are the top five reasons to give gravel a go. 

Writing can be a key to better triathlon performance, a reduction in stress, and greater enjoyment of the sport. Thoughtful writing will help you to focus like a laser on executing the race and performing well. 

So, you are a Clydesdale or Athena athlete and you are going to sign up for your first race. Awesome! These tips, from USA Triathlon Certified Coach and Clydesdale athlete John Bye will help get you started. 

Setting goals is key, but sticking to your training program is how you achieve those goals.

Fortunately, there are a few techniques that can really help you pursue your goals and stick to them, day by day and workout by workout.  

If you're lucky enough to live in a place where the temperature is nowhere near freezing, keep rubbing it in our faces and enjoy your 70-degree runs and rides. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, we're either stuck inside on the treadmill or braving the winter weather and coming home with frozen eyelashes. To help prepare you for the cold, we've collected a roundup of winter training tips from USA Triathlon Certified Coaches. Stay warm and get in those miles this winter.