The Well-Built Triathlete: Turning Potential into Performance

The Well-Built Triathlete does precisely what it says it will do, and it does it very well. I have done many olympic triathlons and two full Ironman races, with another full Ironman coming up in 2016. For my first Ironman I used Joe Friel's Your Best Triathlon, which includes a lot of very useful information and a training plan outline for every distance triathlon. This book does not provide that, nor does it pretend to. I do not understand anyone criticizing this excellent book because it is not dumbed down to include cookie-cutter plans.Indeed, this book explains quite clearly why you should want more from a training plan. And it tells you everything you need to know - if you're paying attention - to work out your own plan. But much more importantly, this book works very hard and successfully to explain what "training" actually is (it's not just working out!). Dixon uses four pillars of performance to explain how to completely plan your year in order to meet your future goals. He explains his "progressive" plan and shows how it is a smarter form of periodization.He discusses swimming, biking, and running in their own chapters and makes many fantastic points that fit each into the whole event (a triathlon!). He also does a fantastic job of explaining how functional strength training fits into a plan. He recommends how many weeks to spend typically on your phases of training as you work toward your A race. He discusses what to do if you get sick or if you are injured.There are many details explained for each of the swim, bike, run, that were wandering around in my mind based on my experiences, but were solidified for me in the corresponding chapters. The case studies in this book are also very well done. A lot of times I end up skipping case studies, but in this book the cases show how ideas that have been discussed are used in real life. I will use the information in this book to up my game.

Overall this is an excellent book, which has helped a newbie like me train for triathlon. However, I will say that the book contradicts itself a bit. The first part of the book is all about recovery. How you need to give your body a break to encourage performance breakthroughs. But by the training plans outlined at the end, apparently that focus is gone. Matt has you training on recovery days and taking very little time off if you follow any of his training plans. I had a "blow-out" over-use injury within four weeks of trying to follow his "fragile athlete" training plan, which I thought would be best for a newbie like me. I think his plans must be geared more toward Iron Man triathletes who have years of experience under their belts, not someone starting out in the sport.

Matt Dixon's training philosphies and beliefs are unique, and he is a fantastic coach, whom I have long admired. His coaching base is in San Francisco, but you certainly don't have to live there to gain access to his keen insight into endurance sport training (or his sharp wit). I have been doing endurance sports since 2007, and always felt behind in my training (I am seriously time crunched between family commitments and work). Matt's approach takes one's life and amount of time available to train quite seriously. This book will help pull the potential out of you whether time crunched like me or not. Do yourself a favor, read this book and use it as your training bible. Not only will you see your athletic performance improve, but you'll learn to make the most out of what time you do have to train...and then get back to your family. Happy family, happy life. It's all about balance and the journey and "The Well Built Triathlete" will help you along the way with both. I highly recommend!

This book, like many others, promises a lot but hardly delivers. The author, Matt Dixon, clearly knows triathlon and is actually pretty good at relaying what he knows in a logical, sensible and readable manner without the need to overly complicate his theories and philosophy. A welcome relief from the many triathlon books out there. Where this book falls short is in the actual Tri plans and nutrition plans. There are "samples" of several scenarios but no real plans. Like many other "coach" authors, Mr. Dixon chooses the safe approach and keeps his secrets for his coaching business. He writes about his philosophy in strength training but give no workout plan. He writes about nutrition but doesn't express a typical day's nutrition, training nutrition, race day nutrition. He talks about recovery, a lot, but his few examples of two week training plans barely show recovery or have a day off. This seems to be the way for this type of book by the coach turned author.I really wish that any author wanting to write a triathlon book would follow these simple guidelines:1) keep it simple, leave the tech talk for the paying coached athletes.2) describe your success in the race distance you are talking about, good and bad experiences3) provide some general plans, with the understanding that this is a guideline for the general triathlete and provide a seasonal plan that can be followed to some success or ways to modify it for less or more.4) not only talk about your nutrition philosophy, but support it with some examples for everyday, training, racing etc. again, support the season.This book did have a couple of good points, first, it was easy to read and understand. It does take some talent and restraint to take a technical sport and break it down for the average athlete. Matt does an outstanding job at this. There are also sections on weak point training and fixes to common problems that were the real value this book provides. The appendix also describes Matt's exercises in detail, which is good but there is nothing for which ones to do as part of a training plan. That minor detail is up to you. It Is a good effort and has some good parts, so I think the book is almost worth the Kindle price. However, my general opinion is that it lacks any substance towards turning potential into performance unless you hire Matt Dixon as a coach. There is hardly any of the usable, training plan information I was looking for on any of the topics he discusses. I would not recommend this book if you are looking for actual guidance.Jim

Es un muy buen libro que sirve como guía para cualquier triatleta a todo nivel, Matt Dixon explica muy bien la base y funcionalidad de su programa de entrenamiento.

Mon livre de chevet

The author makes a lot of great points about training and racing in triathlon. It is definitely a great read and I recommend that other triathletes also read it. The reason I am giving it only 4 stars is that there is not really one concise training program. I am not a fan of one unflexible and generalized training plan appended at the end, but I think that this book should have included at least something in this regard. You can certainly use it to build your training program, but this is rather arbitrary and the information is scattered across the book. In my opinion, Joe Friel did a perfect job at this in The Triathlete's Training Bible. I recommend reading Friel's book first and reading this book afterwards as it still offers a lot of great points. Comparing the different opinions is also a great way to really understand either of the books.

This book is a serious must. Having been involved in Sports science for over 12 years, I initially read the first couple of chapters and thought, here we go, another book on sports science 101. Then I got to Chapter 5 and beyond; I'm really glad that I did. This is where the book completely springs to life and where the sheer breadth of knowledge and experience of the author begins to shine through. Having re-read them I can now also see how the early chapters really complement the book. They do in fact broach some pretty current developments that will be of major relevance to those who don't hold sport as their main profession.You will receive an array of fantastic tips and insight from this book, no matter how experienced you are. Matt Dixon is extremely generous, honest, and humble in his wisdom and holds nothing back from the reader. The athletes that he coaches are a fortunate bunch and, to bolster his credibility, many of them frequently podium place in triathlon.A great triumph with some heart warming acknowledgments at the back. Whether you prefer the feel of a hardback or the instantaneous benefit of the kindle edition, buy the book and read it again and again; you won't regret it.

Interesting read, although if you are an experienced triathlete will probably not learn too much. I found that a lot of the statements by the author were written as if he was saying something revolutionary but is a lot of common sense.Don't buy if looking for training plans as only very limited details as to what the author thinks a successful training plan looks like as:a. Is dependant on each individualb. Is promoting his coaching servicesThe book does cover all the key areas of triathlon, but at times it is repetitive and not the easiest read.