Get Leaner
Losing excess body fat is like gaining free fitness. The leaner you are (within your healthy body fat range), the faster you will go at any given fitness level. Excess body fat is particularly detrimental in running. If your current 10K run time in an Olympic-distance triathlon is 45 minutes, you'll run your next one in about 42:12 if you lose 10 pounds of excess body fat.
Consistent, progressive training will help you get leaner, but training alone won't take you all the way to your optimal racing weight. To do that you need to improve your diet. The most effective way to improve your diet is to increase its overall quality. The high-quality food types are vegetables; fruits; nuts, seeds, and healthy oils; lean meats and fish; whole grains; and dairy. All of these food types tend to promote fat loss.
The low-quality food types are refined grains, sweets, fatty and processed meats and fish; and fried foods. All of these food types tend to promote weight gain. To increase your overall diet quality, track how many times per week you eat each food type and then gradually shift the balance toward the high-quality foods and away from the low-quality foods.
There are more ways to become a faster triathlete than these five, but their impact is smaller. So unless you're already doing everything on this list, start here.
More: Racing Weight FAQs and Recipes
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