From Just "FINISHER" to "PB Mode": How to Train When You Really Want a Faster Time| The Triathlete Blueprint #135

Read time: 9min.

By Coach Yan Busset

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1. If you’re in the Helsinki / Espoo area and want to join a coached training group, click here.

2. If you prefer a personalized online coaching plan with feedback and structure, click here.

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From Just Finishing to PB Mode: How to Train When You Really Want a Faster Time

You’ve already done it. You crossed a triathlon finish line, got the medal, and proved you can survive the distance.

At some point, another question arrives:“Next time… could I do it faster?”

This article is for that moment, when you move your mindset from “I just want to finish” to “I want a Personal Best”, and your training has to follow.

1. Start with one clear race and a realistic goal

PB mode starts with focus.

• Pick one A-race where you’ll really try for a PB.

• Check:

  • distance and course profile

  • typical conditions (heat, wind, cold water, etc.)

Then turn the dream into a goal you can actually train for.A SMART-style goal works well:

• Specific: “70.3 triathlon in X on date Y”

• Measurable: time range, pacing or placing

• Achievable: with your current level and life schedule

• Relevant: fits your bigger picture

• Time-bound: number of weeks to prepare

Ambition is great, but fantasy is not very helpful, so be realistic in your goals.

2. A personal best is more than just the finish time

Triathlon is messy:

• distances are not always exact

• one year the swim is long, another year it’s short

• wind, current and temperature can completely change the day

If your only definition of PB is “beat my old time”, you leave your success to the weather and the race organiser.

Keep your time goal as a reference, but define your main goal as best execution.

Focus on what you can control. For example:

• pacing the swim, bike and run as planned

• sticking to your fueling strategy

• arriving on the run able to run, not just survive

• staying mentally present, even when it gets uncomfortable

You can’t control the wind. You can control preparation and race choices.The chrono will then show the best possible time for those conditions, and that is what matters.

3. Training differently: adjust the stress and the recovery

To move beyond “just finishing”, something has to change in the training stimulus:

• more volume,

• or more quality,

• or more frequency,

• always balanced by better recovery.

Its like a cooking recipe, you need to find the right dosage of these ingredients.

Progress comes from the mix:

Training stress + recovery

Many athletes only touch the stress side: more sessions, more intervals, more everything… while sleep, nutrition and rest stay the same.

That works for a while, then usually ends in:

• injuries

• constant fatigue

• loss of motivation

PB mode is not about smashing yourself. It’s about giving your body the stimulus that will grant gains, and that is only possible over a long period of time, with the right dosage.

4. On the bike: when a power meter becomes worth it

Now that you aim to nail your goal, you need to track your training sessions more precisely. We can’t improve what you can’t measure. We assume you already have a smartwatch, and that you are using an app to collect your data such as TrainingPeaks or Strava.

But now, if you really want to step up your bike performance and budget allows it, a power meter is usually the most useful next upgrade.

Riding without power is like lifting weights with no numbers on them. You can try hard, but it’s hard to:

• hit the right intensity

• repeat it consistently

• see clear progress

With power, you can:

• structure intervals precisely

• pace the bike in races instead of chasing speed into a headwind

• compare similar sessions across the season

Not mandatory, but exactly the kind of tool that starts to make sense in PB mode.

5. Volume, intensity and polarised training

“Training more” does not mean “doing more hard sessions”.

If you increase volume and intensity together, the workload explodes quickly.

As volume grows, training should become more polarised:

• about 80% of your training at easy endurance

• 20% or less at moderate to high intensity

Pros are a good example:

• they don’t necessarily do more hard sessions than good age-groupers but they do a lot more easy volume around them

• and fewer external stressors (no office job, fewer late nights, etc.)

For you, with work and family, the margin is smaller. So:

• increase volume gradually (5–10% steps, not 30–40%)

• keep genuine easy days

• plan lighter weeks

• don’t try to double your hours in one month

Your body has a natural speed of adaptation. You can’t negotiate with that.

6. Make sure PB mode fits your life

More training is not only more fatigue, it’s also more time away from other things.

Before you push, ask:

• is my partner / family OK with me being more absent for training during this period?

• does my job allow a bit more training and a bit more sleep?

• can I keep some social life and mental balance?

You can absolutely have heavier blocks to prepare a big race. You just can’t live in that mode all year.

Think long term: triathlon as something you do for years for health and fun.Inside that, you place performance phases with:

• higher focus

• then recovery and maintenance

• and a real off-season

The goal is to arrive at your PB attempt excited, not already cooked.

7. Reverse engineer the race demands

PB mode is not “train harder in general”, it’s “train for this race, from where I am now”.

A simple way:

1. Look at race demands

   • target bike speed for the distance and terrain

   • target run pace off the bike

2. Translate into numbers

   • approximate power needed for that bike speed on that course

   • current threshold power and run pace

3. Compare

   • size of the gap

   • number of weeks available

Sometimes you realise:“This specific time is not realistic for this year.”

Fine. You adjust the goal, or you keep the PB idea but on a later race.

Regular testing in swim, bike and run helps you see if you stay on track or need to:

• tweak the plan,

• or tweak the goal,

• or simply rest more.

• 
  

8. Strength training and body maintenance

The more you train, the more your body needs structure to hold everything together. We are going to pump your engine up, so better make sure that your chassis is up to date.

Strength training becomes a key lever:

• better robustness to handle load

• support for power on the bike and speed on the run & Swim (you kill 3 birds with one stone)

• better general stability and mobility, especially with compound moves (also useful in the water)

• Better running form at the end of the race

  
  

You don’t need complicated routines:

• 2 sessions per week

• heavy (for you) loads

• simple, compound movements (multi-joint)

• focus on good technique

When volume goes up, “body maintenance” is not optional anymore.

9. Fueling, gut training and energy availability

You can’t chase performance on an empty tank.

For a good triathlon race you need to:

• take in enough carbohydrates and fluids

• tolerate them at race intensity on some key workouts (does not mean it’s a Maurten gels buffet at every session!)

• avoid stomach issues that force you to slow down

That means training your gut:

• using in key sessions what you plan to use on race day

• testing amounts and timing in harder and brick sessions

• adjusting based on feedback

But generally speaking, without thinking of race day specifics, if you aim to train more your daily calorie intake will need to ramp up proportionally, because the higher training load increases the risk of low energy availability and something like RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport): fatigue, frequent illness, menstrual changes, mood and sleep problems, stalled performance.

PB mode is not “eat less, train more”.It’s “train more and fuel like an athlete”.

I mean, come on, more food! What’s not to like? Just for that I feel I want to train more!

10. Gear that actually helps you go faster

You don’t need much gear to finish a triathlon and enjoy it.But if you want to go faster, some upgrades start to be interesting:

• get rid of that entry-level stiff wetsuit and get a new one that fits and lets you move without restrictions

• a tri-suit that is fitted and not racing anymore with a parachute!

• an aero helmet for some “free” watts

• and, when it fits your budget and goals, a triathlon bike

• a bike fit that will make sure your investment in that new bike will be optimised and that you can get the best out of it, in a comfy and injury-free position. The real advantage of a tri bike is the ability to hold an aero position for a long time and still run afterwards.

Gear won’t replace training, but once you’ve done the work, and if you can afford it, it can avoid leaving easy speed on the table. And in some areas you can “buy speed”.

11. The mental side: learning to accept the effort

We keep this for later, not to scare everyone in the first paragraph.

The truth is simple:to go faster, you sometimes have to accept being more uncomfortable.

Not every day.Most training stays at easy endurance.

But you know what they say, it’s not because you start to train more that it will feel easier, you are just getting faster.

In a PB mindset, it’s not about turning all your training into a “no pain no gain“ style, but to accept that:

• the hard sessions will be hard

• the last minutes of an interval are not pleasant… and you stay with them

• in the race, there are key moments where slowing down is very tempting

For many athletes, the big improvement is here: learning to “embrace the suck”.

Take two athletes with the same physiology, same physics, the one that can suck it up and keep on going will cross the finish line first. So on key interval sessions you will learn to accept that discomfort. Sometimes it’s not about high-intensity effort; for some, their kryptonite is long hours in the saddle. Whatever it is, it’s often where the room for improvement lies, outside the comfort box.

FAQ – Common questions when moving into PB mode

How long should I prepare specifically for a PB?

There is no magic number. The length of your PB-focused preparation depends on how much time you have and how long you’ve already been in the sport. For some people, around 12 weeks of more specific work is enough. For others, especially if you’ve been training for many years, progress is slower and you need more time and patience. The main rule is: you need time, and the more realistic preparation you give yourself, the better.

Can I aim for a PB with 6–8 hours of training per week?

It depends. “6–8 hours” alone doesn’t tell the full story. It depends on how that time is structured, how much intensity there is, and what race distance you’re targeting. For a longer triathlon, 6–8 hours per week is on the low side. You can still improve, but copy-pasting someone else’s plan will not work well. It has to be adapted to your context, your history and your current fitness.

How do I know if I’m doing too much?

Look at your recovery signals. Check your sleep duration and quality, your resting periods, and your general mood. Warning signs include irritability, being tired all the time, frequent little injuries or niggles, and getting sick more often. That’s your body asking you to listen. Then you adjust: training load, intensity, recovery and fueling. A lot of the time, the problem is not in a small detail, but in the big picture being slightly off.

Can I stay in PB mode all year?

No, at least not if by PB mode you mean very specific, race-like intensity and full focus all the time. You can of course keep working on different aspects of your fitness across the year, and you can be in “improvement mode” in a general sense. But a very specific race phase, with higher intensity and race-focus, should only last for a limited period. It makes much more sense to divide your season into blocks with different themes, instead of trying to be in race-specific mode 12 months a year.

What if I execute well but my time is slower than my old PB?

Then you look at the full context. Were the conditions different? Was the course the same, or was the bike or run harder or longer? Were you racing in heat, cold, wind, current? You can’t always cut your PB every time you race, especially on different courses. The mindset I’d like you to keep is this: the real win is to arrive on the start line knowing you did everything you reasonably could to be in your best possible shape on that day, given your life, your work and your family. If you then execute to the best of your abilities, that is already a huge victory. The final time is just the expression of that in the conditions of the day.

Check out my NEW Youtube VIDEO!

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. If you are in the Helsinki/ Espoo area and looking for the best training group check here

2. If you are looking for an online coaching service check here.

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