Here’s a general guide as to which sources you can probably trust, and which sources you should take with a grain of salt.  The least trustworthy sources are at the top (with higher numbers), and the most trustworthy are at the bottom.

10.  Product reviews from a website that is also selling the product. Obviously they want to frame the product in a positive light so more people will buy it.  Get your information elsewhere.

9.  A triathlon magazine. Even if the advice is from a columnist, magazines are in the business of making money as well.  It’s rare that you see a negative product review in a triathlon magazine.

8.  A source that claims it’s a scientific “study,” without providing a link to the study, a description of the study protocols or any other documentation about the study. It’s easy to manipulate data to “prove” something about a product, especially if they don’t provide any information about how the study was created.  Look for documentation before buying into any claims of “scientific improvement,” and beware of the placebo effect!

7.  Internet forums. Many knowledgeable people frequent the popular triathlon internet forums.  Many MORE idiots post on the same forums, offering misinformation, personal anecdotes and trolling that is not at all helpful.  If you’re looking for information on internet forums, be ready to identify and wade through huge steaming piles of bullshit to get accurate information.

6.  Testimony from a famous superstar athlete. This athlete may be getting paid to say what s/he’s saying.  Besides, how relevant are the training habits of a pro triathlete (who can run 6 minute miles in his sleep) to you (who ran a 6 minute mile once, like 17 years ago in college)?

5.  Traditional wisdom in the sport. Though certain fundamentals have withstood the test of time, as our knowledge of sports science improves, others are not.  Take anything to which the “traditional” or “fundamental” label is applied with a grain of salt.

4.  Your training partners. The plural of anecdote is not data.  Though they may have some relevant information on local training, race strategy and where best to pick up the hot runner babes, their knowledge of triathlon is necessarily incomplete.  Take heed of their advice, but don’t act on their advice alone.

3 (T).  Your personal experience. In the end, you do know your body best.  You’re learning more every day about the types of stress you can apply in training, what equipment choices work best for you, what foods you respond to, and more.  However, still keep an open mind–you may find out you’ve been doing something wrong all along, or a new scientific development may come along and suggest a change of habit.

3 (T).  Your coach. Depending on your coach’s knowledge and the intimacy of the relationship you have with him or her, you may consider this a better or worse source than your personal experience.  So I’ll call it a tie.  A knowledgeable coach not only knows what you best respond to, but is also on top of the latest scientific developments in the sport.  S/he is a great source of information, second only to (and you may have guessed this)…

1.  A double blind, controlled, peer-reviewed, published, well-documented scientific study conducted over a large sample size and funded by independent sources who do not have a conflict of interest. These are the primary sources upon which all accurate sports knowledge is based.  The only flaw–there are so few studies that fit this bill that we’re left making up stuff as we go along and calling it “sports science!”

So, what to do?

Your options depend on how far you have to go to your event. If you can drive to the event (easier for some folks than others), you have several car-related options:

1. Put your bike inside your car. This is the ideal option, as it offers your bike maximum protection from the elements.  SUV and van drivers can often roll the bike straight into the car, while for most sedans and coupes, this will mean you have to remove one or both wheels.  Be sure you know how to remove your wheels, and have practiced it before your travel day!  Also, remember to cover the floor of your car with towels or a tarp–bikes are dirty and get dirt and grease everywhere.
2. Purchase a trunk rack. This gives you more space inside your car (and is sometimes the only option for tiny cars or multiple-bicycle travel adventures), but leaves your bikes a bit vulnerable to rain, snow and rear-end collisions.
3. Purchase a roof rack. Similar in advantages and disadvantages to the trunk rack, but instead of being vulnerable to rear-end collisions, you’re now vulnerable to “momentary acts of forgetfulness” as you pull into your garage!

Things get tricky when you have to fly to your event.  Airlines are notoriously unaccommodating to triathletes and their bicycles. Fees are outrageous, baggage handlers are tired and underpaid, and bike boxes and cases are ridiculously expensive.

Here are some basic things to keep in mind when you travel with your bike on a plane:

1. Choose an airline that has low (or no) bike fees. Check out the thread over at the Slowtwitch forum for information on how much flying with your bike will cost.
2. Pack your bike carefully, particularly if your bike has any carbon fiber components.  Wrap every tube in bubble wrap, remove the pedals, protect the wheels and make sure nothing is jostling around.  Document your packing job so you can re-create it on the return trip.
3. Most airlines have a strict 50 pound weight limit per bag. With many bike cases weighing around 30 pounds *alone*, that doesn’t give you a lot of wiggle room for putting more stuff (besides your bike) in there!
4. Most airlines have even stricter dimensional requirements for bags! Your bike will almost certainly have to travel as oversized luggage, which means more dollars in the pocket of the airlines.

In terms of the packaging you choose for your bike’s plane ride, you have the following options:

1. No packaging at all. You can actually roll your bike up to the counter and they’ll give you a flimsy box to put it in for the journey.  Some people have noted that choosing this option sometimes elicits better care from the baggage handlers (as they see a relatively vulnerable bike coming down the baggage ramp, and they handle it with a bit more care than they otherwise would), but I would not recommend this to anyone with a bike of any significant value.
2. A bike box, packaged by your local bike shop (or someone knowledgeable on how to pack a bike).  Bikes get shipped from the manufacturers in boxes all the time.  Properly packaged and protected, a bike can withstand travel in a bike box.  The drawbacks to this option are convenience (having to take the bike to the shop twice–before and after your event–as well as the inconvenience of having to lug a cardboard box around the airport) and price (bike shops charge $ for this service).
3. Soft bicycle case. These types of cases range from minimally padded “sling” type cases (meant for protecting your bike inside your car), to maximally padded rugged travel cases. These cases are an excellent balance of price (cheaper than hard cases), convenience (lightweight) and protection (packed correctly, a maximally padded rugged soft case protects just as well as a hard case).  Additionally, some bags don’t contain any visible markings that indicate a bicycle is inside, so a soft case owner can routinely get out of paying the bike fee on some airlines!  This is my personal choice for airline travel, I highly recommend this option.
4. Hard bicycle case. These hardshell cases can withstand almost anything the airlines throw at them.  They’re relatively straightforward to pack, and there are a lot of different options on the market.  However, they tend to be expensive, heavy and unwieldy–be prepared to incur lots of fees (oversize, overweight AND bike fees) when traveling with a hard case!

In addition to the above options concerning packaging, you have a few other options when you have to fly to a race:

1. Travel with a bike that has couplers. These couplers allow you to disassemble the frame of your bike before travel and reassemble at your destination, without any loss of frame integrity.  The disassembled bike fits neatly into a suitcase the size of normal checked luggage!  The obvious drawback is the price of the couplers (and they can’t be retrofitted onto most modern bikes).
2. Rent a bike at your destination. For casual racers and tourists, this is a tempting option, both in terms of price and convenience.  Simply pack your saddle, pedals and bike measurements in your luggage and make a stop at a LBS at your destination!  However, this is more difficult for triathletes, who require a precise fit on their bikes, particularly for an important race.
3. Use a triathlon bike transportation service. There are a few of these companies that do business in the USA.  They’ll pick up your bike at a LBS in your area, transport your bike to the race, and return it to your LBS after the race.  These services are often very convenient, and reasonably priced.  The drawbacks for this service are that, occasionally, the LBS at which the service picks up bikes is an hour or more away from where you live, and that you’ll be without your bike for up to a week before your race.

If you have any other bike travel tips, let us know in the comments!

A good triathlon coach:

1. Plans workouts for the athlete (requiring knowledge of workout timing/intensity/workload, race selection, periodization, etc)
2. Gives the athlete technical instruction (requiring knowledge of exercise physiology, swim technique, training with power, bike fit, other relevant equipment choices, etc)
3. Provides motivation, personal and moral support (requiring communication/teaching/interpersonal skills, time available to be with the athlete personally, “reading between the lines” skills, etc)

The time and energy the good coach devotes to these tasks is variable, and depends on the specific needs of the athlete.  For example, a Junior or newer athlete may require more technical instruction, while an elite athlete may have plenty of motivation and technical skills, and requires only expert planning of his or her workouts.

(Notice how nowhere on this list does it mention that a good triathlon coach must be also an elite athlete, or even an ex-elite athlete.  Often, I find that this creates an “I did it this way, so you should too” attitude in the coach that is unproductive for most athletes.)

While the skills to plan workouts and provide technical instruction can largely be learned through study and experience, the last basic task of a coach–the ability to motivate his or her athletes and relate to them on a personal level–is far more difficult to learn, and is far more often simply part of the coach’s personal identity and world view.

The ability to motivate an athlete, to communicate well, to teach effectively and to understand what’s really going on “under the surface” of the athlete is fundamentally what separates the “decent” coaches from the great ones.  It can be the largest factor in determing the success of an athlete (behind the athlete’s basic fitness level, of course).

In the end, if you’re looking for a coach, you can probably find many who will provide you with a good training plan over the course of weeks or months.  You may even find several with a wealth of technical knowledge to assist you in your training.  However, the coach you want to hire is the one among those whom you feel best motivates you, communicates easily with you and understands you as a person and athlete.