TRIATHLON TREADMILL TRAINING and training at home, safe bike training, convenient training and more

I learned all about the benefits of treadmill training when I went to Kona, Hawaii in 1984 to tackle my first Ironman.

I met this guy who had a really interesting story about how he trained for the Ironman in Kona that year. He owned a boat and was sailing around the world and basically spend most of his adult life at sea.

Just like me, he was captivated by the challenge of the Ironman...well he was "Ironstruck" I guess, and decided he wanted to be an Ironman

Image by Erik Isakson /Getty Images

He had a pretty big boat, but not so big that he could run and bike around the deck. Swimming was not a problem because of course, he was on the water all the time and his girlfriend could just steer the boat while he swam beside it.

Or quite often they were at some beautiful island and he could swim in a protected harbor for a few days.

To solve the running and biking problem he set up a wind-trainer and treadmill on the deck of his boat. He said he did about 85% of his bike and run training for Ironman Hawaii 1984 while he was out in the middle of nowhere with no land in sight.

On occasion he would have an opportunity to run or bike on solid land, but not that often. Just enough to work on his balance on the bike and do some run hill training.

He did his first Ironman that year in around 13 hours.

My point is, not everyone lives in a part of the world where they can bike or run any time they want, or perhaps career, family, or other obligations limit their training time.

Make use of triathlon treadmill training if that's what it takes to realize your marathon, triathlon, or Ironman dream.

The treadmills you can purchase today are much more sophisticated then what the subject of my story had to train on. It seems to me that's it's a great alternative if you just cannot get outside to run very often for some reason.

Certainly you should try to work some outside running in with your triathlon treadmill training program, but there's no reason that a big percentage of your Ironman run training can't be done with treadmill training.

Plus you will never have to fight inclement weather, biting dogs, or speeding automobiles. Better still, it's simply more convenient in so many ways.

Maybe you have little kids at home and if you choose to do some treadmill training, you won't have to worry about having someone look after your kids every single time you go for a run.

Then there will be those days when there is just not much time. If you only have an hour to devote to running in the morning for example, you can pretty well roll out of bed and be running just minutes later without having to worry about dressing for the weather.

So if you want to be an Ironman or compete in that 10k or marathon coming up and you happen to live somewhere that is not all the best for running, there are options available.

If you have obstacles that prevent you from getting outside to train very often, then get yourself a treadmill and park it somewhere in your house(perhaps in front of the T.V.) and start training for the big race.

Perhaps there is some reason why you are unable to get in all the necessary training for your athletic goals. Perhaps it's because where you happen to live is not that bike or runner friendly.

Or maybe it's because you have to make the most of the time you have available for training because of other commitments. Don't feel you have to forget your triathlon goals and dreams. There is always a way to get it done.

I'm living proof that it's possible, as one year I did over 90% of my bike training on a wind-trainer in my living room. I parked my wind-trainer in front of the T.V. and did the majority of my bike training that year right there.

An increase of traffic was taking over all my favorite running and cycling routes and I still did just fine in the Ironman and my bike time was pretty much the same as all those years I biked hundreds of miles outside.

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