When I say triathlon, lots of people are immediately intimidated. And they shouldn't be! Part of the beauty of the sport is that there's a distance to suit almost any fitness level ... although, whatever distance you're considering, now is the time to start training. But you probably already know that.

I've made it no secret that I love Sprint Triathlons -- they're short enough to be manageable for lots of people (I really think that everyone should do one!), but long enough to be a good physical challenge. The distance for a Sprint Triathlon can vary, but the ones I've been involved with have included a quarter mile swim (although, what I've found online says it's a half mile -- still, doable), 10 or 15 mile bike ride (again, doable), finishing with a three mile run (or walk, so ... you guessed it -- doable!).

However, some people are still intimidated by the distance, and it's a shame for them to miss out on such a cool event just because of that! Recently, I found out that there's a slightly shorter distance available -- the Super Sprint taking place in my hometown has a 250-meter swim, four-mile bike, and 1.5 mile run, although I'm finding lots online that are slightly longer in the swim and bike portion.

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If you're training for a race, chances are you have some sort of game plan. Unless you're like me, of course -- I read the game plan, take it into account, and then do something that suits me better. Perhaps that's why I'm not competing for top spots in most races.

Still, whether you follow a training plan closely or do your own thing, it's important that you find a way to train that allows you to improve, yet avoid injuries. And who better to learn from than a man who is still running some of his best times at the age of 52?

Tom Ryan, 52, completed a 5K in just over 16 minutes last year. By running smarter, not longer, he's remained injury free, and he shared his tips with Active.com. Check out the gallery for a few tips on how to have a perfect week of training, and see the full article for specifics on training for your chosen distance.

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I'm a bit of a sucker for memoirs. I even read A Million Little Pieces after James Frey was deemed a fraud. (He's still working, by the way. No such thing as bad press, right?) I just finished The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan.

Jacki Donaldson read and posted about the book a while back. But I read it after a new friend of mine recommended it. She recently went through the excruciating experience of losing her mother to ALS while living an airplane ride apart. I am currently going through the same thing.

The Middle Place instead involves dealing with cancer, but the themes involving parent-child relationships, distance, disease, and faith are the same. Kelly, who survived her cancer, struggles with all of it, but particularly faith. She is baffled by the Buddhist truth of detachment, "even to people." She still struggles with faith to this day, several years later. I struggle with it a bit as well and I suspect all of us do to some degree. It's the very nature of faith, after all. It's transparent, intangible.

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I don't have a Garmin or other GPS device for running. One of these days, maybe, but for the moment, I don't. And so, when I run outdoors, unless I've already mapped out the the route, I don't generally know exactly how far I've gone. However, I do know how long I've run, which gives me an idea of distance.

This is a big difference from the way I run on a treadmill. When I have the numbers in front of me, I set a goal to reach a certain distance in a set amount of time. You'd think, then, that these indoor runs would be much harder, and more intense, but that's not necessarily the case.

It's typical to take considerably longer to run outdoors than indoors, especially if you run trails or other rough ground. And so, on your next outdoor run, try a new trail and just go by time. See what kind of workout you get. I find that I'm wiped after a long outdoor run, whether I've gone two miles or six. And unless you're training for an event of a certain distance, I think that's okay -- it allows you to run for the sheer joy of running. What do you think?

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My son has attended the same summer camp for two years now. Throughout the summer there are specialty camps kids can opt to attend. Last summer he signed up for an intense biking camp. At the beginning of the week, there were more than 30 kids signed up. By day three, the numbers had dropped to about 12. By the end of the week, only 6 kids remained.

On the first day of camp, the kids and their counselors rode a total of 10 miles. But the rides were short and they stopped at several fun locations to play and rest in between rides. Still, my very fit and athletic son needed to take a bath that night to relax his muscles.

The second day, the kids rode about the same distance, but with only one, longer break in between. It was a hard day, evidenced by the fact that more than half of the kids dropped out after day two. My son mentioned that he thought maybe he'd like to quit, too. But day three was too intriguing for him to give up.

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When Matthew McConaughey trains, he doesn't need a watch and he doesn't need any sort of mile marker to tell him when he's done exercising. The boy just goes and goes and goes ... until he's drenched and exhausted. He simply just tries to run as far away from his starting point as he can.

This is his argument for doing so: "The return trip is always easier. Think about it. One, you can anticipate the road you've already traveled. Two, when it's time to eat the hay, the horses get home no matter how tired they are. Third, you're past the hump. You're in. Each step gets you closer to sitting down and relaxing." He says the beauty of all this is that the path can be different every single time.

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Good news. I walked 2.5 miles today -- before I even began my workout for the day. I know this because of my new handy-dandy pedometer.

Yes, I splurged today. Spent a few bucks on a step and distance pedometer at Target. Clipped it to my shorts at 11:00 AM and by 7:00 PM, I'd traveled those couple of miles. Then I ventured into the outdoors to run and arrived back home with a final reading of 6.2 miles and more than 12,000 steps. So cool.

I'm not sure why I'm charting my every step. My brother-in-law is doing it, so it made sense I try it too. What will I do with this information? Not much, except appreciate how much I move in the course of a day. I once heard everyone should take about 10,000 steps per day for the sake of health. Knowing I mastered this task makes me feel accomplished.

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The world of athletics is a competitive one, by its very nature. And not only are the participants competing against each other, but against themselves and against time. As they age, and as they constantly push for their "best performance yet," the pressure is on to do and try whatever they can to truly push themselves to the limit.

Of course performance enhancing drugs are out of the question, but instead many athletes are turning to more natural intervention experiments like this one: sleeping for several weeks in a low-oxygen environment, like in a special tent over the bed, to improve the body's ability to supply the muscles with oxygen.

Would you sleep in a bubble tent? I don't know that I would be able to, not comfortably anyway. I understand the principles behind it, but does it really make that big of a difference versus good old-fashioned hard-core training?

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While caffeine has been reported to boost energy and endurance during long-distance activities such as 10-K runs, it may hinder your efforts on shorter, more intense workouts.

According to a recent study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, researchers gave either 6 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight (approximately three cups of strong coffee for a 130-pound woman) or a placebo to 17 men and women, then evaluated them on two one-minute maximum effort cycling tests. The group that received the actual caffeine had higher blood levels of lactic acid produced by overworked muscles; it also took them considerably longer than the uncaffeinated cyclers to reach "peak power" (pedaling all out).

If you're planning exercise like sprints or a few rounds of boxing, save the Coke for later. *On that note, Coca-Cola products will soon be labeling all of their beverages for caffeine content. Just another great move on behalf of corporate America which allows you smart fitness-minded consumers to make educated choices.

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