Thanks for your input Wndranne.

Jessica, sounds like you are doing great on the swimming!

artichokegirl, sorry I couldn't be more help.

I'm dealing with a possible stress fracture now. Just got the knee to cooperate and now this. I'm not amused.

Looks like I may be rethinking my run-focus winter. I'm getting the foot checked out on Wednesday and then probably figuring out something at the Y for swimming. Biking is sometimes outlawed as well, so I'll have to see what they say.

Anne

congrades on the training for your first tri! my family does a tri every year on mothers day at disney ... i unfortantly am the cheering squad the packer unpacker and bike hauler lol... thats what happens when you cant swim and the gym you belong to refuses to teach you lol... but (they are all females that do this race) they all wore unisuits.. they swam in them and ran and biked in them they said that it made it a 100 times better and easier.. i know you didnt want to spend more $$ and just wanted to finish but it really saved them the only thing they had to do in trans was put their helment ,number, and shoes on and away they went... but anyway just wanted to say i think you all are great for doing it and keep up the good work

Anne - Oh no! It has really been one thing after another for you. I hope it's not too bad of a fracture (or that it's not a fracture at all)!

Today's workout: swam 2 warmup laps, 10 laps, 2 cooldown laps, which is 700 yards. Woohoo! Freestyle is still a b*tch for me though. I wasn't able to swim two freestyle laps without having to take a break. 2 miles on the stationary bike and some strengthening finished up my workout. I was falling down on the job this week because I have been working lots of overtime, but hopefully things will calm down this coming week!

I am shopping for a bike- A road bike that I could eventually ride in a tri. Any and all suggestions are welcomed. What bike do you have? Do you love it? Wish you had purchased another brand? Problems with your bike?

I ride a Specialized, and I like it a lot. I think the important thing though, is to get a bike that fits you and that you are comfortable with. Check out your local bike shop, and tell them what type of riding you'd like to do and they'll help you find something that works for you. They can also show you what adjustments and maintenance you'll need to do. Finally, getting a good saddle is very important and it is a very personal thing--what works for me won't work for you. Some shops have a generous exchange policy on them, since you have to ride a few miles to really know.

Anne

RunningRN, I'm afraid I have no advice as I'm just a beginner and I'm riding my hybrid road/mountain bike still.

Speaking of bike riding, after getting home from Thanksgiving Saturday afternoon, I had a great 5.5-mile bike ride. It's a good thing I went then too, because Sunday morning everything was covered in snow! This week's plan: 2.25 miles on my runs, 450yd swims, and a 6-mile bike ride.

I had a dream about the triathlon the other day. I dreamed that I had forgotten my bike helmet, and then when I got in the pool for the swim, the pool was only as long as me!

I'm here. Bummed about the foot. May be a stress fracture, may be a strain. I can't run for a while.

I got out on my mountain bike this weekend, and remembered that, oh yeah, I'm a coward. But I did more on the way back than the way out, so I suppose that is progress.

I also joined the Y so I can swim, now that the city has closed most of the pools for the winter.

Elliptical tomorrow. Pseudo-running...

Anne

Anne, any news on the foot?

I finally hit a rhythm swimming yesterday. I managed to swim six laps breaststroke without stopping, and four freestyle. It felt great! After I got out of the pool I did 7 miles on the stationary bike.

I only ran once last week, thanks to bad weather mostly. Hopefully this week I'll do better -- planning on a run this afternoon.

Hi All,

I was reading the threads and wanted to pass along something I learned when training for the triathlon. Maybe I'm naturally bouyant but I hadn't swam in 18 years and went and said "I'll get in the pool and see if I can swim 1 mile." I decided I wasn't going to care how fast i swam or whether I alternated between swimming breast stroke one lap and freestyle the next, etc. and I wasn't going to care if I wanted to take breaks, etc. I was just going to go out and see if I could swim. Well, I did it. It really was just about an hour and a few minutes, and I swam more slowly than if I were walking really slowly. I think there's a lot of pressure to start out swimming fast. I could only swim about 5 minutes if I went fast and freestyle. Anyway, please be careful and don't push yourself too much, but I provide this advice as just one more opinion. For me, it gave me a sense of accomplishment. I thought, I can swim that far now without training just think how good I'll be in a few months. I did the same thing with running. When I tried to run when I was in my early 20s, I'd go out and try to run 8 minute miles and get discouraged because I could barely make it 1/4 mile. Then when I was in my thirties, I decided, "what the heck, I think I'll just go out and walk/run for an hour and see how far I go and enjoy being outside." I started out walking more of the hour than running and slowly worked my way up to an hour of running -- 12+ minute miles but it was an hour of my shuffling along.

Oh -- another question too, are your triathlons in open water or in pools?

Artichoke, thanks for the advice! I went and swam half a mile yesterday and felt great. The girl in the lane next to me must have lapped me five times, but that's okay. My goal is just to finish, not to be fast.

My triathlon is a beginner's tri so it is in a pool to make it easier for first-timers. If I do okay with this one I'm considering signing up for two more sprint triathlons this summer which are in a reservoir (so it's open water, but no waves).

I think I'm making good progress. I can swim the full distance I need to for my tri (400m) either freestyle or breaststroke, although I can't seem to do it freeestyle without warming up breaststroke first. I can swim twice the distance without any problems getting tired, so I'm really encouraged by that. And to think, I thought swimming would be the hard part! I ran 2.5 miles Friday, which was tough but I did it. My longest bike ride is still 7 miles but I haven't really been working on the biking much.

Hi Papperclippy,

That's terrific! You're inspiring! You're motivating me to get back into it. I actually haven't been swimming in a year or so and, after writing that post, I went out and wanted to see if I was giving random, unhelpful advice or if it was possibly useful. I am still a little worried that my post will discourage people rather than encourage but I think my point is that swimming doesn't need to be intimidating. We all can probably walk 30 minutes and, so if we all take it really slowly, we all probably can swim on and off for a bit. Another problem I have with both running and swimming is that I sometimes get bored. One way I've dealt with the boredom with swimming is to treat it like yoga or meditation and to focus on my breathing. I breath out when I'm underwater and take a breath when I lift my head (I use to try to do both when I was out of water.) I also try to think about something that's been bothering me in my life and try to think through it. Last night, I was able to swim 35 minutes.

In the summer, my town has open water swims every thursday at our reservoir. I think it is 1/2 a mile??? (the fastest swimmers finish in 18 minutes!) and it is two laps so people can get out after the first lap (1/4 mile). It is a great way to get use to swimming in open water.

Bumping up this thread again. How's everyone doing?

I got a new waterproof watch with a stopwatch and heart rate monitor and I'm excited about it. So far I've learned that when swimming or running my HR gets to about 155-160, which I think is about 80% of my calculated maximum. Haven't biked since getting the watch.

I'm currently running 2.75 miles and swimming about a half mile. Biking is falling off track but I'm confident I'll be able to pick it up. Right now I'm focusing on the running so that I'll be able to run the whole 5k.

I got new running shoes yesterday and it was funny because the girl at the running store asked me if I was training for anything. Turns out she's training for the same tri! Her husband is actually in charge of it.

Still here. Had a long string of illnesses (mostly the kids) and injury (mostly mine-possible stress fracture), and am just now getting it back together.

Started easing into running again and am on 2nd week of a C25K build up. I'm also lifting weights. I joined the Y so I could swim, but apparently am afraid of the cold.

Still planning to do the Olympic distance tri in late May/early June, but now putting off race specific training until beginning of March so I can get my base built up a bit. Racing on a zero base just isn't a lot of fun.

Anne