Idealmuse: Congrats on the run. I hope your feeling better. Your new pic is adorable.

Clippy: I hope your well and running fast......

hey ladies. looking for some advice for a wanna be beginner triathlete on a bike purchase

I recently started to bike twice per week, either spinning, indoor on the trainer on a nice Trek road bike (not mine), or outdoors on a cheap walmart road bike GMC Denali. I have very little experience on the bike and still feel a little nervous on roads and intersections and tentative about using the brakes and drops. I also have some pain in my back with an aggressive riding position. i would like to do some duathlons and tris next summer. I'm a competitive person but I definitely am not going to be trying to place or anything.

I want to replace the cheapo road bike but I'm torn on whether I should go for a hybrid or road bike. I want to be comfortable on long training and race rides but I also don't want to feel unnecessarily slow.

What do you gals think?

Lobon, I have a hybrid bike that I got back in college for riding to class. It's comfortable enough for doing sprint tri's, but if I ever move beyond that level I will probably get a road bike. My bike has 24 speeds but I find that I only ever use the top 5 or so. Maybe a road bike would have higher gears that would go faster? It does seem kind of silly to me to be riding in my highest gear a lot of the time, but on the other hand I don't have a very high rpm so I still have plenty of room to improve with my current bike.

Idealmuse recently introduced me to this thread and I'm writing to say hi!

I haven't yet registered for a triathlon but am definitely doing one in mid-April. Mostly, I can't figure out if I want to do a sprint or an Olympic, so I'm putting off the decision til I see how the training is going. I'm mostly intimidated by the really hilly course and I don't know if I want to challenge myself that much on my first tri, or if I'll even be able to finish (which is my goal for the first one).

Regardless, it'll definitely be The Rage in the Sage tri in Vegas, though, so I'm kind of excited to beat myself up in the morning and then hit the town in the evening. I guess that's added incentive ;)

And there's also another triathlon around here in late June so maybe I'll do the sprint in Vegas and train for the Olympic here. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anywhos, I've been working on developing a training plan, and it looks like my week will be swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run, rest, with varying speeds and intensities depending on the workout. My town is also very big on triathlons so maybe once I get a good base, I'll go to some of the local triathlon club workouts because I'm pretty sure I can't keep up right now.

Au - If it's anything like my Tri-club they have people of all levels. You may be one of the slower ones but I doubt the only one. I'd suggest checking it out. My club is rather large so they have a whole program with newbie clinics and so on...

Lobon - If you at all think your going to do more the one Tri... I'd highly suggest the road bike. A road bike if fit properly to your body (make sure you get fitted at the store by a person and not just standing over the bike kinda fit) will be just as comfortable if not more so then one where you sit more upright believe it or not. I used to get numb hands on long rides with my old hybrid but not with my road. It doesn't take as much time to get used to as you might think. I had never ridden a road bike until a few months before my first Tri. Anyway, a road bike will get you a few MPH faster over dirt/hybrids with the same biking effort and there is usually "room to grow" as far as gearing.

BTW for the new people:

"The Slow Fat Triathlete" if you haven't read it already is a great/funny book for timid beginners. It's the thing that sparked my interest in thinking I could try one some day.

Welcome Au!

My parks department is offering another session of adult swimming lessons and I think this time I will sign up early to get in (signups start tomorrow). The session is basically one month long of a 45-minute group lesson MW 7:15-8:00pm for $65 total. I think I will sign up for one month and see if after that I feel like I need more coaching or if I just want to go it alone. I do think I need some help right now though.

Question for you guys though -- if I'm going to be swimming from 7-8pm, when do I eat dinner?

It's been pretty quiet lately, so I thought that I'd mention that I finally registered for my first triathlon! I opted for the Olympic distance since I have the time to train. SO...

April 17th in Vegas I will become a triathlete!

Aug - congrats how exciting! Did you pick out a training plan?

Jess - Before swimming I generally either grab a latte or light sandwich. You don't want too much squishing around while your swimming. I've never had issues with eating something light despite the old wives tale about waiting a certain time length between swimming and eating.

Not much going on here. I did some run intervals at 6.0mph the other day... that was kinda cool. Only 2mins at a time (and then 3 jog) but hey it's progress!

Ideal - I'm going to be doing a 20-week plan I found in a book: Triathlon Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide

I like that it has a bunch of levels of workouts, so I can do more advanced stuff for swimming, while still starting slow for running. And it's super detailed, which I really like.

So that "officially" starts on Dec 28, but I've been doing something most days of the week now, trying to get some sort of base before the real training begins.

I'm starting to think about planning out which sprint triathlons to sign up for next year and when to start training. This past year I did one in April, but I'm not sure if I'll be ready for it next year since I've been slacking on the biking. OTOH it would be nice to do to see if I could improve on last year's time. In general at least I know I'm running faster now, although I haven't been working on distance much.

I did sign up for 4 weeks of swimming lessons, starting January 11. If it's good I may sign up for more after that. So at least hopefully my swim time will improve, since that is really where I'm slowest compared to other competitors. Once the swimming start I need to modify my workout schedule. I think it will be swim MW, weights TTh, run FSu, rest on Saturday. It will be too cold/treacherous for biking outside still in January.

I think in my area there's a sprint in June, one in July, and three in August, at least if it's the same as last year. Training is easier once the weather is improved so I'm kind of considering skipping the April one and going for June or July instead. OTOH the one in April is an easier course. I'm so conflicted! Plus I have about seven weeks left on my strength training program, so I can't do much intense leg stuff until after I finish it.

I'm having a somewhat similar dilemma, in that I'm not sure which tris to do. So far I just signed up for one in April to have an official race that I've paid for to get me to the gym and training. But after that, I have no idea. There are a few in my area but they tend to sell out pretty quickly (we have a huge tri scene here) so I feel like I'm going to have to make that decision before I decide if triathlons are really for me.

And yeah, it's so much more pleasant to train in nice weather. I'm in California for the holidays and the bike ride in t-shirt and shorts was actually insanely warm, as compared to the few layers of clothes required for my Colorado rides.

Augeremt, did you decide on any tris yet? I still haven't! I was in SoCal for the holidays too and got a lot of good running in.

A friend of mine who has never done a tri before signed up for an IronMan. :fr: I think she's nuts, but I wish her the best of luck!

How's everyone else doing? Any winter training plans? My swim classes start next week and I'm excited to see how it goes! Still need to figure out the food situation though. I think I'll just cook big batches of food the day before my class so that as soon as I get home from work (around 5:30) I can heat up leftovers and eat right away, so I won't have a full stomach for my 7:15 swim. I might also buy some Lean Cuisines so I have food in case of emergency. Poor DH will have to handle dinner on his own for a little while.

Also it turns out that my swim class ends the same time that I finish my strength training program, so that will be a good time to determine a new training schedule or start a program.

We are all on the same wavelength. I've been thinking about the upcoming season and What and when and where. I've also been playing around with the idea of doing a half marathon this spring as well. So many options, my brain hurts and I overload. I definitely need to get back in the pool. Running has been the easiest and most consistent for me. Spinning next, often just in spin class, but often enough. swimming -- not so much. I do know that I want to do an Oly distance though. I think that that will be a nice step.

Paperclippy: 0- iron man that is a little crazy. I wish her the best of luck.

Paperclippy - Ironman?! Wow. I agree with you, she is kind of nuts.

I've finally registered for an Olympic distance: Rage in the Sage in Vegas on April 17th. I technically started training a week and a half ago, but haven't done nearly as much as I should've. So I need to play catch-up.

This whole triathlon business is a bit disheartening being a big girl. Since most triathletes are skinny and tall, they don't make anything real-people sized, such as wetsuits, which I'm going to need since the water's going to be super cold. I was telling my concerns about wetsuits always being too long for me in the arms and legs (so that they fit my boobs and hips) on a tri-specific forum which I frequent, and this girls responds:
"I'm short and heavier (5'3" and 130 lbs)"

Seriously?! That's "heavy"?! If so, then I'm in trouble!

SGeranium - A half marathon and a tri, you go girl! I've had trouble figuring out what I want to do as well, so I feel your pain. I'm the other way around in terms of exercise, though. I need to start running! I've been avoiding it like the plague, swimming a lot instead. Biking is second, and running is way dead last. But I'm slowly starting to change that so there's hope. Good luck with the decisions!

augeremet: which tri site. I mostly lurk, but post a little at beginnertriathlete.com there is a specific athena area for questions just like that.

That would be the one :) I used to be a lurker, but recently joined their winter mentoring program since I don't know squat about this new sport. Great site! I absolutely love it. I didn't think to ask wetsuit questions on the Athena threads ;) Duh, that makes so much sense!

Aug: I'm in pirate girls mentor group. :) I have the same name there too. Ask in the Athena or weight loss section, I'll bet you'll get a more helpful answer.

clippy: I have the same problem with a Monday night yoga class I love. I usually end up having something light before and something light after. It's not perfect, but it's the best solution I've come up with. I've tried to eat before only. But I eat light to not feel gross in yoga then I'm STARVING.

I managed to put off getting in the pool again all week. I think I have a problem................

I prepped enough food so I can eat right away when I can get home tonight. But then, I looked at the parks department website and it says that currently 3 people are signed up for the swim class, but there is a minimum enrollment of 4 (maximum 6). I'm really hoping they don't cancel it due to insufficient enrollment! I'd be happy to pay another $20 to the instructor to not have it be cancelled. Well, I'm crossing my fingers in any case. Nobody's said it's cancelled yet, so hopefully they will offer to just let us pay a little extra.

Swim class happened! It was good. It was just me and two other guys, and I was probably the best swimmer of the bunch, but both of them could also swim. I think I'll learn a lot because in the first class we covered just about everything I know and the limits of my abilities. I signed up for 8 sessions so hopefully my technique and speed will improve. Next class is tomorrow!

Hi there, I figured I'd poke my nose in here because I'm hoping to get some triathalons done this year. I've done about 5 sprint ones a few years ago (pre-kids, but still big-210 or so) but nothing for a while, and I'm the type that really needs something to train for. So I've been looking at races, and trying to decide what to do. I haven't even looked into training yet, because I'm still working at getting into an exercise routine, but I'll be looking shortly and trying to pick up some advice here. Thanks!

Meredith

Meredith - That's great! Are you looking to do a sprint again? I'm training for my first triathlon and also started because I needed something to train for and needed some variety in my workouts (not a fan of just plain running). Good luck with the exercise routine!

paperclippy - Sounds like you'll get a lot out of your swim class. And lots of one-on-one instruction. I can't remember, do you have a specific triathlon you're training for?

SGeranium - I'm in GrooveTime!'s group. Same name on there too. I'm so glad I signed up since it's been so helpful with everything. I'm going to put off getting the wetsuit until a little later in the season since I've been dropping a few pounds lately, which I hope will continue to happen, so I may be a size down by the time I need one in April. And want to get one that'll fit. But I will definitely consult the Athena forum.

clippy : I'm really glad the class happened for you. It sounds like you will get a lot of attention .

Shea welcome there are a lot of beginner training plans out there. I used the one at beginnertriathlete . It's much easier for me to stay focused in the day to day with a goal as well.

Meredith, welcome!

Auger, I still haven't decided which one to train for, but it will be a sprint. At this point I'm thinking it may be too late to train for the one in April. I'm thinking I might go for one in June and one in August. The August one would be one of the same ones I did last year, the June would be a new one (with an open water swim, which I haven't done before). My only concern is that the June one is on a hilly course, and there aren't really any hills to train on right near me. I would have to drive my bike over to the park that the tri is going to be in to train on the hills, which is kind of annoying. That and I'm not sure if I'd need a wetsuit for the open water swim, I don't have one.

Ladies, I need advice. Beware, this is really long.

I signed up for an Olympic tri in mid April in Vegas and have been training for it semi-seriously for the past week or so, when I should've been doing it for 3 weeks now (the first problem). At this point, my heart is not in it at all and it's making it very hard for me to motivate myself to get stuff in every day.

I also have a lot on my plate now, which I know all of you do so I guess that's not an excuse at all. But I'm essentially going from 0 to 60 with workouts and it's getting really stressful. Like, I didn't really exercise regularly before this so going from that to 6 days a week is really getting to me. I mean, I play in a few sports leagues and sometimes make it to the pool, but nothing this intense and this regimented.

In short, this isn't fun anymore and I'm super duper stressed, which I haven't been in a while. I signed up thinking it'd be a fun way to get myself to exercise regularly, but it's turned into a complete stress bomb.That, and a weekend in Vegas, with flights, hotels, food, bike and wetsuit rentals (and the list goes on) is getting pretty expensive, and since I'm not feeling this thing at all, I'm weary of spending that kind of money on something that's making me stressed and essentially miserable.

If you can't tell, I'm seriously leaning towards skipping out on this one and instead attempting one near home and about 10 weeks later in mid-June. It seems a lot more reasonable with regards to finances and training time since I can build up a base now before the "official" training begins (again) 16 weeks out from the tri. Also, the course is A LOT flatter than the Vegas one, which a seasoned tri friend told me is "challenging but difficult". Not something I want to hear when I'm already doubting my abilities to do this.

So, here's where I need advice. I'm already signed up for Vegas with my roommate (who just happens to be my best friend, which complicates things somewhat since I can't really flake out on her as easily), having paid the registration fee a couple months ago in hopes of the money motivating me. She's really set on going and has very excitedly been training diligently, and does not take my saying "I don't think I wanna go" very well. I know because I talked to her about it last week and she got very upset, mad, and disappointed. I feel bad copping out, but 1) I honestly don't think I can complete the course since it's so hilly and I don't really have a base, 2) it's really expensive to get out there, and 3) I'm not ready to train 6 times per week.

For that last point, maybe I'm just being lazy and not wanting to go to the gym every day. I do generally have that problem, and once I get in a bike ride or a good swim, then I feel great. But it's getting out that door which is the killer. I can motivate myself to workout a few times a week, with the knowledge that I can rest sometime soon. But 6 days straight is just too much. Everywhere it says that you should ease into workouts/diets/life changes slowly, and I feel like I need to do that before I take on this HUGE thing. Those extra 7 weeks of build-up before the June tri I mentioned would be used for just that. I know I could've done the same with the weeks before Christmas, which I didn't, but I'm more focused with food choices and everything now, so I think I'll be able to manage 3-4 times per week workouts to build up a base and increase from there. I just think I'm rushing into things and it's stressing me out like crazy. I mean, look at me, it's 2 am and I'm posting to 3FC cuz I can't sleep.

Anywhos, any advice? Should I try to train for April and see how it goes? Or somehow find a way to reason with my roommate without really pissing her off and go for late June? I'm really leaning towards June for so many reasons, but I also don't want to quit on myself and, yet again, not accomplish something I committed to do simply due to laziness (the not building a base before Christmas, not the not wanting to go to the gym 6 times a week part now, although I guess that also qualifies).

Another alternative is to drop down to the sprint distance in the Vegas tri (which my roommate is ok with), though I'm not sure I can do yet as I haven't contacted the race director, but it's the same day, same price, etc, so I'm thinking that shouldn't be a problem. The 12-week training for that would start next week so I wouldn't be behind and I wouldn't piss off my roommate, but it wouldn't eliminate the getting-to-Vegas problem and the I'm-not-ready-for-6-straight-days-of-workouts problem.

Sorry this is so long, but I'm having a huge dilemma here.

Auger, I think there are a couple options. If your friend wants to do the olympic in Vegas and would be put off enough by you not going that it would ruin your friendship, I would say either drop down to the sprint distance and go anyway if you think you can handle the training, or you could skip the tri altogether and just go to support your friend and have a fun weekend in Vegas. It doesn't solve too much of the money problem since I'm sure getting there is the expensive part, not the race itself, but it would be a show of support for your friend and let you see how a tri works before having to actually do it yourself.

If your friendship can survive you not going to Vegas, I'd skip it and go for the one close to home later. Is that one a sprint? With limited training time I would highly recommend doing a sprint instead of an olympic unless you're already used to running and biking long distances.



In other news, I learned at swim class last night that I have been doing breaststroke WRONG this whole time! :lol: (I'm imagining a LOLcat saying "Ur doin it rong!") Apparently the arm movements I was doing are the ones for *underwater* breast stroke and are not correct for regular breast stroke. Oops.

I would also not jump into an olympic distance tri withough a better base, especially if it is stressing you out. On the other hand, I can see your friend's point of view about bailing on her. If you do the sprint triathalon, you will have time to train (and if the 6 days a week is stressing you out, you can try to modify it to make it work...) Vegas can be done on the cheap, especially if you are not planning on partying too much before a sunday race. Just a thought. However, if your friend will not be too mad, just wait until June. She will forgive you; just maybe not right away :)

What Shea said. The sprint option would be great if you can swing it financially. For inspiration just watch Diet Tribe season two on lifetime. They were ready in 16 weeks from no activity. Training, logistics, money ,it's a lot of unknowns which cause stress. Give yourself a break.

I f your feel like you have to bail she will eventually forgive you, she's your best friend.

Ok, so I finally sat down and picked out a couple of competitions. I'm going to do a 5k on April 3rd, and then a spring tri (the CBI Tri out of the Woodlands) on May 2nd. I've already told my husband, and I'll sign up at the beginning of February, and make it a little public, to give me added incentive to train (my other ones, I had a distinct lack of training in anything but the swim portion; I basically did the bike/run cold, and it showed, but I was able to finish...this time I want to do the full training, but modified to fit the schedule I already have, so I'll have to think more on that over the next couple of weeks.

:carrot: I'm still excited to have a goal!

Meredith

Ladies, thanks for the quick responses and support. The friendship will survive (I hope). We've been through worse. And we're both super stressed about money in general so not going would lift a huge financial burden off the both of us. So that may be the deciding factor, and I may not even have to mention the fact that I don't want to do a tri quite yet.

I've been thinking it over the past week so it's not a spur-of-the-moment decision, and I'm pretty set on not going. Now I just have to have this dreaded conversation. Gotta wait for the right time.

Thanks again!

Meredith, good luck on your 5k and sprint! I still haven't signed up for any. :p

Auger, did you talk to your friend yet?

I'm getting ready to transition from winter maintenance into training for the summer. Why is the weather not also ready for this? :rofl: I'm finishing up the last stage of the NRLW strength training program so it seems like a perfect time. I need to come up with a new strength routine that I can do while doing tri training to keep up my muscle mass without making me too sore for running and biking.

I have a question for you folks -- do you have any training plans that are based on distance rather than time? The ones I found on beginnertriathlon.com (the free ones, at least) are all based on time, like, run for 17 minutes, etc. I need a distance-based one because I'm so slow that even if I meet all the times on the training plan, I won't actually be covering the distance that I need to.

I've not seen any free ones that are based on distance, but I haven't looked too hard yet. I need to find one for this upcoming event though, so I'll be looking in the next week, so I'll let you know if I see anything...

I think the one I used last year was based on distance I'll look for it. I agree it's much more helpful for me as well.
I'm still pluggin' along trying to add mileage. I've been getting SUPER dizzy and sick to my stomach when swimming lately. I need to figure that out. IDEAS?

Geranium, there are a couple things I could guess . . . Are you swimming really really hard? If so it might just be the general dizziness/nausea you can get when you work out too hard. Otherwise, maybe you aren't breathing frequently enough so you're running out of air? How long before swimming do you eat, and what do you eat? Is the temperature in the pool/pool area okay? Does it happen every time you swim, or only in certain situations? Does it happen while you are swimming or when you get out of the pool?

Sorry to answer a question with more questions!

Talked to my friend today kinda sorta. It didn't come out the way I wanted it to, but she seems pretty receptive. She still wants to do a tri the day we should've been doing the one in Vegas, and mentioned that she may just do one on her own. So I said I'd do a sprint with her around here just for fun...kind of a practice run, I'd say. That went over well, so I think we're good. Small price to pay, I guess.

So yeah, all is well :) And the official one we'll be doing is on June 26th about an hour north of here. I've heard really good things about it so it should be fun. I'm kind of excited instead of stressed, like I was before. Yay!

I actually think as a slow person its better to train by time not distance otherwise you'll be over-doing things and possibly over-training... I used the BT programs time based and it worked out OK for me at the time but you might want to ask more people about it. I think I did add in some longer rides in the end.

My IMgroup coach just send us the first weeks workouts for IM training! Eeek! I'm ready though... interesting to see where this will go.

Aug - Glad you talked to your friend... you will be better off if this is fun and not just a constant source of stress. There is plenty of time to do the longer races if you end up enjoying this.

Au, glad you worked it out with your friend!

I have a question for you folks. How do you bike in winter? Do you use a stationary bike at a gym/at home, do you use a trainer that you put your regular bike in indoors, or do you just have good enough weather that you can keep biking outside?

aug I'm glad it worked out. That must be a relief.

clippy : Theoretically it's possible for me to year round here. It rarely freezes in Seattle and snow only last a day or two if we get any. But I don't like to ride in the dark or in the rain. I'm not getting out there all that often lately. I love to go to spin class, but that doesn't always work out time wise. Classes are reservable in my gym so often class is booked before I know I'm free for it. Most often I do my own spin training on the spin bikes. I use the stationary bikes too, but the positioning is better for me on the spin bikes. It's closer to my actual bike. A trainer would be great, but our house is small with no basement. I couldn't leave my bike set up up in the house permanently without it getting on my nerves and in my way. I feel like this is not ideal, but It does keep my stamina up.

Ideal : Yikes!!!!! Good luck, I look forward to hearing all about your journey. Are you going to blog about it?