Thanks, paperclippy for directing me to this thread. It's been inspirational and makes me want to sign up for another tri this year, but alas I cannot.
This year my "new" challenge is to do a full marathon. It's in October and tri season is well over by that time up here (N Wisconsin). I'm doing this early one (June 6) just to get me moving before doing a couple longer running races to prepare me for the "big one". I'm already thinking next year if I keep my fitness up over the winter I could alternate triathlons and marathons (provided I don't die in the first one, of course) and do a couple of each. I've only done 2 triathlons so far and the one I'm doing June 6 is one I've done before. It's an easy swim in a shallow man-made "lake", a pretty flat bike portion and a typical run with some moderate hills. My worst portion will be the bike. I don't enjoy it and I think of it as something to get through to finish.
Maybe someone can help me. I have a pretty nice road bike that I just got a few years ago, but my butt can't take the saddle time very well. No matter what I've tried it's VERY uncomfortable. I have NO padding back there and gel seats, bike shorts, etc have little effect. Then there's the fact that my hands go numb on and off after about the 4th mile. I have carpal tunnel junk which is probably the culprit. I've tried repositioning, not putting as much weight on my hands, but it's hard on a road bike. I don't have the aero bars...maybe that would help, but I don't have time to get comfortable with them for this particular race. Anyway, in the past I've done fine on the bike portion in the actual race, but I almost dread the training if I'm going over 6-7 miles. I used to enjoy it more. I'd like to again. The feeling riding the bike is great, wind in my face, flying along on this fast bike, but then my butt and hands crap out on me and it turns into a chore REALLY fast. Don't get me wrong...I'll keep doing tri's because they're awesome. I'd just like to get over this bike training mess. It used to be the swimming I dreaded since I didn't learn to swim properly until 6 months before my first tri, but now that's become a wonderful and refreshing cross-training tool that I REALLY enjoy. Suggestions anyone?

MsP! Is your race a sprint?

Unfortunately I don't have any advice about the bike. I have similar problems -- my tailbone aches and my wrists hurt (also a repetitive stress injury sufferer here). Usually my butt starts hurting at about 8 miles and my wrists at 10, at least on my hybrid bike which has upright handles. You probably saw my post from a few days ago where I tried riding DH's bike and was in agony the whole time! I know it's less aerodynamic, but is there any way to raise the handlebars on your bike? I find that the higher the handlebars are, the less pressure there is on your wrists (although there is more pressure on your butt instead).

Where is everyone? How is your training going?

I have a question for those of you who do a lot of cycling. I was thinking about trying to join a group ride from a local bike shop, but I've never done a group ride before. Is it okay to join a group even though I don't have a road bike? Also, I average 11-12mph usually. Is that too slow for a group ride?

Amber,

Congrats on your first tri!!! I just did mine last week and I think I'm totally hooked as well It's so much fun.

And of course you can join our group! Do you have any other tris planned for this season?

I generally stick to swim/bike/run because I'm too busy. But then again, the things that keep me too busy are other sports leagues I play in a few times a week, so I guess you could call that cross-training. I'm not sure.

I know people that do both weight-training and yoga, but for the most part I think it's mostly s/b/r.

I have the same problem with the saddle in that my soft lady parts hurt after a while. I've searched and asked around and it seems like the only solution to that problem is to get a new saddle. Try out a few at a bike shop and see what works best for you.

My hands went numb in my last tri as well, and that was definitely from putting too much pressure on them during the bike. Usually in training I don't have that problem, but I think I was just in the zone during the sprint and didn't notice it til I got back to transition. I also don't know what to do about that, though. Not be as intense? That's not an option!

Thanks! That's the fastest I've ever gone! I went for a ride yesterday and could only get up to 14 mph (the tri had me at 18). I just lack the motivation during training to push myself into discomfort.

As for the group rides, JOIN! Try to find a no-drop ride since those are more geared towards beginners and 11-12 mph is usually fast enough. Everyone had to start somewhere so go for it!

I recently found an all-female cycling group out here that I've been meaning to try out but just can't drag myself out of bed at 9 am on a weekend. So I'll try real hard on Saturday and see how it goes.

As for my training, you'd think I'd ramp it up seeing as how I barely finished the run on the sprint and have an Oly coming up in 5 weeks. But instead, I've taken it super easy this week. Ay ay ay! I need to work on this.

I have made some progress in my explorations...I am certain that I can bike well and above the requisite distance for a sprint, as I do that all the time, and I know now that I can jog 3.1 miles, however slowly.

While I know I can swim the requisite distance, my preferred stroke is typically the side stroke - too slow for a tri -- but I think that can be remedied, and I'll be going to the pool this weekend to look into that a bit more.

I have a new swimsuit (my old one is now too big! hurrah!), some good running shoes, and a good bike. Have looked into training plans and various fora online - there is so much information out there! And fortunately the slow, fat triathlete doesn't seem to be an uncommon animal.

I think perhaps I can do this.

calluna-You CAN do it! My first tri was a priceless experience that I'm proud of. I was obese and not too fast, but I did it and enjoyed it immensely!

I'm dealing with a bit of a quandry. My tri is this coming weekend and I normally would be doing a training taper to rest my muscles, but I'm also training for a marathon and want to do the required miles for the week. I think I'm going to tone the miles down slightly and add in a bit of bike and swim time.
I did a 7 mile bike last week in about 30 minutes, so I felt good about the pace, but it was a little on the hilly side, so that helps (on the downhills!). My run pace is often about 10 min/mi. I'm a slow-ish swimmer in open water, but this is a short/easy swim so I guess I'll plan on 10 min max there. That should put me at about 2 hours for the whole thing, give or take some for transitions and stuff. I'll let ya'll know how it goes!

Calluna, you can do it!

MsP, good luck! Come back and post a race report after you finish please.

Au, thanks for the advice about the group rides. I think I need to look around to find a good group that will put up with a slowpoke on a hybrid bike.

I think something is wrong with my butt. Not kidding, actually. Last year I did a similar amount of biking (I thought) and while the first few times out my behind was a little bruised and sore, I quickly got over it and was fine. However, this year every single time I go out my tailbone feels like it's getting crushed, and it really really hurts (especially right when I get off the bike and it has room again). It continues at work and at home, whenever there is pressure on my tailbone it hurts a lot. The bike is the same one I used last year, I haven't changed the seat or anything. Any ideas what's going on? Should I have my doctor check it out? Or just give it more time? It's been doing this for several weeks now.

Thanks, all, for the encouragement. I'll need it. I did go last weekend to the pool and swam 1500 yds without any undue stress. I could have gone on, but I'd learned what I needed to know.

Now, I have some questions and maybe y'all can help me. How long did you train for your first tri? I know that there are training programs that last for 3-4 months. If I worked hard I would really only be ready at the tag end of the season. Here in Alaska end-of-season comes even earlier. I'm almost inclined to work on my base, do some 5k and cycling events this summer, and look for tri events next year. What would you do?

Paperclippy, I'd have it checked out - you have a benchmark from last year and it feels markedly, unhappily different. If you go and nothing's wrong, then the worst that will happen is you have a sore bum for a while longer. If you don't go and something's wrong, you could really cause yourself some damage.

Thanks Calluna, I know I should probably go to the doctor but it seems like such a stupid thing. "Hi, I'd like to make an appointment because my butt hurts!" I have a feeling the treatment is going to be "don't do anything that puts pressure on your tailbone" though so maybe I should just be proactive and modify my seat so that there is a hole in that area and see if it helps.

My first tri was April of last year. I started training the October before that, so about six months. BUT when I started training I was on week 4 of the couch to 5k program, hadn't been on my bike in ages, and hadn't tried to swim in at least 10 years. My workouts consisted of alternating walk and job intervals for 20 minutes, biking 2 miles, swimming 2 laps, stuff like that. Since you can already swim 1500 yards and bike long distance, I don't think you need nearly that long to prepare for a sprint distance.

The program I'm currently doing (which is an intermediate training plan for sprint distance) is 9 weeks long. The same book (The Woman Triathlete) also has a beginner 9 week sprint training plan. I think you could easily do a sprint this year since it sounds like all you need to work on is the running.

No advice here about doing anything longer than a sprint since I haven't done anything longer.

Wow, you started training for tris way early! I wish I were so bold. I'd been working out for many months before even entertaining the idea that I might, possibly, eventually, hopefully be able to complete a sprint tri. I started with a stationary bike and went for 15-20 minutes every other day...

Thanks for your thoughts on plans. I don't know if I'm brave enough to tri this year, but I have a week out of town (with exercise options) to consider what I'd like to do.

I followed a 12 week training program when I did my first tri. Prior to that, I did take a swim class to figure out the rhythmic breathing and getting more comfortable in the water.
It was a goal of mine to do a tri by the time I was 30. It was just something I felt I needed to do to feel like I was still living my life. I had 3 young kids and had gained weight and felt like it was time to be me again.

Cal, I'm sure you could pull one off this year! To be fair, I had been working out regularly for years before I started training for a tri, my workouts just had not included biking or swimming and I was recovering from a knee injury on the running. So it's not like I was a couch potato, I was just used to the elliptical and recumbent stationary bike, and I had been running prior to injuring my knee.

MsP, what a great way to meet your goals!

This training plan is kicking my butt. Yesterday's workout was a 30 minute run, which shouldn't have been a big deal, but I was still so sore and exhausted from all the previous workouts I only managed a pace of 13:30 per mile. Sigh. That's as slow as I was going last year. My goal for my tri is to average 12:00 per mile, and I've been running at 11:15 to 11:30 most of the time. I don't know why I was so tired, maybe because it's hot out? I also was slow on my swim the other day -- 16:16 for 500m, which I did in 15:08 just a couple weeks earlier.