Tri-Noob from MA

Hello,

Ive decided to start training for a triathlon and I came across this site, this is an amazing recourse that Im glad to be a part of.

A little about me,

23yo Male, full time grad student (Physical Therapy). My sports experience includes wrestling, Ju-Jitsu and weight lifting (Notice the lack of endurance based sports). Ive decided that I want to train for a triathlon for a few reasons. 1 - It will give some much needed structure to my workout schedule. 2 - It will give me an objective fitness goal to work toward. 3 - Its a challenge in an area that Ive never trained for before. I have all the necessary equipment and facilities. I have a great mtn bike that Im planning on fitting with road tires (at this point in my tri career this will just have to do - and any tips here would be great!) and I can use the university’s 50m lap pool for free! And I have a fresh pair of Asics that I just got for running. So I think thats enough for me to train for a sprint.

So, at this point I am looking for a tone of advice! Im planning on signing up for a Sprint soon, however I dont know how far out to schedule it. I live on the MA / NH boarder and the fall/winter is comming up, so Id like to do it soon, However I dont know how to measure my fitness at this point to decide if I need 2moths or 6months to train.

Ive been doing some tri-based workouts recently and I can hack the 5K and 12m bike rides, but the swim is killing me. I cant swim 100m without having to stop and rest because I cant breath. I think my techneiqe is crap so thats the biggest thing I need to work on.

I have a few people that I can refer too. A classmate that has completed the Iornman TWICE! (in her 40's - single mother of 3 btw!) And a friend who was a competitive swimmer all through high school and undergrad in college. So Ive enlisted help from them but any further advice anyone can give me on improving my swim or programs to start with would be appreciated.

You'll be seeing me a lot around here with some noob questions so be nice. Thanks!