Wisconsin noob...

Good questions, I guess I could have described myself a little better in my initial post. Anyhow, I grew up in a rural Ohio town and we didn't have much opportunity for formal swim lessons, so most of us learned to swim at a nearby city pool. So I was never much of a swimmer. Growing up watching the Iron Man World Championships I would always thing that a tri would be a neat thing to do if I wasn't a terrible swimmer. So about a year and a half ago, at the age of 30, I decided I'd had enough and took a swimming lessons at the local YMCA. Now I am swimming 3 days a week, I'm not very fast but I'm getting better.

This past fall I was having neck troubles and found out that I have a herniated disc. After resting trying to rest it for a couple months I decided it was time to get back into the pool and to my surprise, my neck started to get much better. Around the beginning of each June, our local YMCA puts on a triathlon. I would have entered this year but I wasn't quite ready yet after having my training sidetracked by the neck. However, my training is going very well now, and I'd say I'm probably in as good of shape as I've ever been.

Hey, I live in Onalaska and did the YMCA tri at Lake Neshonoc in June. My first tri in 26 years. . . . had done 13 in a two year period when I was about your age. I'm doing the one in Viroqua next Saturday and already looking for another in the Mid-August - Sept range. PM me if you want and maybe we can go for a bike ride sometime.

Cool, sounds good. I am looking at doing either the Castle Rock tri July 26 or the one in Prairie du Chien on August 2. I'd like to do the one in PdC for sure but am going to hold off on registering for now until I see how fire season plays out. Also there is one in Baraboo around September 14.

Both the Castle Rock and the Praire races looked good to me but I'd already committed to an airplane race on July 26-27. So I decided on the Viroqua race next Sat and thinking of one more after that. I'm considering the Baraboo race myself.

Castle Rock is a nice race, there can be some pretty choppy water though.
Baraboo has a hillier bike course,

For next year, the Trinona in Winona, MN is a great race with a sprint and Olympic distance.