Hello from Wisconsin

Originally posted by thorbalthorak

I am completely new to triathlons and I just started training a week ago with the twenty week balanced program. I used to be extremely overweight but I have lost a lot of weight and this year I have ran in two 5k races. Next fall I am running in an Olympic Triathlon and I am looking for some advice on gear, diet for the race, and any general tips.

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this question but does anyone have any advice on swimming while keeping your head in the water. I know the basic mechanics but I always feel like I don't have enough time to breathe which makes me feel a little bit like I am constantly running out of air. I am still swimming twice a week but the majority of the time my head is above water.

Thank you for any help or advice.

Originally posted by MikeD1



Sounds like you are off to a great start, congrats! I'm also from WI (Onalaska) but will head south to FL for most of the winter hopefully.
There is a lot of great info on this site about all the kinds of questions you're going to have. Do some searching, like for the swim topics. I have practically relearned swimming from watching some of the videos etc. You definitely want to do that. Start by trying Articles/Training/Swim. As far as breathing, you have to forcefully breath out while your head is down, and they rotate (not lift) your head to the side to breath in. You'll see it in the videos but once you are doing it, you only need to rotate far enough for one eye to be out of the water. Seems weird, but works really well once you see a video and start practicing.