New & Need a training PLAN!

From someone who has similar goals - get swim lessons or get Total Immersion. Swimming is not as easy as it was when we were kids...

Welcome to BT! It sounds like you have a good base in biking and running so you just need to focus on swimming. You didn't mention if you already know HOW to swim or not.

If you know how to swim then you probably just need to get more time in the water and build your endurance toward race distance. If you do NOT know how to swim, I would suggest a swim class at your local Y or maybe get some swim videos and experiment to see what works for you. Backstroke is totally acceptable as is breaststroke or any other stroke as long as it gets you into and out of the water.

I think the swim is more psychological than anything else so you need to feel confident in your abilities since it is the first leg of the race. Since your first tri is in July, you have plenty of time to get comfortable with the swim portion. Good luck!

I would agree with surfnturf, if you know how to swim just relax. Swimming makes approx. 10 per cent of the time of the entire race. If you don't know how to swim properly it's a completely different thing though. Focus on optimizing your technique, not your endurance. Poor swimmers don't necessarily are in bad shape, but they usually have a poor swimming style that is costing them much more strain than it should do. You can learn it from a book but to eliminate bad swimming habbits you'd best invest your time in getting someone to watch you and tell you, what you are doing wrong.

Hi Jen,

Go for it. I've done a few Sprints and the best advice I can give is to practice the transition from bike to run. By transition I mean go out on the bike, change your shoes, and immediately go for a run.

When I first started I thought, " I can cycle and I'm ok at running" but when combined together it's a whole new pain experience. I soon discovered that I couldn't actually run after cycling 12 miles. I kind of just waddled. (It wasn't pretty) My run was five minutes slower than I expected. A friend told me he practiced this transition and after doing the same it's made a big difference. Not just in performance but also the enjoyment...oh, and I don't run like a penguin anymore.

Have fun,

Stephen.

Sportyi,
I would definitely do a few training lake swims to get used to it. It's MUCH different from swimming in a pool.

I'm going to be doing the Mountain Man myself and I'm excited that they're holding it in July instead of late august/early September like they used to in the 90's. The water was FREEZING by that time. (7,500 ft elevation so summer ends early).

If you live in the Valley, drop me a line. I'm looking for people to get together with and train.

I would like to do the Mtn. Man. I'm down in Phoenix and training on my own. I did my first tri over the weekend and found it a little more difficult than I thought. A former swimmer, my time was slower than I had expected. I guess it's back to the pool to train harder. I felt I could've done better on the bike, but I was saving myself for the run (didn't work - I was dead). Now that I have a little more reasonable expectations, I'll be able to train better and make more realistic goals.

sportj - I would try and do another sprint before the Mtn. Man - - just to get your feet wet.