I can either sign up for a pool sprint tri or a so-called "course preview" for an open water tri. They are on the same day and they are two weeks before the open water sprint triathlon I have signed up for.

I'm trying to decide which one would be more beneficial. The pool sprint is a race and it's a 400 yard swim, 14.2 mile bike, and a 5K run. The course preview is at one of the local reservoirs and features a 750m swim, 13.4 mile bike, and 3 mile run. The course preview is for a triathlon that I have not signed up to do, and it is in a different body of water than the race I have signed up for. I understand that folks keep their bikes on their cars and head off on the bike course after the swim, so it's not like there is a transition area.

Which one would help me more? I've never done a tri. I have done some cyclocross races and other things that have acquainted me with the feelings of competition, so I'm not really concerned about that. I have been doing an OWS every weekend, but not in a group. The best I could come up with to replicate that was asking DH to swim with me and grab my legs, touch my feet, etc. Yeah, I really did that! The distances for the course preview are similar to the distances for my race.

Any thoughts?

Alex