New at Tri Training...Discouraged about bike :(

[teawoman]

Thanks so much for all the kind replies!

I honestly have never ridden a road bike, so I do not know what the difference even feels like--I'm not resistant to getting one, except that I work on contract and have to be careful in the summers. I can probably swing it in the fall. I am 5 4 and the bike I have now is smallish--43 cm, so I might benefit from wsd, and that is more money. Right now my bike is a Giant Cypress ST...it has a steel frame--looked for weight specs, but couldn't find any. I do have a bit of trouble lifting it to my car rack. I got the hybrid about 3-4 years ago when a road bike was not in the budget at all. I wish I'd thought of getting a used road bike (which I guess I could still do), but there you go...live and learn. I sorta entered that first tri on impulse, but I think it was a good one .

On gears: I don't know the terminology, but on a 21 speed I am riding most in 1 on the left and on the right I have it on 4-5 on flats and 1-2 for the hills.

On HR: The high average is when I'm doing hills...it's about the same as for running when the ride is relatively flat

In the club, everybody is on road bikes too.

Anyway, thanks again--I will keep plugging. Depending on how I do at this tri, I might try one more this summer and then start shopping around for a road bike. Yay!