Direction?

[colby]

Plenty of time!

I would spend the off-season months working on your running and/or swimming, a couch to 5k plan sounds great. Then maybe start a sprint tri training plan 6-8 weeks or so before your race to bring everything together (OR just keep your mileage up in each thing, 2-3 times a week). Since the winter usually involves less riding anyway, this should work out okay.

Good luck! As long as you feel like you can swim, bike, and run those distances, you can make it.

[shellkay1212]

I'm getting increasing more excited! I'm going to sign up for private swim instructino at the Y. I know how to swim but feel like I may not be so efficient and expending excess energy. I started going to Pilates once a week. Now, I just need to GO OUT AND DO IT!

I will definitely check out the couch to 5K and the iTunes thing! Hopefully it starts slow cause my knees are not so great. I'm going to have to add some sort of weight training into the mix for my quads. One knee is just super weak...well the muscles surrounding it are.

Thanks sooo much for the advice and encouragement. I will definitely keep you posted!

[sfa]

The first thing I did when I decided to do a sprint tri was to sign up for one. I knew I'd be one of those "maybe, someday, when I'm ready" kind of people if I didn't have a hard and fast deadline, so I just signed up and then worked out the details, which mostly consisted of teaching myself how to swim (well, I knew *how* to swim, just not well and with no endurance. It wasn't swimming I was doing so much as failing to sink effectively) and then building my endurance so I could do the whole distance of the tri. My goal was only to finish, so I didn't care much about improving my times in anything. In the last six weeks I set out a schedule for myself so that I didn't get lazy--I still find it's way too easy to blow off my workouts with lame excuses.

Sarah

[shellkay1212]

Hmmm, that's a good idea. Is it too early to sign up for next year? Maybe that would keep me from saying, "one more day" or "monday" or "next week". I had told myself TODAY is the day I start. One year from today my son is getting married so it seemed like a good day to start.

[zia]

Shellkay, last December I had the same compulsion. I knew I wanted to start training for my first triathlon that very day! That very minute! I went to http://www.trifind.com and found a race that sounded right to me. It was a Sprint distance, women only, and wasn't until the following September! But: I set up my calendar to send me a reminder the day registration opened and got to work building up my base. I just did that race last weekend. Somehow, my momentum carried me through the winter, and the past nine months have been so very different from what I expected them to be. (The original tri I signed up for ended up being my third! of the season.)

So I say, if your heart is telling you to start, go for it!, and enjoy your triathlon journey!

[shellkay1212]

Zia,

I'm going to that Web site right now! Boy I have a lot of work to do. I'm overweight and cannot run around the block or swim one pool length. BUT, I can bike 50 miles! It's on!

[uk elephant]

Just read your thread and wanted to chime in just to say that I'm in the same boat. I want to do a sprint tri some time next summer (possibly June), but am nowhere near ready yet. I started yesterday....did 45minutes in the pool. Plan is to try running today after work. Running and swimming will definitely be my weakest legs so I guess I'll have to do lots of that through the winter. Good luck to you, Shellkay! Keep us posted on how you do...

[fatbottomedgurl]

The first thing I did when I decided to do a sprint tri was to sign up for one.

Yup, me too. Hadn't run at all so running was definitely the week link. Just go slow slow slow. In fact you might start with a 4 weeks to one mile program- look on Amazon.com.
Just do it! You have all winter to train.