New To This!!!!

Greetings and welcome!

There are some good first time training plans that are free in the Training Plans section of this site. You also have this forum to ask additional questions. And yes, you have enough time to train for this race.

Try your best to be consistent with the training, eat well, and pay attention to recovery.

A sprint is actually pretty short if you put in any kind of training for it. To just have fun with it 3x run, 3x bike 2x swim will get you through it fine. You are looking at a long training run of anywhere from 3-6 miles, a long bike of anywhere from 20 to 30 miles and a long swim of 1000 yards give or take. That means you can do most of your workouts in 30 to 90 minutes 1-2x a week. Even on a graduate school schedule you should be able to fit it in. You are welcome to join any of the triathlon mentor groups for more specific feedback on how things are going or just throw questions out here. It feels overwhelming at the start, but a basic 20 week plan should put you in good shape to finish with a smile.

I'm new(ish) as well! I started training back in July for a triathlon this coming June. There are two things that have helped me most in my training:

1. Join a Triathlon club or team. The support of other athletes and the coaching you get will be immeasurable. On my team I've found the most value in the masters swim workouts since I've not ever really been a "swimmer". And I look forward to these workouts the most (even though they are at 5:30am)

2. Read Joe Friel's Triathlon Training Bible. I got this for xmas this year and read it cover to cover in the following week. I've followed its advice and I also use Training Peaks to plan and to track my training. I even wrote a blog post about it:

https://www.wheelhousedmg.com/blog/analytics-instrumentation-triathl...

I agree with others on this thread, 20 weeks will be enough. Stick with your plan and read the training bible. One really important take away from the book, most people OVERTRAIN. Get in lots of training, but don't overdo it.

Anyways, good luck!

Welcome to the madness.
Don't spend any money you don't need to, you'll have plenty of time for that later

My purchase recommendation if you don't have one is a race belt for bib numbers.
New full price they're a couple bucks. Sometimes you find them on clearance or on sale or what have you.
Safety pins suck.