Preparing for the first Olympic triathlon

My first thought is, "What's your current fitness level?"

If you are coming off the couch, going straight to 1-2 hours/day, 6-days/week may be setting yourself up for disappointment.  On the other hand, if you have a reasonable level of base fitness - go for it.

If you don't have a strong swim background I would strongly suggest you get with a qualified coach or instructor for some lessons.  Swimming is highly technical and learning early to do it right will pay huge dividends in the future.

It's absolutely a good idea to "train-to-train" before you begin your actual plan so that you have a good base fitness level.

Originally posted by never Thank you for your answer. Well regarding my fitness level at the moment i can say that it is not on very good level, however i could swim 1500m, ride 40km or run 10km in a slow pace, not on the same day . I would like to put it all together untill the summer and ofcourse get better time in each leg. I would say that running is my best discipline, although i did not run for some time. I don't think running will be an issue, bike at the other hand is my worst fear cause i do not like to ride a bike very much and i guess i am slowest there compering to others. I know that some may say that i should pay most attention to bike training for that reason however i believe that considering that my goal is not winning but completing olympic triathlon i want to survive bike and work on my swim and run so i do good there. Does that make any sence?

Not entirely sure what you meant when you said "you could" do all those things - you could have done them all at one time in the past, or if you choose to, you can go do any one of them today.  In any case, I'd suggest you start slow and build up.  At most maybe 6-workouts a week, 2 of each discipline - something like Mon-swim, Tue-bike, Wed-run, Thu-swim, Fri-bike, Sat-run.  If that is too much then cut it back to one of each discipling spread over the week.  The real key when you are starting out is to not over-do it.  Slow progression - allow your body to catch-up.

You mentioned you'd "like to put it all together until the summer . . ." I'm not sure if you meant you want to do all three disciplines each day or you simply want to train all three disciplines.  Normally in training you would RARELY do all three disciplines in a training session or on any given day - except in a race simulation.  You might do bricks, a combination of two disciplines - most frequently bike followed immediately by a run but that isn't until later in the training cycle when you have built a base.  Two a-day's aren't uncommon - two workouts a day, typically in different disciplines - although you may or may not need to do that depending upon your chosen plan.

You said you might use one of the BT beginner plans.  Simply count back from your race day the number of weeks of the plan.  That is when you would start your "official" plan.  Until then, start slow and gradually increase volume and distance.  DON'T worry about speed at this point.  Worry about building a base level of fitness upon which you can build when you start your training plan.

Hope that helps.

I don't have specific thoughts about your shooting for an Olympic distance going from your current state. When I decided to get into tri, I followed BT's beginner swimmer program, which I found to be pretty helpful to get to a point where I could reasonably swim. I did that to completion before starting the race-specific plan I followed.

While that approach worked for me, I do share the other poster's thought that it would be very much worth your time to get in-person instruction in the swim. I'm a proponent of gradual increases (I've been in endurance sports for 10 years now, and never injured), so I would urge you to make sure you add to your training load slowly. By all means, set a race as a goal, but don't go from minimal to full-on training. Work your way into it. Good luck!

Beginner Swimmer program (3 months)

http://beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=755

http://beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=777

http://beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=801

That's kind of a loaded question.  At 33:00 for a 1,500m swim you're swimming at 2:12/100m.  You are asking if you can drop to 27:00 for a 1,500m swim or 1:48/100m by the summer doing only two swim workouts per week.

The short answer is probably not.  Not on two swims per week.  Maybe - if you are able to swim 4-6 times per week.  Let me try and explain.

At 2:12/100 your primary limiter is technique.  Good technique will get you down to +/- 1:40/100m (+/- 1:30/100y).  As you approach that pace, swim fitness becomes increasingly important and becomes a limiter as you go faster.  But here's the thing - technique and fitness are two sides of the same coin.  You can't have one without the other - if you have phenomenal fitness, but poor technique, you'll simply be trying to beat the water into submission and not swimming very fast.  If you have incredible technique, but poor fitness, you will be anaerobic very quickly, your technique will break down, and you'll be back to trying to beat the water into submission and swimming slowly.  Good technique must be built on good swim fitness and good swim fitness must be built on good technique - they must be developed simultaneously - that takes time.

The next thing - the very best thing you can do is get with a qualified coach or instructor for some one-on-one lessons.  Swimming is highly technical.  Doing it right - having proper technique - makes all the difference.

As you begin to swim, avoid the long continuous swims.  The idea is to commit proper technique to muscle memory.  When you do long swims - especially as a beginner or a swimmer with less than ideal technique - your technique breaks down as you fatigue.  You want to be doing intervals that are short enough so that you can maintain proper technique with enough rest between intervals so you can maintain proper technique throughout the set and enough rest between sets so you can maintain technique for the duration of the workout.  If your technique breaks down, take an additional rest break between intervals.  If that doesn't restore technique, get out of the water, go home, and try again the next time - there is absolutely nothing to be gained by continuing to swim with poor technique.  Remember the goal is to store proper technique to muscle memory.  If you are swimming with poor technique you are storing that improper technique to muscle memory.  The paradox is how to learn proper technique when you are just starting out - that's where the coach/instructor comes in.

While volume (how FAR you swim) and duration (how LONG you swim) are important, frequency (how OFTEN you swim) will play a larger role in how quickly you improve.  I'd rather see someone swim 4 x 45' per week then 3 x 60' per week.  Taking that further, I'd rather see 5 x 30' over either of the other two schedules.  By swimming lower volume and duration more frequently, you are able to achieve higher overall volume and duration while maintaining proper technique - thereby committing proper technique to muscle memory.

The key is going to be getting your technique sorted out.

Hope that helps.

Comments interspersed and based on some replies

45 minutes for the swim plus 60 minutes for run...1:45 total (not including showering/changing/commuting)

60 minute class?  2:45 total

45 minute swim, 1:30 ride...5:00 total

60 minute class?  6:00 total

45 minute swim...6:45 total

1:30 ride plus 30-60 run...8:45--9:15 total

sun: off Thank you

Do you have 9 hours plus travel/shower/changing time available in your weekly schedule?  

If this is how you want to spend your time, it's not bad. 

Pay attention, especially with running that you don't hurt yourself.  Running twice a week (Monday and Saturday) is a hard sequence especially if you're trying to make the main run a tempo run.  

In the other posts, you're currently about 2:12/100 and hope to get down to 1:45/100 (swimming).  Yes, it's doable even with just 2 45-minute swims per week.  Key would be what you do for your swim workout.  If you just get in and swim 1500 m, you'll improve a little bit.  If you do a structured workout (warmup, drills, intervals, kicks, cooldown) you'll improve more and should easily be able to hit the lower pace in 3-4 months.  You can go back through my logs and you'll see a lot of Tuesday-Thursday swims (Dec2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010).  2009 & 2011 I did Ironmans with a lot of Tue-Thu swims but often no more than 3 swims a week.  My greatest speed gains came one winter (2010/1?) when I did Tue-Thur with a coached session on Saturday and 2014 when I did coached sessions.  In those periods, I'd go from a 1:50 "cruise" and 1:40 "sprint" to 1:38/1:28.