anyone from the fort wayne area?

Check out Tri-Fort.  It's a large, actice club and they run the Pokagon Tri in May in Pokagon SP  Welcome to BT.

I live in Warsaw, we have a pretty small but dedicated Tri community here, several of us are members of Triple Threat Triathlon team in South Bend.

I would also suggest you look into Tri-Fort. Talk to the people at Three Rivers Running Company, they are involved in the club, and are also the best place to buy running gear in Fort Wayne.

Good luck, and welcome to the sport. Let me know if you have any questions.

"obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal"

Thank! Get me started. I'll check out the local groups. Do you know of places to find slightly used wet suits or gear? And key me in on ideas on eating> I have a big family and different taste.

I am from the Fort too.  Just starting to train for Tri's too.  I am currently in a training plan for an Oly, about 16 weeks in or so.

There is the Tri-fort team/club but I am not involved with it myself.  I have seen it and considered joining but I don't know that I am ready for that yet.  I am aquainted with one of the guys and ran into him at the pool last week.  We are talking about training some togetherin the spring and summer.

Best advice I can give is see if you can get into a mentor group.  I have been in one for just a couple of weeks and have learned a ton!  I am coming from a running background (the last 4 years) so the transition has been decent but certainly a lot of fun.

Welcome to BT.  Enjoy!



Edited by DirkP 2009-12-28 12:30 PM

Your back ground is a bit like mine. With out putting out the money to join the ymca are there other places around to swim?

I swim at the Southside Natatorium but the pool is crowded bad right now because of the High School swim season.  Lap time is kind of tough to get right now.  The price is reasonable $30 for 20 visits.  I like the non-commitment at the natatorium.  You pay your money, when you need more visits, you pay more.

Thanks Dirk and Happy New Years.

Welcome. Team Tri Fort is a good club, also check out FWTC.org for local races. The vast majority of new triathletes I know in this area did the Warsaw Optomist Triathlon as there first tri. Lake has weeds, but it a nice event. Pokagon is the first tri of the season, it's in May. I don't recommend this as a first tri, it's any olympic tri, and the water is ice cold, but the duathlon is an excellent alternative. Trifind.net is a good tri event calendar for regional races. The Kokomo tri, the Wawasee tri, and Mississinewa are all great events. Ancilla College put on a tri last year for the first time, and it was fantastic.

For bikes check out Summit City Bikes. Three Rivers Running has some wet-suits and tri-shorts, but their specialty is running gear.

I am kinda planning the Pokagon tri as my first but I WILL have a wet suit or I won't do it.  I love 3 rivers running but wish I had more money to spend there.  They rent wetsuits there during the season but last year's rentals are on sale right now for $120 but they don't have my size.

The other tri's mentioned i will have to look into doing them because I need to do some close to home this season.

Do you swim at southside?

You'll definitely need a wetsuit for Pokagon. Make sure you get some open water practice before the race, even if it's just for 10 minutes. Don't want to scare you but here's what might happen: During your first tri, the excitement level is intense, so is the nervousness. The swim is the scariest part of your first tri. Don't let your first OWS be in a race. Cold water will take your breath away the first time you put your head in the water, get in the water before the start of the race and get that feeling over with. Pokagon is an olympic distance race, make sure your swim conditioning is up to that. It's a great race, and I highly recommend it, just be prepared.

I swim at Summit middle school, and at Jorgensen YMCA.

This is sooooo true. Open water swim, with or without a wet suit, is much, much different than swimming in a pool no matter what your level of experience is. Add to this the cold water and the distance of an Olympic tri - please know you need to be prepared if you choose this as your first tri. As you are just getting into the sport, you don’t want your first race to be miserable.

Also, I know this isnt exactly local, but the Carmel Swim Club puts on a great early year sprint triathlon. The swim is in a large pool, and racers are seeded by their predicted 400 meter swim time. The bike and run are then outside like a normal triathlon. I really enjoyed it last year.

here is the link: http://www.carmelswimclub.org/TabGeneric.jsp?_tabid_=19627&team=inc...

I have done the Warsaw tri mentioned above several times, and I think it is a great race. I am doing a Half Ironman two weeks before this race this year, so I will probably just volunteer, but I would recommend it as a good beginner race. There are some weeds on the swim, and there is a patch of road on the bike course that is a little rough (about a 1/2 mile), but overall it is a well put on race.

Link to the Warsaw race: http://warsawoptimist.org/?page_id=367

Both of these races sell out early, so if you decide you want to do one of them, I would sign up at least 6 weeks in advance.

Hope this helps......

Spiece is doing a little indoor tri that would be great to get started.  It's 20 minutes of each event, and then they look at the distance covered.  It still has timed transitions, so you only have a few minutes (I think 15?) to get from event to event.

It's April 3rd, and 3 Rivers Running has some info.  It also provides a discount at Spiece or The Peleton between now and April 3rd.

I swim at the Y, but I find that it's too hot for my hard workouts. I'm looking for somewhere to swim about once a week where it's colder.

Someone else (Urban Outfitters?) rents wet suits. I'm not 100% sure they're the right kind.  I've had a few people mention it to me, but I haven't checked it out.

I may need to do this one as my first tri since it will be local.  It may help me with transitions but I think it will feel weird to do something in such a short time frame.  I guess that might be pretty nice though to do a really short race. Have you heard how much this race might be?

I have a few extra dollars for a used wetsuit if I can find a decent one in my size, otherwise I may be looking at doing the rental thing for Pokagon. 

Additional comments about Pokagon as a first tri.  I did it last year and thought it was a great race.  The cold water was a definite shock.  The swim course is out and back close to the shore and easy for navigation.  The run is tough.  It is along trails in the park and almost all up and down.  Last year it rained and it was very muddy as well.  If you do this race, plan for a challenging run that will NOT be a PR.

FYI.  I swim at the natatorium at Carroll High School.  If you by a 30 swim card it cost a little over a dollar a swim.  I swim at lunch time and have never had to share a lane in 5 years.  It does have limited hours.  I also swim at the Parkview YMCA.  It can get crowded and the water is a little warm for my liking.

Edited by nickster 2010-01-28 4:35 AM

Does anyone know of a place in Fort Wayne or a person I could get some assistance from on swimming? I am going to start going to the Carroll pool in the mornings, but would really like to have someone look at my stroke before I spend to much time wasting energy.

Carroll has a masters swim program.  They should have information at the desk at the natatorium.  It was a little expensive for me.  I've use the Total Immersion Swimming video and found it very helpful.

Welcome to the tri world. I did Pokagon as my first tri 2 years ago. It was great race. I rented my wet suit from 3 rivers and it worked out really well. I had never swam in a wet suit but went early on the day of the race and did some swimming in the suit to get the feel. I would suggest work on transitions, focus on getting out of the wet suit. If you have been training for 16 weeks you should be ready by the time the race is here.

I bought a pair of shoes as 3 rivers for $95 and think it was a fantastic investment in my feet. The next year I asked for gift certificates and was able to by a pair for $140 but they actually made my knees hurt so went back to the cheaper shoes which is working great.

Remember: Enjoy the journey!

Try RediBike.  It's a new bike shop in Fort Wayne.  They stock Felt and Orbea tri bikes, Orca wet suits and bunch of tri gear.