Yet another BEGINNER beginner....HI!

Hi Robyn,
I'm no coach and definitely a beginner myself. I can tell you what I did to get started...maybe some of it will help. I began with only weightlifting background...completely out of shape. I used one of the free olympic tri training programs from this site. I purchased new bike shoes and a helmet along with an older used bike from Craigslist. I paid around $350 for my bike, which seemed like a lot to me, but I didn't own a bike so I needed something. Turns out it's a great bike...very old...but great. My swimming was at the level where I could survive if thrown in a pool, but I wasn't a swimmer. I took one lesson for that. I'm still far from a good swimmer, but I finished the olympic distance with no problems.

I then solicited advice from some friends of mine who tri.  They told me get out and ride that bike and run outside (I had been doing treadmill for the first month). I also read probably every article on this site...there's a wealth of knowledge here.

Hopefully some of that helps....welcome to BT!

Hello Robyn!

You will get a lot of information hanging around on this site and reading threads that look like they might answer some of your questions. 

I have not taken advantage of the training or mentoring that the site offers but you should check into that too.

What part of So Cal are you?  There is an Orange County based women's tri club called Tri La Vie (www.trilavie.com).  I know that they do a lot of group training in all 3 disciplines and they welcome women of all levels.  I attended an open water swim clinic by one of their coaches and it was very helpful.

If you are already a runner and are motivated to do multisport, with a little cross-training (and a little money . . . ) you'll be ready for a tri next summer easily.

Good luck!

Awesome! Thank you. I deffinately feel like I can do it and I am super excited to get started and learn new sports. I am in Orange County so I am going to look into that group for sure...and I think the Craigslist idea is a great one too. Thanks guys!

How about books or DVDs? I just bought "the idiots guide to triathalon training" haha

Hi Robyn,

Welcome to BT and the world of triathlon! 

If you can swim casually, you've got a swimsuit or access to a place that doesn't require them.  
Goggles? 

That's pretty much what you need to start swimming.  Goggles should fit around your eye socket, not over your temple (that's how they leak).  Can you swim front crawl (aka "freestyle")? Breastroke?  Sidestroke?  Backstroke?  You can use any of these strokes in a race as well as dog paddle and float-on-my-back-kinda-moving-my-arms.  Front crawl is obviously fastest or swimmers wouldn't choose it over other strokes in a "freestyle" (i.e. anything you want) race.  Swimming involves a lot of technique and the differences between good and bad technique are amazing, so get some lessons and learn good technique early.  Park districts, YMCA, Red Cross, local colleges, Master's Swimming are good places to look for lessons.  (Eventually, you may decide that the swimsuit doesn't work so well for fitness swimming, or maybe it does.) 

If you have no bike at all...well...you'll have to change that...

A road bike or a triathlon bike is lightweight, with skinny, high-pressure tires.  Very efficient for people who want to go fast or for a long, long, time.  Unfortunately, they're also expensive...starting at about $700 at the local bike shop (LBS) and moving quickly into the price of very nice used cars.  As an added bonus, road bikes are sized by the length of the seat tube, usually in 2cm increments because the riding position is optimized for power/aerodynamics and even small changes in position can result in pain and/or injury. 

Mountain bikes are heavy (very heavy compared to road bikes), with knobby, low-pressure tires.  Lots of gears including "easy" gears for climbing hills.  Unfortunately, the weight and the tires make them not very efficient.  Sizes are more of a S-M-L, or if you get one at the local discount store..."M only."  Not quite as sensitive to position.  The knobby, low-pressure tires are nice if you're riding off road, vibrate you nearly to death if you're riding on pavement.  You can swap them out for smooth, low-pressure tires if you're going to be riding on the roads mostly.  These big, heavy tires are good if there is a lot of broken pavement, glass, etc. because you don't get as many flats.  (The skinny, lightweight tires on a road bike are much more likely to be cut through by glass or a sharp rock.)  Mountain bikes are $100-300 at discount and big-box sporting goods stores and $300-(nice used car) at the bike shop. 

Maybe a middle-of-the-road option is a "fitness bike" or "hybrid."  They're not as lightweight as a road bike, but not as heavy as a mountain bike.  They'll have a more upright riding position that's not quite as efficient and aerodynamic, but usually comfortable for riding even relatively long rides.  They might come with 700Cx35 tires which are more resiliant to glass than the 700Cx23 tires on a road bike (700C refers to the diameter, but it isn't the actual measurement) X23 or X35 means "by 23" or "by 35" and refers to the width of the tire in millimeters.  They might also come with 26x1.5" tires (which are very similar to the 700Cx35).  Fitness bikes give you a nice range of gears and are good if you want to do a lot of different types of riding.  Some of the big-box stores carry one or two at $300 or so and the bike shops will have them in the $300-800 range.  These can be nice alternatives to a car for a trip to the market or coffee shop. 

So...you need to decide how versatile you want your bike to be and how much you're willing to spend...(you can get a used road bike, but finding the right size and knowing whether the bike you're buying will fit or is a decent bike are big question marks.  An inspection, tune-up, and new tires/tubes for a used road bike can set you back $100-150.  

You'll need a helmet, and you'll probably want at least a few accessories that will add to the cost of the bike.  A bike pump, tire repair kit, spare tube, and a bag/pouch to put it all in are the minimum.  Bike shoes, clipless pedals, bike shorts, and cycling gloves will come in due time. 

But...you only need a bike with 2 wheels, brakes, covered bar-ends (so you don't dig a big hole out of yourself or someone else) to do a triathlon.   Will you be as fast as the guys riding their $6000 titanium or carbon-fiber steeds?  Meh...maybe...but probably not...Will it allow you to have fun?  Sure!  (At an all-women tri my wife did, there were a lot of ladies smiling beautifully as they pedaled down the road on their beach cruiser bikes with the wicker baskets. )