WANTED: ANY ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS?

Christine: This site - and the people who contribute to it - can offer you all kinds of help. My suggestion, however, in addition to using the programs here, would be to buy a tri-training book, or even two, because you will find that any proram you ultimately adopt will likely be a compilation of things you pick up from various sources. Good luck.

wow...all u need is structure to your schedule and your training for tris!  how about your swimming?  i would venture that training for an olympic distance could be a good starting point...may have to catch your swimming up to the starting minutes while just doing your bike and run 2-3x per week then follow the program....as an example.

Welcome to the forum Christine! With that much of a running background, you will be a leap ahead as far as getting into a triathlon. You may find that you have to concentrate a bit more on the cycling and swimming to try and make it a balanced effort. But also realize that everyone has their strong and weak points and the fun is to see how much of an advantage you can take with it. For me, the biking is the easiest and the running the hardest. Try using some of the training programs on the site here and keep them as a basis for your training. Don't get discouraged if you find out you have to cut back on your normal running schedule a bit in order to fit bike and swim time in...that's natural. I'd like nothing more than to ride my bike 500 miles per week, but I'd have no time left for anything else, so it's a series of compromises.

Max

Christine,

I have to agree w/ max. Running is my stongest and I am also a marathoner myself. Although I only logged about 50 miles/ week ( 70 is nuts!), I have found that I have cut back a great deal on running to concentrate on the other two but mainly swimming, which is my weakness.

I created a schedule to fit my needs from the ones on this site. Basically, I try to swim 3x and bike 2x / week. I always run after my rides, if only for a short distance, and add in a nice LSD run on the weekend.

This is my 1st year attempting tri but the seasons seems to be set up so that you can tri train/compete in the spring/summer and then switch over to a running specific program for the fall marathon season and then back to square 1 of tri base building in the winter for the following season( or you could rest !) yeah right.

Hope this helps and good luck

THANK-YOU so much for your reply and for the website info it has been greatly appreciated. until next time happy training. ;-)

HI :-) I have decided to slow down on my running and start biking and swimming more. I have set up a saterday training just for biking 20km or more. Is it o.k. to be addicted to fitness? I find myself wanting more and more all the time with everything else i do. I work midnight till 8:00 am and then spend time with my 4 children, what a cardio workout that is ;-) . I had complete knee surgery on my right knee in june of 2003 followed by 9 months of physio, and i wear a brace on both knees when running but i can't get enough. Do you want to know something kind of funny? I run and race around the racetrack where they have horse races in the summer and sometimes run as fast as i can to see how good my speed can get. Well that's not enough so i've decided to try triathlons, is that addicted behavior or what??? THANK YOU SO KINDLY your advice i will take it and do wonders with it. I appreciate everyone's comments and advice and will make good use of them so until next HAPPY TRAINING AND TAKE CARE :-) . CHRISTINE RUNS AND LOVES IT

Christine, I would venture to say that you cannot do triathlons without a touch of addictive behavior in your personality profile. The trick for you will be getting your swimming to a point where you can swim the distances in the races. Back in January, I thought it would be no problem to build my swimming endurance to a half-ironman (1.2 mile swim ~2000 meters) by September. Then I went to the pool, and the most I could do without drowning myself were 50 meter repeats with 2 minute rests! Well, I dedicated myself to learning swimming technique, as swimming is more like golf than it is like running. That means you have to have sound swimming technique, built through boring drills, in order to swim effectively. After struggling for a couple of months that felt like about seven years, it finally came together for me, and now I swim almost endlessly, just like my running.

The point of all this rambling? If you know how to swim, you need to only complete a race to be a triathlete. If you don't know how to swim, or only think you know how to swim, you have to put a lot of time in the pool to get there. But soon enough, you will get to the point where you look forward to your swimming workouts, what with the addictive nature of this sport and all.

P.S. When do you sleep? 4 kids? Night shift?