Hey and welcome!
I wish you a lot of luck and fun in tri.
Slowtwitch is a great resource. There are a lot of very knowledgeable people here. There’s also a lot of crazy stuff, too. It will take awhile to sort through it all. Triathlon can be a very simple sport but it can also be very complicated if you want it to be. Start off easy and don’t get too bogged down. The Friel Training Bible book is a good one to start–it’s comprehensive–but it might be too much for your first race. I’m not sure how deeply you want to get into it. Maybe look into this one first:
https://www.amazon.com/Your-First-Triathlon-2nd-Ed/dp/1934030864
OK, your questions. Each of these could entail hours of research and planning, but I assume you don’t want that right now. If you do, well, then get the Friel book as a good intro and then start looking on slowtwitch.
Things that I’d like to find out (including but not limited to) are:
- what are good benchmarks for swim/bike/run that I should set my goals to
Yeah, that’s going to be really individual based on where you’re starting out. If your swim times are as good as you say and you can hold 1:40, then you’re way ahead of most beginners. I would suggest you pick your “A” race for the season (even if it’s only one), look up the last years’ results and see what the top people in your age group did. Don’t be shocked if they’re way ahead of you. Also see what the median and last people did. Those times should give you an idea of good benchmarks. You sound somewhat athletic, but don’t be afraid to just approach your first race with a “just finish and have fun” goal. That really might be the most enjoyable thing for you.
Also, I echo what someone already said: get comfortable swimming in open water. You’d be surprised how many people swim for the first time in OW at their first race.
Whatever you do, pick goals (but reasonable goals) and work towards them. But be ready to adjust if things are going better/worse than expected. Have a regular (biweekly, monthly?) test that you do that is relevant to your A race.
- how often I should train swim/bike/run and how (been doing about 3x week each 30 mins-1h)
Again, that’s going to be really individual based on where you’re starting out and how much time you have. If you’re doing a sprint as your first race, I’d suggest often and not very long for each discipline–what you mention sounds all right, maybe add a 4th bike every other week? The bike should be your longest workout (for a sprint, make sure you can ride reasonably hard for at least 1 hour and very hard for 30 min). You should probably look up the barryp program here. It’s something someone posted here a long time ago, but it has definitely helped me and many others based on the posts improve run times without injury. Barryp recommends 6 runs/week.
One thing you cannot neglect is proper recovery. Again, that will be very individual, but a popular approach is 3 weeks of increasing work and 1 week of less work. Repeat. Also, I’d say schedule easy (not off but easy) days during each week (plus maybe one day off).
- how much should I eat? macronutrient spread?
- how to lose weight but still have enough energy to do training
I’d suggest you don’t train to lose weight, but just make sure you are fueling for your workouts–fuel before and during (if longer than 1:15). Have some good recovery food afterwards. If you want to lose weight, then there are basically two ways to go:
- keep eating the way you ate before and train more
- the more reliable way is to weigh yourself daily and then track your calories spent and taken in (look up myfitnesspal–that’s a good one in this regard). Just make sure you’re fueling your workouts and recovery and then if you want to lose weight, cut out 500 to 1000 (max) calories per day from the rest of the day. Think your training must come first, and then the rest of the day is for losing weight.
For macronutrients, I wouldn’t be too concerned about that yet. Just make sure you get enough lean protein and some good fats along with a bunch of complex carbs. You can spend more time figuring this out but if you have a balanced (i.e., not typical American) diet you should be fine. Just make sure you have protein to help recover (i.e., build back your muscles).
By monitoring your weight and how you feel during workouts you should know if you are losing weight (no more than 2 lbs per week! less as race day approaches) and still feeling good enough to train.
- should I do additional strength training? how should i do it?
I say yeah. The Training Bible has some good strength training stuff, but I think plyometrics are more appropriate. Google it–there’s a lot out there.
- any good apps for training? (there are pretty nice couch to 5k running apps but haven’t found a good bike or swim one yet)
I know of no apps. But you can find free training programs. I’d just start with one of them (but consider barryp for running) and then as you learn more you can adjust to your own strengths/weaknesses/schedule.
One thing you’ll find, however, is that there a lot of very different approaches and needs. That’s why I think plans designed specifically for individuals are the best.
I hope this helps!
Mike
