Hi everyone, I’m new to these message boards, AND to the swimming and biking part of triathlons. Never done a triathlon before, but I’ve been a serious runner for about 5 years. I’ve run up to 120 miles a week before. I got injured about 8 months ago and I was off for about a total of 4 months from any running at all, then got back into a little running here and there but have been lifting a lot. I’m not huge from the lifting at all because of how thin I was / am, so I figure it’s not that big of a deal. Anyways I knew how to train for distance running very well when I was doing it, basically just have your base season where you just try to log a lot of miles w/ a tempo run here and there or mile repeats at a controlled pace with the long run every week and strides, then cut miles down a little bit and so on towards the peak of the season. Since I’m getting into triathlons now, I am not really sure how much swimming, biking, and running I should be doing. If I have the free time, should I be swimming and cycling as much as I can? Should you generally be feeling tired most of the time during base? Do tri’s require a good deal of strength from lifting? Is something like 4-5 miles of swimming a week, 100 miles a week of biking, and 40-50 miles a week running too much or too little? Just hoping someone can help me out here. Thanks! 
and it’s now time for me to go bicycling for about 90 minutes.
“should I be swimming and cycling as much as I can?”
Yes. If you already have a strong running back ground you really need to focus on the other two sports (swimming specifically.)
What is your exact swimming background?
What kind of races will be your focus? Sprints? Oly distance? Half-IM? IM?
My first reaction to your post is that you should be biking more and running less.
Check out:
http://www.byrn.org/gtips/gtips.htm
Cheers,
Matt
Wow a lot of posts so far! thanks :-). Umm to the first guy my swimming background is hardly any at all. I’ve barely ever swam, but I hear technique is the thing to focus on there, besides just swimming a ton of laps.
To the 2nd guy, starting out this year I’ll most likely just be doing sprint distances, then working my way up to half IM and one day hopefully the full IM.
My best mile back my junior year of HS (I am goign to be a soph. in college this coming year) was a 4:30, and had i been able to run for my school senior year I probably could have run around 4:20 for it, instead I wasn’t allowed and just kept training more.
Also are tri bikes suitable to ride every day in training on a bike? Why would a triathlete choose a road bike over a tri bike? Just been curious on that too.
I ride a tri-bike for training because I wanted a tri-bike for racing, and I couldn’t afford another bike for training.
Okay, on the swimming, before you start piling on the miles, you need to learn how to actually swim. See if you can’t sweet talk a couple members of the girls swim team into giving you some pointers and free lessons.
And interms of biking, don’t go drop two grand on a new bike. See if you can’t find an older QR or Cannondale to start training on, make sure this new “tri thing” is really for you.
Keep an eye out for them biking interms, they can be pretty hot!! Check out the Hottie Thread.
Yah, they’re almost as cool as hitting the ‘space’ bar from time to time.
I’ve always wished I’d had the cajones to take 2-3 years and FOCUS on swimming. On my VERY BEST days, and probably with a WEAK swimming field, I’ve only managed to tag onto the tail end of the top 1/4 swimming pack…I think usually, when I’m in swimming shape, I don’t come out until somewhere around the front of that middle 1/3 of swimmers. My swimming ability is way out of synch with my cycling and running. The best I’ve ever done with swim training was a few periods of 20-25k/week swimming, done over 4-5 swims. As I understand it, that isn’t nearly enough to really develop a sound swimming stroke…the kind that makes you blazing fast even without a swimsuit… Look at the competitive swimmer types that take up tri…I know folks like that who barely touch the pool and still come out at the pointy end of a swim. Its all about technique.
I think 2-3 years of swimming focused training, early on in a budding triathlete’s career, is worth the time investment. “Swim-focused” for me I think would mean building to 5-10k swims 6 days/week, weekly volume of some 50-60k…combined with 1-2 bikes and 1-2 runs with a long workout and threshold workout each.
I’m considering devoting my 38-40 years to just this sort of endeavor…, but I wish I’d been willing to consider it long ago. My triathlon racing would be the better for it today.
I’d recommend searching previous posts on the forum too, and soaking in some of the other Slowtwitcher’s previous advice to people like you.
My two cents would be to make sure you implement “brick” workouts. These are Swim/bike or bike/run workouts done back to back to prepare you body for the transition from sport to sport in the race…
Good luck!
“the kind that makes you blazing fast even without a swimsuit”
I haven’t seen that kind of swimming, could you describe it for us?
Ahh…ya got me…I meant WETSUIT, of course.
EGAD…what a mistype! Although it might be a good thing if you combine it with the other post recommending seeking out some of the girl’s swim team members for pointers…
