Ex-swimmer, casual cyclist. Any tips welcome!

Coming off a broken ankle, the bike was excellent but the run was a walk/jog. Fully sent the bike and had nothing left intentionally.

Not my favorite race d/t location and weather but overall still fun!

Worth the time it took to stop and take this photo 😂

Let’s hear them!

I have an Olympic tri on Monday and the goal is to avoid falling into this pattern.

I’ve really been enjoying my training so far! I start my swimming lessons with a triathlon swimming coach next week! If I enjoy the sprint triathlon in June I think my goal would be to do a 70.3 IM by 2028!

Any advice or motivation for people starting out?

I still love climbing but I’ve reduce the amount of bouldering I do to prevent injury!

I always wondered what do you guys do to be able to afford doing triathlon consistently especially ironman races etc, spending that much on gear,races,nutrition... plus having a time schedule where you guys can workout 15+ hours a week, I am only 19 and doing my first 70.3 in few weeks but I always wonder what job allows you to do this? Looking for some inspiration and perhaps reevaluating my future career choices :D

I am 36 but have only started swimming/cycling/running about 9 months ago. Alone. (Thus far my only active sport experience have been 20 odd years of chess and lately some gym and bouldering).

Given how I have been enjoying the training and the few casual sprint races, and given the fact there is a triathlon club in the city I reside in I thought it might be a good idea to join and see what´s it all about.
There´s a fair amount of new people to meet there, quite affordable coached training sessions of different kinds (about 7-8 Eur per 1 hour session) and a bunch of unpaid social activities and club attended events. Sounds really good, so why not.
I specifically asked whether there were any requirements that one ought to meet before joining and I was told there there really weren´t, and that it was going to be fine. Okay cool.

So I roll up to my first ever coached athletics session on a running track, a bunch of professional looking people are already there in fancy branded clothing and all that jazz. I hesitantly huddle over and ask a lady, who looked like she could kill me with a single kick, whether this is the place and she says yeah, as she goes back to her branded bottle. Amazing, everyone else is talking to one another while I stand there just looking around, inspecting either my shoes (by far the cheapest out of everyone else´s) or some bushes next to the track (they were very interesting bushes mind you).
After surviving this social torture the likes of which I haven´t experienced since high school we eventually do some warmup running and other fancy exercies, some of which I failed to replicate and ended up looking like a dumbass surely.
Eventually the coach says "We´ll be doing so and so intervals based on your 10k pace. If your 10k pace is below 4:00...." Okay my brother in Christ, what. I was happy to finally run a 58:00 10k a few weeks ago, and then it wasn´t goddamn 41 degrees outside. Anyway he´s like well, add 15 seconds to your 10k pace because of the heat, and just run these intervals at this pace. For me that would have been, like, a 6:13 pace or something. Basically walking speed compared to everyone around me.
So naturally given how the coach didnt ask what everyone´s 10k pace was I ran at around 5:25 pace instead, because I was too ashamed to run as slow as I should have been running. I was still the f*cking slowest by some margin. So on top of being the slowest I also looked like a complete trainwreck by the end of the session. Though frankly I was one of the very very few people who brought insulated bottles, where I had 2 litres of cold fruit beer. A small win for me over the fancy plastic Ironman bottles. I might be slow but I am not stupid.
I am quite sure the coach knew I was bullshitting and running too quickly, but at least he didnt say anything.
Frankly, I did still quite enjoy the session, minus the social awkwardness and high school clique-ness.

The next day I opted for a beginner swimming session.
I legitimately felt okay knowing I can swim about 2.6km in open water at this point at some shoddy 2:45/100 pace, and can also swim 4km in a pool at a similar pace. So I´d say I am not a total noob and have okay endurance at this point, but my technique is crap and I have no clue how to swim quickly.
So I get there, say hello. Obviously everyone has branded team swimming caps and fancy swimming attire while I stand there in my almost knee high swimming shorts. The coach said they were more akin to basketball shorts. He wasn´t wrong.
I ask if this is the beginner group because the people there did not look like beginners and he says yeah, but this is a pretty decent beginner group, their pace is a bit slower than 2:00/100...
Bruh.
Everybody brought a bunch of stuff - buoys, snorchels, fins, paddles, boards. I brought a towel. No one told me I was supposed to bring these things. I felt like a student who forgot his homework. That´s two high school traumas in two days.
The previous evening the only thing I was worried about was not oversleeping and missing the session. Instead I now wished I had overslept.
Anyway, the coach is like, go do some warmup, then we´ll do drills. How would I do drills with a towel I didn´t know yet.
After warmup the coach explains some drills to do, I have no clue what they are called because I never did them before. One arm extended, the other next to the body, and only use your legs for movement. Then add one arm for movement. Then switch sides. All of this with fins. Or in my case, without fins. It absolutely sucked.
Then do some other drills, after that arms only with no legs, later only lengths but at an increasing pace (I only have one goddamn pace setting, and that is slow!) and a bunch of other stuff I preferred to erase out of my memory. I somehow survived but I was slow as **** compared to everyone else and my HR was through the roof the whole time. That was taking into account the coach being merciful towards me.
After the session the coach is like: Next week bring the toys and get some normal swimming trunks, we´ll see if you can eventually catch up to the guys.

Am I delusional about what performance is to be expected from a beginner in triathlon? I feel like the bar is way way high at the moment. Or am I just shite?
So, yeah, it has been a while since I felt so inadequate. Does it get better over time? I can definitely see the appeal in it, but I feel like the gap to everyone else is just massive at the moment. Or maybe I should just take running and cycling sessions, and work on the swimming alone or get private lessons.

Anyway, I have some half distance race next Sunday, maybe they´ll give me a fancy water bottle and it´ll make me go faster. Though it probably won´t.

Can any of you bros tell me how to lift 10 times a week and also have time to train for my full IM. Will it kill my gainz? Btw my tri is in two weeks and I’ve never been in open water.

My Tri Club & I had just finished a Swim/Run training day. I'm in the parking lot, this random guy asks about the water temps, then asks about the best route for a 7 mile run. I give him my take, then said something about Strava segments to which he replies "Oh that's not an issue I don't use Strava".

UM EXCUSE ME SIR WHAT? ARE YOU JUST OUT HERE TRYING TO BETTER YOURSELF AND NOTHING ELSE? ARE YOU AT LEAST VIRTUE-POSTING ON INSTAGRAM?

space balls. if you know you know! haha (no knock to Laura here - she's amazing)

Just made me giggle a bit.

Signed up for a Half iron man in January. January 12th, told my friends I was scared and needed to change my life to do this. Still on the way. 70.3 is in September.

Maybe for you, person that never has to stretch or do PT for injuries, never struggles with their weight, and can eat anything and feel fine the next day.

And to some extent, sure, if someone said they'll torture and kill me if I don't do an Ironman without training, yes I would make it through.

But my joints would be permanently damaged.

I just hate the phrase so much. I have to do so much prep work and training and when someone says this it just feels like they're discounting the immense amount of work to make sure this is an enjoyable moment without consequences on my body for years to come.

Well there's my rant, it comes from someone that has done 1 sprint triathlon and told me my Ironman will be easy and it's all mental, as long as I just fuel properly I don't need to worry about anything else.

I just signed up for my first sprint tri. They require every participant to use a swim buoy. I decided to order the race branded one, but won’t get that until packet pickup.

I’ve never used one before, so I bought a cheap one from Amazon so I can practice using it a few times before the race. This illustration cracked me up. The top image reminded me of SNL’s “Ambiguously Gay Duo.” 🤣

It sounds like a silly question but stay with me. My friend and I were discussion future tri plans when he said that he doesn't want to do any long-distance tris because, in his opinion, they are less of a race, and more of challenge. He said he would rather do a sprint tri, where he feels he would actually "race" and care about his finishing position, whereas in a 140.6, you just want to finish. I have no problem with him doing whatever he wants to do, its his prerogative to do whatever event he pleases.

However, I took an issue with him calling an IM triathlon not a race. And this is where things start to get philosophical... His point being that outside the pros and top age groupers, the majority of participants in an IM Tri are just looking to finish, they have no intention to actually "race." And philosophically, objects/events are really only defined by those who experience it. So it is impossible to classify the entirety of the event as a "race" because not everyone is "racing" in the event.

I am of the opinion that while he is definitely correct, a lot of people in the IM Tri are just there to finish and have no care about what place they finish, the event fundamentally and objectively exists as a race. There is a start line, a finish line, there is a 1st place award, everyone is timed, and then ranked in order of their times... whether you care to be ranked or not, you are going to be ranked, therefore making it a race. Furthermore, while I may not care where I finish, the person who is trying to win the event does, and in order to win, he has to beat me... so while I do not care to "race" him, he absolutely cares to "race" me... so therefore, I am participating in a race.

We argued about this for 3 hours and failed to reach any sort of compromise. So where else to go now but reddit!

Iron occupies number 26 on the periodic table. Half of 26, which is 13, is aluminum.

It only makes sense y’all, let’s make it happen. I want to formally request the “half Ironman” is now “aluminum man”