Extreme beginner triathlon help? Gauging Interest

Where do you live?

Speaking of gliding, if you can find a glide swim class take it. I found it a much more efficient approach to the swim leg.

You don't need a true tri bike for your first few. They will be sprint distance anyway, only 18 miles for bike leg. Start taking spin classes. I'm a believer in using a relatively high pedal cadence rpm, like 90 cranks per minute. Made my runs easier.

A couple days a week go run immediately after spin class. That transition is the hardest to get a hold of.

Don't worry about time or place for the first few, there's a bit of a learning curve on setting up and handling transitions and learning to pace yourself.

You can sometimes get some good info from the forums on slowtwitch.com, but apparently most of the people there are world class pro level but don't care enough to go pro.

I'd also recommend at some point if you like it and plan on staying with it to get a Garmin multifunction watch with a heart rate monitor and move to heart rate based training and racing. But try a few races first to see if it's for you before spending that money.

Yes you could use a hybrid for a while, in fact I did for my first few races. Just don't plan on doing long rides on it, the geometry isn't set up for that and you'll start hurting in your hands and lower back.

Just put the skinniest tires you can fit on it.

Bikes are sexy and obviously the big cost. If and when you move up to a tri bike, buy used.

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I did my first tri on a WalMart special "mountain" bike my #1 tip is to take some swimming lessons...seriously if I ever got into tris it is what I would do, I just don't want to spend the money on a bike, so I've never really gotten into them

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Glad you chimed in I figured you had some sort of experience with it.

The bike cost is keeping me hesistant also, I dont want to spend $200 on a cheap bike just to be working against myself the entire time.

Im not even sure when the frick I would have time to train for this. I can barely squeeze in a quiet shite these days.

Curmudgeon has some good advice. I would also add that in terms of the swim, it's not about being the fastest...it's about being comfortable in the water, and swimming with an efficient stroke so you're not exhausted with 2 more disciplines still to race. If you decide to do a race, start a bit to the side if it's an open water swim. You don't need to be in the middle of the pack getting kicked and elbowed when it's your first open water swim. Definitely practice some brick training (transitioning from bike to run) and pick a short race with a goal of just to finish and have fun. You'll get hooked pretty quickly!

Thanks what kind of bike is it?

This is something I wouldnt even attempt to enter anything sanctioned until next year sometime.