New FART (Novice triathlon)

Hey there, The various threads re: triathlons got me motivated, and so started training.  Today I completed my first self run Novice Triathlon.  This consists of 300m swim, followed by 5 mi bike, followed by 1.25 run.  I finished, and this is a major first milestone for me.  I didn't even take a breather between each leg.  Still have some work to do to increase my speed on all legs.  Next step is Super Sprint, followed by Sprint.  I did the swimming in the pool (12 laps), 5mi on an exercise bike, and 1.25 on a running machine. Thanks everyone for the idea, I'm rollin'   Don't know if I actually want to do the full distance triathlon, so I'm just going to take it step by step.  This week I was 9 months out from surgery, and I would have never thought this was possible if I hadn't done it myself this morning!!! Anyone else want to learn more about triathlon's and know virtually knows nothing about them?  I still don't know much, but I found wikipedia to have a list of the various distances (for major milestone goals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triathlon Take care!!

Congrats.  

I'm running my first tri-athalon in March.   I think it's 500m swim, 25mi bike and a 5K.   Looking forward to it.  I know I won't have any issues with the run or the bike but I'm thinking I'll have to do some specialized training for the swim.   

So far, my focus on all of this has been finishing, not actually being competitive.  For me, I'm not as worried about the swim (I swam 1000m the night before last), but have a ways to go for the bike and run where endurance/speed are concerned.  Until recently most of my cardio training was on an eliptical machine, which is very different from a treadmill or bike.  Out of the 3, I'm most concerned about the run.... First, because I think it's my weakest event, and second because it's the third event.  Anyway-- back to my training. Thanks for your post!

Heh, I'm totally opposite.  Running will be my strong event with bike being second and swimming being my weakest.  

My ultimate goal is to do the IronMan in Hawaii.   I consider that race the pinnacle of all things athletic and you gotta have a huge pair to be able to complete that monster.

Gotta give you kudos for setting the IroMan Hawaii as an ultimate goal.  That is an amazingly tough course.  I've heard some of the wind speeds and temperatures during the course are what eliminate alot of serious contenders.   I don't know if I'll want to reach the full triathlon level in the end, but the training has really helped me re-intensify and refocus my workouts; as well as split my cardio 3 ways.