Anyone interested in the Pewaukee Tri? It's Sunday July 16th. I'm definitely considering it, but have never done a tri before. Got any tips? Specifically I'm concerned about the swimming portion b/c I have a running & biking background.

http://www.midwestsportsevents.com/events.php?EventID=3

I am planning on doing an olympic distance there the following weekend but would consider doing this at a moderate pace and/or helping with training tips. Beginnertriathlete.com is an awesome resource but feel free to email me with any questions or tips or to train. My profile on BT is jszat.

I did the pewaukee tri last year...it was an absolute blast. It's the ideal first tri.

If you are fairly competent on the bike, you should finish well. It's by far the longest (as in the amount of time you'll spend doing it), so competency translates to decent overall time.

It is difficult to make the bike-run transistion though....last year, it took a good 1 1/2 miles before I had my legs about me. Generally I ran mid to lower 19's in a 5 K last year, but struggled to a 22 sumthin' in the tri.

The swimming is HARD! I swam in HS and still felt like I was going to drown. It's not the distance, or even the fact that you are in a lake. It's the people.

I started off strong, but quickly ran into the wave of swimmers that started two minutes ahead of me. Once I hit them, more experienced tri-ath's started swimming right over the top of me...had to change my style completely so that I could see where I was going. Got through it though.

My g/f at the time did the tri too...like you, running and biking weren't a prob, but she swam like an autistic lead brick (...actually, she did many things like an autistic lead brick, lol) but she made it through. Sure, it took 20 minutes, but that's not the point.

I recommend swimming for an hour a day, 2 days a week...biking for 1 1/2 a day for 2 days/wk, with a long 3 hour ride for a 3rd day in the week, and then running 5 days a week, with one of the five days being an interval/fartlek/short-hard run for speed.

Good luck, and see ya out there.

That was the EXACT type of advice I needed! I'm not really speedy (I do slow marathons) but I need to switch it up a bit. Do you think swimming in a pool is good enough preparation? The only fresh water I have near me is dear old Michigan and I seriously don't want what that lake has!

Swimming in the pool is fine...

I would alternate b/w the crawl (normal swimming) and the breaststroke. Reason being is that when you are in open water with relatively few people around you, the crawl will be the speediest way to swim. The breast will be for when it's a) Too crowded and b) when you need to pop your head up and out of the water to make sure you are heading in the right line. There is a way to do it during the crawl, but I wouldn't worry about it for a your first tri.

Last year, pewaukee started from the beach, headed out, took a right and headed north parallel to the shore, and then headed back to the shore. It's kind of hard to see where you are going at times though.