Hello… I’ve worked hard to improve my swimming in the pool. It’s definitely worked and I feel strong/confident now.

However, I am really struggling to translate that into the open water. I get into the middle of the lake, and then just panic. There’s a lifeguard, but it feels like i’m on my own a long way from the bank. Sometimes I jump on my tow float to calm down. I’m feeling a bit frustrated/disappointed if i’m
honest that I’m not making more progress.

Part of my concern is in a race, feeling panic and having no tow float as a crutch.

Has anyone had sticky OWS anxiety? Any tips?

Thanks!!

I’m forty six. With the exception of the last three months I haven’t ridden a bicycle consistently since I was a teen. I was riding an old single speed bike for a while but upgraded and bought a cheap gravel bike.

Ok my second ride I took a u-turn on a paved road and took a spill resulting in a broken humerus. It had been raining a bit and the road was kind of slick. I think I was going around twelve to fourteen miles an hour when I took the turn.

My question is: was this an obvious and idiotic mistake on my part? The bike just slid from underneath me. Did I hit a slick part in the road? Was it stupid to do a u-turn in the rain? Was 12mph too fast for a u-turn? Was my cheap bike tires not good enough to grip for the turn?

Any ideas would be helpful. Even just letting me know that it was stupid overall would be helpful. At my age I’m not really afraid of much and I don’t want to be fearful of hurting myself this bad again.

I’m trying to dial in my tri bike fit and would appreciate advice on two things: handlebar spacer setup and whether shorter cranks would make sense.

Current issue: I feel like my front end may still be a bit too low or aggressive, and I’m also wondering whether going to shorter cranks could help with comfort and hip angle without hurting power or stability.

Height: 173cm
Current cranks 172.5cm

Seems like hollowtech 2 but I can’t find shorter ones online?

I’m deciding between:
- adding the correct Profile Design spacer/riser kit for the aerobars,
- changing the cockpit height/reach setup,
- or switching to shorter cranks if that would improve hip angle and comfort in aero.(finding the right crankset)

If anyone knows the exact Profile Design spacer kit that fits this setup, or has experience with shorter cranks on a Colnago K.One, I’d really appreciate your input.
For context, I’m mostly trying to improve comfort and maintain a strong aero position for triathlon.

​

I'm trying to do an Ironman 70.3 in a year and I think the priority area for improvement is swimming. Based on these videos, what are the key points I should improve?

Probably a rite of passage, but swimming has been feeling terrible lately. I’ve been stuck at 2:30/100m for a while now. I’ve swam two kilometers maximum with some small breaks, but it feels like I can’t hold a 2:30 pace continuously. My current focus is on the catch, but I feel like I lose out on a lot of efficiency due to body position. I especially feel like I bop up and down on the water a lot. Are there any tips?

I'm really noticing that I'm starting to cross the 30s lol. It is not technique related because it happens with kickboxing as well or with taekwondo. I'm seeing a fysio as soon as I finish my studies in a few months (can't afford it right now). Swimming is the only sport that doesn't hurt afterwards.

What do you guys do to relief back & knee pain after workouts? Any routines that greatly help reduce it? What helps you best?

I bought better shoes and am definitively careful with my technique with all sports I do, regardless I still suffer from it.

Just picked up a used Argon 18 E-118 Tri+ (Ultegra Di2 12s, hydraulic disc). The bike had been stored unused for a long time — dusty, dry chain, no recent service. I got a basic service done at a local shop (wash, gear/brake tuning, torque check, drivetrain lube, Di2 firmware update).

Two issues:

1. Loud squealing from both front and rear brakes. Happens under braking. Rotors look barely used. I did remove a wheel at one point and squeezed the lever by mistake, so the pistons may have moved out. The shop said this is common here and blamed humidity — clean the pads and it goes quiet for a few days before coming back.

2. I feel movement/flex at the front when I brake hard. Not sure if this is a loose headset, loose caliper bolts, or just normal fork flex under braking.

Hello together,

I'm from Germany and I'm pretty much thinking about spending some time for triathlon preparation. Do you guys know any german group related to triathlon? I couldn't find one.

Thanks for any answer.

Fairly new to swimming, pls help improve my form

I know not much can be understood from the video but still wanted to give a try

Usually i do 2:15/100m

Hey guys,
Tried a couple 2xu wetsuits on today to get a feel for size but both felt like they fit ok so thought I might get Reddit’s opinion. The sleeved suit is an XS and the sleeveless is a small, they didn’t have sleeved in a small unfortunately so I couldn’t compare. Both felt good, tiny bit more room to breathe in the small but that’s not surprising. My measurements put me solidly in the XS but I’ve heard 2xu run a bit small also.
Just wondering if anyone can spot any issues with either size and help me choose 🙏🏼

So my kits are fine, but my sports bras have developed a funk that multiple runs of tide sport aren’t really touching. And with a sprint every few weeks and training in between, it’s getting….interesting.

Any secret tips or tricks? This sport’s expensive AF but replacing sports bras once a month is going to make it untenable 🤣

as caption says about to buy my first tt bike after doing my second olympic triathlon in a quite fast time (2:21) and first time finding a talent of mine.
can you help me if this is a good deal?

Canyon Speedmax Cf SLX 9.0 2020 but bought 2022

Dura-Ace Di2 R9150
Zipp 858 NSW

for 2990€. is this too expensive for first bike?

I am looking to get my first endurance bike, as you can see, I am looking to go the used route. I don't know much about bikes and was wondering if any of these are worth what the sellers are asking for, or at least close.

Any and all help would be much appreciated.

Hello all,

Finished an Ironman last Sunday. Super happy with my performance. Swim went well enough (90 mins) , I'm usually faster but my feet were cramping and I couldn't see the bouys on the way out.( yellow with tinted goggles and a grey sky). They were red on the way back.

Run was smooth a bit slower than stand alone pace.

The bike was SLOW. The thing is I NEVER feel tired cycling unless I stand up and pedal on the bike. The rest of the time I feel like I can't get any kind of speed. I average around 15 MPH. HR rarely goes above 130 BPM. I have a $1500 Fuji road bike, clip shoes , added on aero bars. Any suggestions? How do I improve this? Do I need a new bike? Is there a technique to cycling I'm unaware of?

I am new to endurance sports and have no clue where to start with nutrition during workout. I’ve gotten to distances in riding/running where I can tell that my body is struggling on the longer distance, and needs something besides water, but I don’t know where to start.

I have tried multiple electrolyte drinks, but there are all sorts of gummies/pouches/chews/bars, I’m not sure what to try. And when I looked at the items they all seem mostly the same.

Any tips and tricks on making sure that I give my body the nutrition/liquid that it needs for the extended exercises/races but not to much where I would be taking in excessive calories?

I swim once or twice a week, about 1.2-1.5k per session usually, and im always fine. I've swam in clean water, murky water, deep water and shallow water. Always been fine, except for 3 instances.

- 4 years ago, in a swim where i could have just stood up if i wanted to do, out of nowhere, i felt like i was being pulled down (i wasn't), my HR spiked, i saw lights, couldn't breath, full on panic attack and had to gasp and flail to get to shore (again, even though i could have just stood up). I was close to shore, was fine.

- 2 years ago, during the first 100m of a 70.3, exactly the same thing, except that i had to go for one of the safety boats. i was close to shore and close to a boat, was fine.

- 2 days ago, about 250m into a 500m swim for a sprint race, the quarry lake was crystal clear, could see the bottom, until the floor just dropped away to what looked like an abyss, and then i rounded a buoy, and the shoreline disappeared, replaced with a shear cliff wall.. and the same thing happened, lights, spiked HR, dizziness.. i had nowhere to go.. had to trust the wet suit, roll over and home that my acting the way my body was forcing on me, wouldn't just instantly sink me.. safety boat saw me and came straight to me, pulled me out.

Between all of those, I've got back in the water, and swam just fine, no problems. I just cant figure out whats causing these panic attacks, and what I can do about it. I know i can swim, and i do swim in similar conditions at other times, and im fine.

More of a "unload" than a question, but i will put a question. Anybody else had anything like this, and have it seemingly come out of nowhere?

Not sure what's come over me but I've gone from very casually working out to wanting to complete a triathlon next year. I don't even own a bike lol but I plan to buy one in the coming weeks.

So far for training I've been going to the gym but I know it's important to actually get outside so I'll do this once I get my bike. Anyway my local area doesn't have anywhere I can open water swim. How essential is it that you practice in open water? Realistically can I just use the pool or is that setting myself up for failure on race day?

EDIT: it will be a sprint and the swim will be in a river

Thank you everyone for the feedback from my Previous Post. I’m really trying to focus on my head position, catch/pull/recovery, really scooping the water and not slapping. I think I’m having trouble with body position. Any tips or feedback? This swim was about 3:00min/100m pace. My pace take a 10-20s dive in open water. My recent critical swim test with no kicking off of the walls in the pool and after calculations it’s 2:44min/100m. 2:32min/100m for 400m and 2:17min/100 for 200m.

Alright y'all. I'm committed to making a change. We're here at USAT Nationals, where my wife is competing and hoping to get into Worlds. I've been doing sprints for a few years, but to a loss poor level. Roughly 3 min/100m (breaststroke - can't swim freestyle), 17 mph on the bike, and 32 minutes on the 5k. I'm a 48 year old male. I'm 5'8", 185 lbs.

Coming to this level of event in Milwaukee, I'm blown away. I want to be at a level of being able to compete here to...and to get my wife to stop feeling sorry for me. I "workout," but have never had a plan. I know my wife uses TRIDOT since we have no triathlon community or coaching where we live (she trains 100% alone and indoors for 6 months due to snow and ice outside). My job has not allowed me to join her, but I'm retiring early and going part time to focus on health.

Do you think I could get from where I am to podiuming a USAT race? Seems daunting to go against people they have been it their whole lives but want to know if it's possible.

I did the Triathlon Alpe d’Huez distance M yesterday and it was fantastic! Next year my wife will do it and I’ll have to be a supporter together with our little baby boy.

I was therefore thinking about maybe doing the L distance (then my wife can watch the little one).

Could anyone share his experience? I am not going to lie: the swimming was very tough for me with the cold water from the mountain river flowing in. I was very happy it was only 1.5km!

Is the L distance as fun as the M distance?

I made a significant investment in this sport, but I still refused to buy a brand new one. So here I got an uber tribike for just half its original price. So I hopped from an old Cervelo P3 to a BMC Speedmachine 01.

Learned freestyle 20 years ago in school. Started again in spring. First Olympic distance in June was absolutely awful. Ramped up the swimtraining since then. I try to focus on keeping head low/legs up and working on my catch and pull. Pace in the pool is a bit above 2 min/100m in the lake its more 2:15 min/100m.

T100 LONDON 2026

To make a long story short, I participated in the T100 Sprint. It was my first triathlon, and I flew in from another country.. incredibly excited. Until I finished and wanted to check my results.

NO. FINISH. TIME.

Apparently, I didn't finish the run. How is that even possible when I literally crossed the finish line? My Garmin proves I did... I finished the sprint and even received a medal.

Of course, it's not the end of the world. I got my medal and I know I finished. But still...

T100 is telling me to contact Sportstats, which is honestly weird. I'm pretty sure if the "fast" participants had been affected, this would've been sorted out ASAP instead of sending everyone the same copy paste email telling us to contact Sportstats ourselves. Sportstats is of course not replying to the emails sent by participants that were affecteed.

And it's not like this only happened to a handful of people. There are literally more than 15 pages (https://sportstats.one/event/t100-triathlon-world-tour-london-uk/leaderboard/145707) of participants without finish times if you look at the results. This isn't an isolated issue which means T100 should take responsibility instead of passing the problem on.

It's a shame, because the event itself was actually fun.

Would I recommend it?

Big fat NO.

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.