First Sprint Triathlon!
 

I just currently decided that I am going to participate in my first Sprint Triathlon! I have been looking around for training plans but most of the detailed plans seem to cost money (I'm a broke college kid). I have 12 weeks to train (Race is June 29). I am looking for a plan that is swim specific (3 times a week) because that is my biggest concern. For the past two weeks I have been on a swimming workout swimming a total of 500m per session (drills, endurance, form training). Anything would help! thank you!

There are free training programs available at http://www.trinewbies.com and http://www.beginnertriathlete.com

These are pretty good starts and you can always tweak them to fit your goals/schedule. Check them out and feel free to come back with additional questions.

What is the length of the swim length for the event you're doing?

thanks a lot those websites were very helpful! I am doing a 750m swim, 13 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. I figured I would do my swims 3 times a week every week and then alternate running twice a week and biking once a week.

Buy the total immersion video. Also make sure some of your swim practice is open water.

Since I don't know anything about your skills in the three events...take my opinion with a grain of salt. However...

A lot of people freak out about the swim but it's the shortest (and IMO the least important) leg of your event. Of course, you want to do enough training to get through it and not be so tired that it kills your bike & run splits. Let's just say that right now you can swim 750m in 15-20 min. Three days of swimming per week might save you 2-3 min.

Slowtwitch.com has a formula for adding up your workouts where you get 1 pt for every 100m of swimming, 1mi of cycling, & .25mi of running. Given that breakdown, your race is:

Swim (750m) = 7.5 pts (22.8%)
Bike (13 mi) = 13 pts (39.5%)
Run (3.1 mi) = 12.4 pts (37.7%)

I try to train to these same ratios...and in fact I'm really guilty of neglecting the swim...which I agree is not smart either.

If I were you, I would consider doing an extra bike workout instead of the third swim. Of course, do what makes you comfortable...there is no "right" way for everyone. Good luck and have fun!!!

My persective is the opposite, probably because I'm a bad swimmer and a comparitively good cyclist.

My first triathlon, my swim was so bad, I was gasping for breath just to finish the swim.

Swimming is so technique dependent that if you're a poor swimmer you can make quantum improvements in time and energy expended if you can just improve your mechanics a bit.

Also being confident in your swimming from your training will help reduce wasting nervous energy. Thus I think it makes sense for first timers who aren't strong swimmers to overemphasize swim training, particularly working on technique.

yeah that's what i have been doing... most of my swim workouts are composed of many different drills... i believe doing these drills have helped my form and will decrease my swim time... I'm just trying to finish since it's my first sprint. personally, i want to concentrate on the swim because it's the best workout. should i have one day (out of the 3 swim workouts per week) where i try to swim non stop?