My Tri Training: Where do I Start?

Ok, I just signed up for a triathlon that's at least 14 weeks away and I'm hungry for information! My first questions are, in no particular order,

1. Whose brain can I pick for recommendations?

2. What equipment do I need?

3. Are there any sharks in the San Francisco Bay?

4. Am I really planning to swim in open water?

Google and YouTube are my number one resource at this point and I start with YouTube. I find, "Triathlon Taren", who I'm assuming knows what he's talking about and I'm not disappointed. Here's a few of the initial videos I found helpful.

Ok, all good information in the videos above, I'm motivated to get started. I can use my current bike, which is good news, but I'm gonna have to modify the handlebars a bit and get some aero bars. I'll leave that for later.

My biggest concern right now is freestyle swimming. If it wasn't for the breathing part, I'd be somewhat decent at it. Ok, decent, might be a stretch. Here's a few of the videos that helped.

Scared of Open Water? Uh, yeah. Somewhat helpful, but not over my fear. Now I know I need to do a few open water swims prior to the event. Dammit!

And then we have this video, which stressed me the hell out. I'm sure what she was saying is helpful, but I couldn't stop wondering what's below her and feeling an increase in anxiety as each second passes. Spoiler, she doesn't get attacked by a shark. So I'm feeling a little better.

I did end up getting something good from the video. I noticed she's swimming in San Francisco so I clicked the username on her video, go to the "About" tab and find a link to her/their website (included below). After poking around, turns out there's a group that meets up at Aquatic Park (Need to look up this location) and does an open swim. Added this to my list of to do's for the future...when I don't suck at swimming.

• http://swim-art.com/openwaterinfo.html

More to come...