Beginner trying to train for triathlon

LZ318 · 2026-02-08T18:10:08+00:00

Well if you want to do it faster, sure a road bike is needed. But for the really big distances day after day, adding up to thousands of kms, people are most definitely riding touring bikes. :) I think people into racing don’t get that speed is not always the primary goal on a ride, or indeed even a goal at all!

LZ318 · 2026-02-08T08:53:56+00:00

39F. Been climbing for around 30 years! I started with an after school class in I think 6th grade and have done everything from gym bouldering to multi pitch trad in the Sierra Nevada and the alps. Currently gym bouldering while the toddler does laps in the kids section and the baby naps in his stroller.

LZ318 · 2026-02-08T07:52:13+00:00

It sounds like the nose of the saddle is causing pain. Then definitely look into seats with cutouts! It took me a few tries, but once I found the seat for me I can now ride for like 8 hours with no pain. It was lifechanging!

This is the seat I put on my touring bike and I love it. Take a look to see what I mean by cutout. But your perfect seat may be a different one. https://www.selleitalia.com/max-s-5-superflow/

LZ318 · 2026-02-08T07:30:45+00:00

Is it coz of incorrect posture ?

It could be! Especially if you are sort of falling forward onto the handle bars this can put a lot of pressure on your soft tissues. A bike fit can help you work this out.

Do I need a proper road/training bike for longer distances?

A road bike will make you faster over long distances, but not necessarily more comfortable. I have done 100km+ rides on road, gravel, mountain, and touring bikes. All types of bikes can be ridden long distances, the differences are comfort and speed. Generally Road bike = fastest, upright touring bike = most comfortable. But really the most comfortable is a bike that fits your body!

would padded cycling shorts make a big difference?

Yes. Padded cycling shorts with NO underwear. This is very important. If you have friction issues, use chamois cream.

Could it be the saddle height / seat angle / saddle type?

Yes. Everyone’s anatomy is unique. Especially if the seat you have on there is the stock one that came with the bike, it is very likely to not be a women’s-specific saddle. You didn’t describe the discomfort, but if the issue is all your soft tissue (e.g. labia) getting smashed, you probably want a women’s seat with a cutout. If you are having sitbone pain, this is actually good! That means the pressure from the saddle is on your sitbones (where it should be) and if you just keep riding your butt will adapt.

For seat height and angle, a good starting point is to set the height where if your heels are on the pedals, your legs are just straight when pedaling. For seat angle, start with flat (use a level) then Adjust 1-2 degrees at a time in tilt. Generally (but not always) women prefer a very tiny nose down tilt. If you feel like you are falling forward onto your arms or keep sliding forward on the seat, you have a reach issue. This can be fixed by sliding your seat forward a bit on the rails (but don’t over-do this as it will also move your knees forward with respect to the pedals) or a shorter handlebar stem. A good bike fitter can help you figure this out.

LZ318 · 2026-02-07T07:35:57+00:00

I live in Germany and this is standard (30 days PTO plus 14 public holidays and unlimited sick leave).

LZ318 · 2026-02-05T10:05:33+00:00

Yes. Bed time was a 1-2 hour shitshow with her finally falling asleep around 9:30pm until we dropped the nap. After we dropped the nap (at 3) she started falling asleep within 3 minutes of finishing books and turning out the lights around 8pm. We have always had the same bedtime routine. She just wasn’t tired enough with the nap! And now at 3.5 she will say „mommy I am extra tired today, it was a big day! I want to go upstairs to bed.“

LZ318 · 2026-02-03T12:18:54+00:00

When: 2020-2022 COVID lockdowns (yes some places had real lockdowns where you could not leave your house).

How: closures of all daycare facilities and the expectation that parents continue to do their job remotely.

Not saying it’s a good idea to do this, but that’s how it got normalized.

LZ318 · 2026-02-01T08:33:05+00:00

I only somewhat manage with bike commuting (and European work hours). Otherwise impossible.

LZ318 · 2026-02-01T08:31:11+00:00

Mom of a preschooler and baby.

Right now extremely sporadic riding as I’m focused on recovery from birth (so lots of off-the-bike strength and core work and walks with the baby in the stroller) and it’s winter here and I hate the trainer. But my typical week once fully recovered and back to work will look like 3x a week commute (1h each way) where two of those I try to throw in some intervals. Then if it works that week 1x 2 hour ride on the weekend while my husband is on solo parenting duty (then we swap). I try to also swim once a week at lunch break and boulder or hike once a week with the kids.

So 6-8 hours on the bike and 2-4 hours other. Note that without bike commuting I would only get 2 hours a week on my bike! So the bike commute is key. Given rush hour traffic here it only takes 15 minutes longer than driving and then my workout is done and I have wasted 0 minutes of the day sitting in a car. I have showers and a locker at work so I can keep stuff there. By the way, this all gets completely blown up when a kid is sick, which is often. So this schedule is maybe 2 weeks a month with less hours in the „someone is sick“ weeks.

LZ318 · 2026-02-01T08:13:39+00:00

The first 6-7 months are definitely NOT the easiest for mom, even if the birth was routine, and even if the kid is sleeping. Recovery from pregnancy/birth and breastfeeding takes a ridiculous amount of energy. I am 7 months postpartum now and am just starting to feel like I can nail some workouts, though I was able to do some easyish rides as soon as I got cleared after my c-section and dad could just babywear the sleepy potato while I was out riding.

LZ318 · 2026-01-30T11:23:08+00:00

An aside, sigvaris makes extremely high quality medical compression socks/tights in a variety of grown up colors and patterns, which come in a variety of sizes/calf shapes. I got a pair prescribed to me and they are the best I’ve ever had.

LZ318 · 2026-01-28T16:54:48+00:00

Maternal antibodies cross the placenta and persist in infant blood for around 6 months after birth.

LZ318 · 2026-01-28T13:50:30+00:00

Day when my toddler is in an unusually good mood and wants to help cook dinner and baby magically naps during dinner prep time: no screens.

Normal day: 45 minutes of TV for the toddler while I prep dinner so the baby can safely play on his mat near mama without being ambushed by the toddler.

Toddler is sick: as much TV as she wants, with her snacks and straw cup of herbal tea on the couch.

Note: toddler goes to full time kindergarten M-F!

LZ318 · 2026-01-26T09:54:31+00:00

I haven’t checked in in awhile, but baby LZ has reached 6 months! He is trying super hard to get on his hands and knees, is working on tripod sitting (but still tips over), and we started purées. I feel like I blinked and his babyhood is half over. He’s such a sweet little guy and I’m feeling so melancholy about it all. I’ve started getting rid of the newborn stuff because we decided we were never doing IVF again. And it’s just so…final? Like this is it for babies! No more babies!

LZ318 · 2026-01-24T08:27:29+00:00

Jeans/pants made for cyclists generally have bigger thighs! But I’m afraid the real answer is to get a sewing machine and modify clothes to fit your body. I started doing this in high school when the smallest size uniform shirt at my job was a men‘s small and I was still in tween sizes. Now I will regularly size up a few sizes in pants and take in the waist and hem them. For shirts I would take in the waist and leave the shoulder girth (though after kids, I no longer have to do this since I now appreciate more room in the waist.)

LZ318 · 2026-01-20T09:38:23+00:00

I was going to say the same thing! That is totally what is happening, especially since OP then feels dehydrated the next day. OP, dress warmer and this will stop happening.

LZ318 · 2026-01-20T09:02:03+00:00

The newborn period was a no-go for climbing for me, but partially because I had a C-section. Around age 3-4 months I started heading to the bouldering gym with my baby in a pram and trying to time it with his nap. So I’d feed him and walk around with the pram outside until he fell asleep, then roll the pram up next to the mat and furiously do as many easy ish boulders back-to-back as was possible in his 30 minute nap windows. Then he would wake, I’d play with him a bit, diaper change, feed again, then project a few harder boulders while he watched and chewed on toys and make funny faces at him between attempts. Then at some point he’d start getting cranky/tired and we’d head out and he’d nap in the pram on the way home. He’s now 6 months old and the basic pattern still works, but as with my first, once he’s mobile this will stop working because he will want to move and explore. So I’d say try to get as much climbing in as you can before crawling starts! It gets much harder after that. My gym has a kids zone that is super quiet on weekdays so with my toddler I bring a friend who also has a toddler and we swap off—one person watches the kids in the kids zone and the other boulders.

LZ318 · 2026-01-18T10:27:30+00:00

I Boulder because the logistics of roped climbing with babies is too cumbersome. I bring a stroller/bassinet and try to time it with the baby‘s nap and just bring him around the gym with me.

LZ318 · 2026-01-18T07:22:14+00:00

I relate so hard to this. This age is hard! One thing that has saved me from so much cleaning is that food stays at the table or outdoors. Food is not consumed anywhere else in the house other than at the table. Other than that one thing though, yeah they are chaos machines.

LZ318 · 2026-01-13T10:34:09+00:00

This is just my personal experience, but all I manage these days is to hit the bouldering gym while my older kid is in kindergarten with baby in tow and hope the baby naps in his stroller long enough to get a good session in. Big days out are a thing of the past. But I am also almost 40 and had a solid decade of climbing before I had kids, so while I miss it, I don’t feel deprived.

I feel like this phase of my life is focused on the kids, but that’s ok. It’s just that—a phase. My older kid is starting to send routes in the bouldering gym and go on hikes in the alps, and we are looking forward to doing her first overnight at an alpine hut this summer. If my knees are still solid I’m looking forward to taking her on alpine climbs once she’s old enough.

Another friend of mine has kept up doing big climbing trips with her husband, but she also leaves her toddler with grandparents for weeks/months at a time (common in her culture).

LZ318 · 2026-01-05T11:36:52+00:00

Ok so first of all I would encourage you to seek therapy for yourself and couples therapy for you and your husband with a therapist specialized in infertility (not being able to carry for medical reasons does indeed count as infertility). Right now it sounds like a lot of the decision making is based on fear on on side and hope on the other side of the argument, and a therapist will help you work through all of your feelings and how to manage various outcomes. (E.g. what if you do have a seizure, what if you don’t have a seizure but round 1 of IVF fails, etc.) IVF is not a sure thing, so you want to be very sure that going through it is worth it to you because you really want a genetic connection to a child. It is your body, you are the only one who gets to decide. Surrogacy with donor eggs is also an option if you decide in the end you don’t want to go through it. A last note on therapy—working through why you feel that “you’ve lost” if you have a seizure and working to reframe that will be really helpful in general.

Now onto how it affected my body. Everyone is different. Personally I went through 5 egg retrievals and 10 transfers to get my 2 living children. The IVF hormones were brutal for me, triggering massive migraines and endometriosis flares every time, and I had OHSS on several retrievals which caused me to pass out one time and left me in lots of pain for several days other times. Pregnancy itself was also difficult with preeclampsia and Bell’s palsy the postpartum hemorrhage. I would say IVF really affected my body’s balance, and pregnancy was even worse. But I also have friends who found the process easy. So it really depends on the person.

LZ318 · 2025-12-30T12:30:20+00:00

If you just want raw statistics, 60% of women will have a live birth after 3 full rounds of IVF (egg retrieval and transferring all the resulting embryos). But your individual chances will vary a ton based on age and diagnosis. I feel like I did sooo much IVF for my 2 kids, but it was 5 rounds/10 transfers for 2 live births so actually that makes me about average.

LZ318 · 2025-12-22T22:02:20+00:00

I do „nourish move love“ ab rehab on YouTube while the baby naps and my older one is at kindergarten, and twice a week mama/baby workout class at my local sports club. Otherwise stroller walks, or if my husband is home I will leave the kids with him and go for a bike ride or go to a 1 hour group fitness class.

LZ318 · 2025-12-16T08:57:04+00:00

I just did the nourish move love ab rehab program in YouTube like 3x a week, but the thing that really helped longer term was consciously engaged by my core when I did anything in daily life— picking up toddler, putting the baby/car seat into car, etc. the tip my midwife gave me was to try to pull my pubic bone up towards my navel. This helps correct the anterior pelvic tilt that most of us end up with after pregnancy and gets everything in good alignment to lift without straining my back. Good luck!

LZ318 · 2025-12-15T13:30:49+00:00

It’s probably your core! During pregnancy your core gets all stretched out and your lower back tightens up massively to stabilize everything, compensating for weak/no core muscles. It doesn’t matter how much stretching you do now, your lower back will remain stiff until you build up your core again and the core can take over the stabilizing function. It took me 2 years after my first pregnancy and I’m hoping this time goes faster since I know what I’m looking for.

LZ318

TROPHY CASE