Daytona was always the bang for buck Campag groupset but I nearly always ran Chorus. Had a few TT bikes with it as well. Infact, the only TT bike I’ve ever had with Shimano was the P3 I sold to Adam.
But then I build all my bikes from scratch and the only two I haven’t were the Focus Paralane and that P3. I hate the idea of trust some shop monkey to do a half decent job and they look at you like you’re speaking Urdu when you mention Campag anyway. 
Ok so had my first swim and my first outdoor cycle session.
Swim - think my expectations were much higher than my ability!!!
25M pool. Swam 2 lengths unbroken and then did 8 more lengths with a rest in between and some work on technique. Had my friend who’s a PE teacher watching and helping.
Much much much harder than I imagined, this will be my weakest point. was averaging around 30 seconds for the 25m but there was no way I was getting a string of them unbroken. Going to book some lessons in for next week.
Cycling this morning was more positive. Did an 18km route, 20 mins for a coffee 18km back with a few lads from golf. was tough but enjoyable.
Avg speed was 31km/h with max 48km/h
Avg HR was 153 with max at 183
Total cycle was 72 mins
This was good, pace was slightly high for me and felt like I was pushing hard for a lot of it.
Your swim sounds very much like my first swim, my whole body was glowing & I had a panicked expression on my face. I was due to compete in a sprint triathlon in 3 months & had no idea how I’d manage to swim 400m 
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Your bike sounds good 
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How did you swim improve over the 3 months? was the swim in the race straight forward in the end?
I tried to get along to a pool 2 or 3 times a week. I started going to a tri-club swim once a week & watched lots of YouTube hints on improving that I implemented in my other swims.
The swim went ok apart from the fact that I had never worn a swim cap before which I pulled too far down my forehead. This resulted in a goggle/hat overlap & chlorinated water poured into my eyes 
Good efforts, swimming is tough, I openly admit I am terrible at it. Swimming in a tri has always been about getting through it for me.
Don’t worry about your time/pace on the bike at this stage. It might be beneficial at this stage to go longer but slower- google base training.
@Doonhamer Yes I’m planning on the same thing, going to have a swimming lesson Monday and try and get in the pool Mon/Weds/Fri as feel this is the area that needs the most work.
@LordFlasheart This Fri cycle will be with an experienced group so they’re setting the pace and think it’s good for me to get the experience from them and support. The other sessions will be done on the smart trainer so I will look at base training and find a plan for those, thanks for the advice.
Going to bite the bullet on clipless today, anything I need to look for in pedals or shoes specifically or all much of a muchness?
Shoes are a difficult thing, took me years and many pairs to get the right ones. However some people manage to wear most anything.
Try on as many pairs as you can, should be snug but not tight.
In the words of my Bike Fitter, I have ‘Duck Feet’ and have settled on Lake shoes with custom footbeds, I wore Bont for a while too, these were close but would get painful on longer rides.
I stand by what I said yesterday, at this stage these shoes/pedals are not strictly needed.
Oh and be prepared to fall over at least once- it’s a right of passage.
best way to improve your swim is to get some 1:1 training with a swim instructor. They will look at your current technique and give you drills to improve.
Slow down to speed up! Thats usually the single biggest problem with fatigue after a length or two.
Get proper lessons from a learn to swim teacher is always best. Dont get into bad habits.
If not, then learn to float first! Then start to pull yourself through the water. Rotate ~45degrees to get a better grip of the water with the larger muscles in the back for each stroke. Kicking helps balance, “6 beat kick” which is 3 kicks per arm pull.
Watch addlington videos and try and copy! GTN will have some videos maybe, and i like the bill sweetenham drill progression here.
You will be fine though, as long as you can float.
Sounds like a great start. Don’t have much more to add compared to what’s been said, other than to echo the softly softly approach. It’s so, so easy to go chasing time goals, distance goals really aggressively when you’re new and keen. But a bit of temperance in the early stages will honestly pay much larger dividends in the long run.
Time in the pool is crucial. If you want to see what happens when you don’t swim enough, just look back at my posts in the training thread! 
How not to train for an Ironman swim. There are some very experienced minds on this forum, don’t be afraid to ask questions, no matter how dumb they are.
the most simple fact is that it takes time to build up endurance. There are no ‘hacks’ or shortcuts other than miles and miles and miles of swim bike run. Enjoy the quick improvements that you’ll undoubtedly see at the start. Don’t get downbeat when these confidence boosting improvements start to inevitable plateau at some point. That just means you’re levelling up. The better you get, the harder the improvements are to earn!
Most of all make sure you enjoy it. That is THE key in all of this.
For a sprint/super sprint clipless is a waste of time in my view.
You’ll spend far longer having to change shoes twice as someone starting out than any time you’d theoretically make on the bike from clipless being ‘quicker’. Its bloody hard putting wet feet in shoes (and socks if so inclined) balancing on one leg 
Love the enthusiasm! Bike sounds awesome and jealous of the set up you’ve got going.
Make sure and keep enjoying it, biggest risk when you throw yourself into something new is (a) burnout and (b) injury. So take your time, mix it up, don’t get frustrated at stuff being hard or being slow. I’m easily the slowest and most clueless technically/mechanically person on this board across all disciplines but I’m a hell of a lot faster and fitter than I used to be. So bank the small victories along the way and don’t get caught up in what other people are achieving.
The guys and gals here are amazing for encouragement and advice, even if sometimes you have to ask 3 times what the hell they are talking about
Not sure I agree with this. IMO there should be some space in front of your toes to allow for swelling, especially as you’re in a hot country.
I always want a shoe that feels loose when put on and then more and more secure as the dials (or other tightening method) are tightened.
I do agree that there’s no rush for clipless pedals at this stage.
We’ve all been there
… and just when you’ve found the right pair, the shoe company ‘update’ the model and it’s back to square one
Normally I buy left and right at the same time, can’t go wrong that way
your welcome 
Solid advice, thanks Fruity.
I’m attempting a special variation on this challenge today. Going to see if it’s possible to go from triathlete to drunk overweight golfer in less than three hours, including the race.
Only thing, might have to substitute croquet for golf as do not actually own a golf club. Also need to actually finish the sprint tri in under 3 hours. Other than that, it’s game on.
edit: all racked up now. Terrifying display of disc wheels, GBR suits and high end bikes for an obscure local sprint. Bit breezy, patchy cloud, pretty good conditions really. Rode the course last night, it’s twisty and technical so hopefully the knowledge of bends hills and turns will help a bit.
edit: 7th. Ok swim and bike, but lost a few minutes on the run (19:24, the podium all ran 17:xx which is ridiculous for a local sprint) . Rough country lanes, hit a deep pot hole at speed with head down, it was a real whack, thought I might have a double puncture but somehow the tyres stayed up.
Right now where are those golf clubs 
I think we need to beef this challenge up a bit and include 10 000 calories for the overweight part. 
Congrats on 7th! Sounds like a good day!!! Did you manage to find a croquest or golf club or just a local pub???
Thanks for all the replies everyone, apologies for the delay been laid up in bed with Flu since Saturday morning! Very frustrating as just want to get cracking with more training but still feel pretty rough today so will be a few more days before I’m doing anything.
Update - I got some fizik R5 overcurve shoes and some shimano pedals.
Cant wait to get back out there and fall over!!!