Well, I finally committed to my first triathlon. After 2 weeks of procrastination I went ahead and spent the money. Which means now, I have just 2 weeks till the triathlon. No good!
I run regularly and bike on occasion, but as already mentioned in my article about competitive swimming, I need much swim practice. Aside from the fact that I have never combined all 3 sports before, I guess I should start now!
Right away I went for it, swam, biked, and ran all in one day. It was tough, but we over trained. Even though Jennifer, my teammate almost passed out, I felt really good about things, till, that is, I swam with Kyla again… this means I went right back to drinking more pool water.
A little stressful? Uh, yeah!
After doing some time trials and a few short runs, I was convinced that I was going to suck at triathlons. The Friday before the tri, I ran twice, once with my workout buddy and the other was with my boot campers. Afterward, I felt heavy and slow. I hadn’t even swam that day. Not cool!! Now I am feeling slow on two of the three sports. This is bound to suck.
Either way, it was time to buy spandex! Kyla, my wife and I all went spandex shopping. After making our initial stop, we found that all they had was xtra large tri suits. I will not wear a onesy! Not now. Not ever! So, it was off to another store. Across the street.
Here we found one whole rack devoted to tri apparel, and it was on sale. After being spotted by the sales person, she must had seen the scared looks on our faces when we saw how short and tight their spandex was, she came over to make the sale She did a great job selling us the right spandex. And we did a great job trying them out. Running in circles and doing lunges, we felt comfortable. We will take them!!
It must have been the way the spandex held things together. Because everyone thought I was an intermediate athlete. Which is funny because I hardly consider myself a competitor, much less an athlete. Well, whatever. I went with it and was feeling good… till I jumped into the water to do a warm up lap. I drank some Cumberland river water… through my nose! It’s hard to keep your game face on when you are coughing like a first time smoker in the water.
Race time! Everyone in the water. Off I go, over the river and through the woods. After suffering through the swimming, I managed to complete it in 15 minutes. This is a far cry from the first time I swam with Kyla. See article. I jumped on my bike and away I went. This is my sport and I dominated it. Flying up hills and passing everything in sight. I could have went 12 more miles! But alas, I have to run… Which is like fast walking through calf deep snow. I finished it and that’s all that matters! I didn’t stop, not even to pee. It was great.
Next time, I’ll give my body at least 3.5 weeks to prepare. That should do it, I mean I don’t ¬†want to be consumed by the sport. Right?
