My first sprint triathalon

VanessaC

I saw a sprint triathalon while looking for another 5k to run, so I think I am committing to it for Aug 21st. I'm going to try swimming on Wednesday and make sure I can get a babysitter for the kids for that day since Daddy already has a fishing trip booked for that week. This particular tri is a 750m swim, 20k bike ride and 5k run. I have about 7 weeks to train. I have done two official 5K runs and run a 5.75k trail on a regular basis so I am confident that I can do that. A few weeks ago my husband and I took the kids for a 10K bike ride. And when I say we took the kids I mean that I pulled the two girls in a bike stroller and my husband has an attachement for our son to ride with his bike. And there wasn't really any training for that. We just decided to go and made it that far, so I am pretty sure I can handle the bike ride. I was just at my Uncle's pool last week and made the comment that I couldn't swim very many laps without being worn out though so swimming could give me a run for my money. And the swimming will be the most challenging one to train for because I need to get to a pool. The town pool only has lap swim for 45 min a day and my Uncle'shouse is 45 mins away. I am not going to let that stop me though. So training starts tomorrow with a 60 min bike ride. I am pretty confident that I can do each of the three events but it is putting them together one right after the other that will be extra difficult. In my research, I read that the run is particularly hard right after the bike ride so I am going to focus on doing one right after the other as well as making sure I can get through the swim.

I have a training plan but any advice and encouragement is welcome! I will try to keep an update about how the training is going and definately will let you all know how the actual event goes!

Soon to be triathelete,
Vanessa

(Wow, just typing that I am going to be a triathelete feels great. I was never much of an athlete before)

aymetcalf

Wow. You are such an inspiration. I hope to do a triathalon at some point. Best wishes for your training. Keep us updated on how it goes! :flowerforyou:

jrich1

Best of luck!

VanessaC

I'm sorry that I haven't been updating this post. Our computer was out of commision and it takes too long to type on my Ipod. I am down to just over a week before my first triathlon. Training hasn't been going as well as I thought but it is going. At first, I thought that the swim would be the most difficult event but I'm doing fairly well in the pool. Biking has been difficult lately though. I'm actually borrowing a friends road bike which is suppose to be easier than my mountain bike but I'm nervous that I don't have enough time to practice on it before the race. i guess I will be doing a lot of biking for the next week. Last Thursday I tried to do all three events consecutively but had a few problems. The swim went well, the transition onto my bike is a little longer at the park then it will be at the race because I have to have my bike secured while swimming so no one steals it. The biking seemed to take forever and I'm pretty sure that my pace wasn't fast enough but I biked for 55 mins. Then I had to stop by my house to change because I was still way too wet (the humidity was crazy that day) and my legs were rubbing raw. Then I headed off for my run but couldn't do it. I had to walk the first 15 mins because I had the worst side stitch I can ever rememeber having but I did manage to run the last 15 minutes. So it wasn't as great as I had hoped for my first run through but I did learn a few things that will be very useful for the race. I have to wear longer shorts to avoid the rubbing against my bike seat and I can't drink that much gatorade during the bike ride because I am unable to run properly if I do. So I got a new dri-fit fabric outfit to try and will hopefully dry off better this time. I am not going to drink as much during the bike ride but will take lots of sips instead and I am going to take an energy bar to eat while biking too. I will let you know how tonight trial tri goes with the things that I have learned from last week.