Completed my first triathlon Sunday morning!
After the Nicaragua surf trip, seems I tapered down not only my training, but also my blogging. It was a pretty light training week leading up to the Triathlon. Ran on Monday morning, missed swimming Tuesday due to travel and biked Wednesday night, traveled Thursday, no workout, Friday was a rest day and Saturday tried to get in some running intervals and a easy bike. Damn, if I didn’t aggravate my Achilles tendonitis… but no way was that going to stop me from running Sunday – which by the way, I’m paying for the week after the tri
The number one thing? Seriously, the cumulative effect of swimming, biking and then running is not to be underestimated! I am really glad I did the “mock” the weekend before just for the mental boost knowing you can do it, because you have. The transitions were surprising (and exciting). My transition times were pretty good, but coming out of the water and running to the bike left me a lot more winded than I imagined. It wasn’t until a mile or two later on the bike when I felt like I got my wind back.
What did I learn from my first tri?
- The swim was far more physical than I was expecting based on my four open water swim training sessions.
- Give yourself plenty of time to spot your bike coming out of the water and coming in after the bike. I found counting racks worked best for me.
- Practicing transitions was very helpful
- I think it’s important to start combining event training. That is, on either Saturday or Sunday mornings, bike and run, even if you have to walk the run. Focus on endurance and combine bike/run or swim/bike. The challenge will be finding the time.
- Everybody is really nice (except maybe on the swim!)
- Having your body marked, the people cheering at the transition area and hearing your name as you cross the finish line is really cool.
- It’s easy to get bitten by the “bug”! I’m wondering now the best way to keep it up during the winter…
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