complete a triathlon

Alrighty then! I’ve officially booked in a fitness test with a personal trainer for the afternoon after exams have finished. And have also booked in a physical with the doctor for the day after that. Exams are 8 days away – so fitness really can wait right now.
Yes, I want to complete a triathlon, but I would also like to have some kind of on paper statistics for how much my fitness has improved.

I’m not so sure how serious I am about this goal. I’m about 15 pounds away from serious running training, so yesterday did hardcore elliptical, and upper body. I’m going to revisit it in a week. I love swimming, but haven’t figured how to make that part of my exercise “inevitable.” Ideas?

Slowly but surely creeping up on this goal…

A friend and I signed up for the Methodist Hospital Women’s Triathlon together. Today, I received this email, which I think is partly funny. I actually already advertised the triathlon on my facebook, so I don’t think I can do much else to recruit participants.

Hello,

Thank you for being part of the Methodist Hospital/UNO Women’s Triathlon.  We currently have over 300 women signed up for the event.  The State Games had over 320 individuals participate this year, it would be nice if we were just a little bigger so you could say that you were part of thee largest triathlon in Nebraska.  Spread the word by e-mailing your friends (just 5 contacts would be awesome).  Invite them to join you!!  If the entry form is post marked by the August 19 (or in my hands at the UNO Athletic Department by Aug 21) then it will beat the deadline.

On Monday a list of participants with start times will be e-mailed.  Also the post cards submitted them with the entry form will be mailed on Monday, Aug 24.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask J

Here are a few common questions.  Will someone be watching my bike?  No, triathlons over the many years had a tradition of not have a problem with bikes missing – there are just so many bikes that it has not been a problem.  Will a change area be available after the swim?  No, a triathlon is a continuous event and typically a person will put on a shirt and shorts after the swim and take off on the bike.  In the big races, the triathlete will just wear the swim suit through the entire race.  What is the water clarity like?  We are in Nebraska, it is not clear like a swimming pool.

Have a terrific day,

I am feeling pretty good about my training. I just ran 3 miles on the treadmill and it wasn’t a struggle. I do need to do more swimming and buy a new bike. Well not a new bike, way to expensive, but a used bike that is new to me. I am not sure what type of bike to get. I am thinking a road bike but I dont know how many gears i should get or if there is anything i should look for.

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

My first triathlon was this morning, race started at 7:58…or was supposed to…

At 8:03 today they decided to cancel the swim because the storms can stirred up the river really badly and also made the current much stronger, it wasn’t safe. So they rearranged the course frantically and made it a duathlon, 1.5mi run, 15.5mi bike, 3.1mi run, I’m not thrilled at this point but still pretty ok, it was cloudy and cool and I’d made some friends. The race was also greatly delayed and my original start time of 9:12 was pushed back to 9:46.

My wave actually started around 10 and had a great run time, was really pumped going into the bike. It was cool and I was feeling good! Around mile 2 it poured briefly but no thunder, the roads were really slick so much slower than anticipated but doing well. After the first lap (it’s a 2 lap course) it was thundering a bit but sounded far off and they let me start the second lap. I was with a few girls from my transition area and around the 4th mile the sky opened and we actually thought we were in a tornado, thunder that was literally shaking the ground and lightening that was very scary. The rain HURT and it was blinding, within 30 seconds we’d been told to pull over. At this point we were on a bridge and were told to ‘duck and cover’ against the side wall (about 2 ft high) of the bridge with our bikes over our heads, bad news. After about 5-10 minutes we all got up and ran our bikes off the bridge and finished the bike course where we were congratulated and entered T to pack up.

All of transition was totally flooded, I had to dig through the water and muck around my area to find all my things, goggles hat etc had floated a bit but I think I got it all. I met up with my boy near the car and we rinsed off and headed home. So I’m safe and well and had a great time, just not the race I anticipated. There’s another one close by on Sept 13th though that I plan on signing up for tonight….after I go to the phone store =( although the phone and camera were in a plastic bag they didn’t full survive, hoping for a revival but not that optimistic =(

I am now officially registered for the triathlon. No looking back now. The registration fee is nonrefundable so i have the incentive to not waste the money. The training is not so bad. Yesterday at the gym I biked 19 miles and went strait into running 3 miles. I feel that i will be able to complete the triathlon without feeling like i am dieing. I have 8 more weeks to train so I hope to get faster.

If anyone has any advise on what to wear and how to deal with transitions please let me know. Thanks

I guess I have taken my first step in completing a triathlon which is finding a race. I have picked the the See Jane Run Tri which is at the end of September. It look good for a first triathlon, for beginners and is sprint distance (400m swim, 11mi bike and, 5k run. I have started training and found a 9 week training plan which i have completed the first day of. I feel like I can do all the sports separately, the key will be to do them all one after another. Because i have never done a Tri and am a little nervous about the transitions and what equipment I will need.

Today I have a 45 min bike ride with a 15 min run right after hopefully it won’t be to bad :).

I’m training to do a sprint distance triathlon in September. I can do the running and biking, but not the swimming. I havn’t yet tried to do a combination of any of them together. I think I can do it though :)

I never would have thought to do this before my mom, at fifty years old (and not in great shape before training), did the Danskin women’s sprint triathlon with her two co-workers. It was a fantastic event and I actually got choked up to see so many women, of all ages and body types, come running into the finish. She’s doing it again this year, and is even leading a training group. The biggest obstacle, for me, is the swimming – I’m not at ALL a confident swimmer. Water makes me nervous. The biking and running won’t be too bad, but I’ll definitely need some extra training on swimming – I almost feel like I need to start over, as the only thing I can really do is the backstroke (my crawl is awful). Not sure when I’ll have the time to do this, but definitely at some point in the (relatively) near future. Learning to be a better swimmer is, after all, a useful skill no matter what, and I need physical challenges like this to get me off my rear.