On May 15th, I did something new and scary. Though I love to run, I've never considered a triathlon before due to the swimming. I did swim team growing up, so I know how to swim, but swimming long distances has always scared me off. After 13 years of long distance races, I was ready to challenge myself in a new way. A friend in my ward has done many triathlons and some iron mans and offered to walk me through every step, so I signed up! The distances for this sprint tri were 12 laps in a pool, a 14-mile bike ride, and a 3-mile run. I wished I could adjust the lengths to shorten the swim and bike and lengthen the run as the run felt like a piddly distance compared to what I was used to.
My first swim of my training, I panicked as I adjusted to not being able to breathe at will, and I couldn't even make it a full lap across the pool without having to stand up and catch my breath. I learned to relax, but I still had to take a breather after each lap. I did not stick to a specific training schedule and kind of made up my own. I made sure to do 2 bikes and 2 swims a week and stuck to my normal 4 runs per week. I started the biking at 5 miles with my regular every day bike and added mileage throughout the weeks. I dreaded every single swim workout for at least the first month, dragging my feet every time. I could see small steps of improvement, but it was still hard, and I felt the impossibility of being able to swim 12 laps in a row without stopping. My expectations kept lowering--originally, I thought I would swim alternating each lap between freestyle and breaststroke. Then I thought it would be 1 lap of freestyle and 2 laps of breaststroke with a breather after 6 laps. Then I came to the realization that I might need to take a breather every 4 laps. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it still did, that as I stayed consistent and pushed myself, it did get easier! I had my focus on freestyle because it is a faster stroke, but breaststroke was always my stroke in swim team, the stroke I was the best at and competitive. I realized about a month before the race that I could swim 12 laps in a row doing breaststroke and not feel winded! So while I knew I would be a fish out of water swimming breaststroke, I decided to shift gears and have that be my plan. I still did freestyle in my swim workouts, but I started my workout with a 300-meter breaststroke and timed myself. My friend told me her time for her 300-meter swim doing freestyle was 6 minutes. I was consistently swimming a 6:30/6:40 breaststroke, which reassured me that my breaststroke plan was the right one for me. Breaststroke feels natural and easy for me, and I'm pretty fast at it, plus it didn't wipe me out. I really enjoyed the last month of training because of the peace of mind knowing I could swim 12 laps in a row without stopping and still be semi-competitive.
Biking is the biggest portion of the race. I probably should have put more focus on it in terms of speed drills etc. I just focused on the distance. I learned quickly when I attempted to do a bike ride with my friend and another woman my age doing the sprint tri that my every day bike was not doing me any favors. They both have very nice road bikes that was fitted to their height, and they have shoes that clip in. They are serious! They told me that the swimming and running is on your own merit, but the biking result is heavily influenced by how nice of a bike you have. Matt reached out to his friend from baseball who owns Bike Land to see if it was possible to rent a bike for the race. In true Matt fashion, the owner decided to give him a bike for free, if I liked it, because it had been a floor model. The Saturday before the race, I did a short 3-mile ride to try out the bike. (I'd already done a 12-mile bike ride earlier that morning.) Wednesday before the race, I did a 14-mile bike ride for the first time on my new bike. A few miles into the ride, I took a turn too sharply and had the wrong pedal down. The pedal clipped the ground, and I went flying. I scraped up my right shoulder and right leg, but my right hand took the brunt of the fall. It was scraped up and bleeding [and I would later learn that I bruised the bone deeply. It took months to heal the bruised bone.] I figured it could have been worse, so I got up, brushed myself off and finished my ride. It definitely shook me up as I was still adjusting to the new bike, and I was very careful from then on out to have the correct pedal up during turns. It was so liberating to feel like I was flying on my new bike! My average speed per mile increased and the difference of this bike took 10 minutes off my total bike time! Throughout the bike training, the hardest part was actually having a sore butt. Even with a cushioned bike seat, my butt muscles were not used to sitting so long on a bike seat. It's not as bad now, but it's still an uncomfortable part of riding a bike!!
My friend, Star, helped me through several logistics--what to wear, other helpful tips (vaseline to prevent chafing from being wet after the swim), and patiently answering my numerous questions. She let me borrow her favorite tri racing outfit since she couldn't fit into it after having a baby fairly recently.
Come race day, I was probably equal parts nervous and excited. I felt ready, and I love the adrenaline that comes with races. As part of my training, I had done some brick workouts, meaning running right after biking, but I had never done all 3 back-to-back. Race day was the time to see what I was make of! The race was 45 minutes away and started at 7am. We got there just after 6am so we had plenty of time to set up our stuff at the transition area. That meant it was an early morning, waking up at 4:45am.
Swimming was first in the race. We all stood in a really long line based on the time we submitted when we signed up for the race, and we were given a number accordingly. The time I submitted was 9 minutes since I had no idea. I ended up standing in line with Star and just explained my time to those around me. It was nice to chat until we actually got in the water. The swimming took place in a high school natatorium. Every 15 seconds, they let another swimmer in the water, and it was set up as a snake swim--up and down the same lane then cross under the rope to the next lane. I got increasingly more paranoid when I saw that every single person was swimming freestyle. I literally was going to be the only one swimming breaststroke. That made me feel self-conscious. When I finally got in the water, I was so nervous about the person behind me catching me that I rushed my strokes and did less gliding. After 3 laps, I let the person behind me pass me. But then 3 laps later, she told me to go in front of her again. My time on my swim ended up being 6:42 due to some of those factors. Star did hers in just over 6 minutes.
After I got out of the pool, I rushed to the transition area, dried my feet as best I could, put on my socks and shoes, then took off for the bike ride. Even though I had a nicer bike than I trained on, I probably got passed by about 20 people who likely had better bikes and/or were better trained that I was. (One young woman who passed me was quite overweight, so that made me feel great!) I didn't realize that I had the wind behind me on the way out and wished I would have pushed myself a little harder because on the way back I was riding into the wind, which slowed me down. The bike ride was on the shoulder of a four-lane road for most of it, but there was one stretch that was on a two-lane road where the cars had a speed limit of 60. That was nerve-racking! The biggest concern for bikers is tires popping. There was twice during the bike ride that riders crossed over some railroad tracks, so that was a bit worrisome. The last few miles of the biking were the hardest: riding into the wind, tired legs, and my sore butt. I averaged 15.5mph.
Running after biking is not fun. Your legs feel like jello! I took off at a comfortable pace trying to work out the soreness in my legs. My legs felt heavy and my pace felt slower than I liked, but when I looked down at my watch, I was actually going at a sub 8-minute pace! So I just worked to keep that up for the duration of the race. Even thought it was only 3 miles, the run felt long, and I was grateful it wasn't longer! Crossing the finish line felt amazing, and Star and her friend, Karen, were there to cheer me on. My final time was 1:27:41. I averaged 7:57 miles on the run.
I knew the distance of the race from home would discourage Matt and the boys from coming, but I was still hopeful they would be there at the finish line. It was fine that they didn't end up coming--Matt did a lot of yard work instead, but it helps give a nice push at the end knowing your family is waiting for you at the finish line.
Overall, it was a rewarding experience. More may be in my future! Since the race, I've continued to keep up my twice a week swims and bike rides. I've cut back on the bike distance though.
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