Tag Archives: sprint

10 Triathon Tidbits This Mother Has Learned in Two Years of Triathlon

In May 2012, I was reading through a copy of one of my favorite magazines, Women’s Running. At that time, I had my leg propped up on my desk drawer, my slacks rolled up and ice on my shin. Yes, I was battling through another shin splint. I stumbled across an article and training plan to do your first sprint triathlon in eight weeks. Needless to say, I was sucked into the article and came home that day and told my husband I had a great idea….. I was going to do a triathlon. I’d love to tell you his response or his facial expression, but I honestly didn’t pay attention long enough to see his response…  I was already off writing a list of stuff I needed and found a calendar to start mapping out my training plan.

In August of 2012, I did my first triathlon. This month marks two years of my love for the sport. Over the past two years, I have learned a few things…

GA Veterans 2012

1. Race Day… To wear a sports bra under a tri top or not?

Before my first race, this question had me stumped for months. When I decided to do my first triathlon, I knew no one who enjoyed the sport and therefore no one to direct this question to. So, I decided to look up race photos of the race I was doing from the year before and check out all the pictures of the ladies who had raced. After searching photos of mid distance finishers and back of the pack finishers, I noticed lots of ladies raced with a sports bra under their tri top. I decided to do my first triathlon with my favorite running bra under my tri top and have raced every race this way. I like compression with NO bounce.

2. Race Day… Swim will not go as planned.

I grew up in Southern California in a surfing family. I have swam in shore break in Hawaii and this stupid confidence carried over into my first lake swim in my first triathlon. No matter how many laps you swim in a pool, and no matter how many years you jumped and played in the waves, none of that prepared me for a grimy, warm water, lake swim. During my first race, I panicked after the first buoy, panicked more as I saw the other swimmers getting further away, and panicked even more when the people were cheering from the dock at the end of the swim. Clearly they were yelling at me to hurry up because they had seen an alligator and were not just merely clapping and cheering. It took five more races before I learned to swim calmly and to stop worrying that I would be last out of the water. Being last means I still made it out of the water. Being last doesn’t mean I can’t be happy. Continue reading →

Tri and Recover… & Recover Some More

Prior to March 31st, I had no plans on racing in the Madison Sprint Triathlon on May 4th. In fact, I had planned on going out to support my Tri club with a camera in hand. However, my dismal bike ride at Red Hills on March 31st left me determined to prove to myself that I could ride faster than 11 mph, not that 11 mph is bad, I just knew I was capable of better.

So, after the Red Hills Triathlon on March 31st, I signed up for the North Florida Sprint Triathlon in Madison, Fl. This race also offers an Olympic distance option. Part of me wanted to sign up for the Olympic distance, but the thought of swimming out twice as far, instead of swimming two short loops quickly helped me make up my mind about the Sprint distance.

I maintained the same training schedule that I had up to the Red Hills Triathlon so that I wouldn’t try and bike too much. I didn’t want to change my training much because I wanted to get a true gage of where my cycling actually is.

As race day neared, I realized that this race was going to be a little different from the previous triathlons I had done. For the previous three races all I had to worry about was getting me and my gear ready. For this one, I would be taking my little girls with me and they would be watched over by some amazing mom’s in our tri club. Still, I had to get their gear, diaper bag, snacks, and sleeping arrangements ready in the car.

RACE DAY

North Florida tri

I was up at 4:00 a.m. and hoped I could make it out the door by 5:00 a.m. with gear, two little sleepy girls, and a cooler full of food. My 4 year-old was up at 4:30 a.m. and decided she needed to wait in the car while I finished getting everything ready. I sure do love that girl. We somehow managed to make it out the door by 5:00 a.m. and during the entire drive I kept thinking I forgot something (I didn’t forget anything and triple checked before leaving the house). When you do a race and take young kids with you, the amount of stuff you are accountable for is ridiculous and I think I had more anxiety about forgetting something than actually racing. Continue reading →

Tri Training…. First Brick of 2013

I got in a 1,250 yd swim in this morning. I built up to 2,500 yds in October and have been able to maintain easy swims of 1,600 -2,500 yds since October. Today was the first time I opted for a shorter swim and focused on some sprint work: Warmed up with a 250 easy free, then 500 pull buoy, and then concentrated on swimming easy for 25 yds, then sprinted for 25 yds. I did this for 500 yards and man could I feel it in my whole body.

Afterwards, I ran 3 miles, which was really supposed to be a 30 minute run or a 3 mile run, whichever came first. I ran 27:50 at an easy pace and my knee hasn’t bothered me at all (I ran 6 miles yesterday). I was doing swim/run or swim/bike bricks last year and would always get nauseaus during the run or bike. I started wearing ear plugs b/c that’s what someone told me to do, and it seemed to help. I did not wear ear plugs today and did great on the run (which I approached hesitantly). I am wondering if I was just way more fatigued from swimming before? Not real sure what the difference is now.

I am hoping to run 8 miles on Monday morning and then do a couple of short runs during the week in prepartion for next Sunday’s Half Marathon.

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