Amazingly, I plugged my info into a calories burned calculator and I burned over 1,200 calories! In the weeks leading up to the triathlon I kept telling my husband I would be fine to hang out Sunday afternoon as we usually do... I was deluded! I was exhausted, cranky and it was all I could do to not fall asleep everytime I sat down.
Of course, I took off Monday. Not work, but working out. I needed it sooo badly. I wasn't sore, but I was really tired.
Tuesday, back at it. I swam 1100 meters.
Wednesday I went on a leisurely 10 mile bike ride in the morning and a 3 mile run that evening. The run was supposed to be a nice recovery jog, but the speed demon inside me (ok, it was really the "let's get this done" voice in my head) caught up and I hit an 8:22 pace. That was another evening of exhuastion, but overall I felt good.
Took off Thursday and Friday, and Saturday did an easy 6 miles in sprinkling rain and cool temperatures. It felt great and I felt really great, hitting a 9:45 pace. This was actually more of a recovery run, which should not be about pace, see Active.com or Runner's World/Times, but I read that if you feel good and you're not out of breath, then you're ok. I'll take what I can get at this point.
Sunday morning I was dreading. It was my "rehearsal" for my August triathlon. Don't get me wrong, I was really, really grateful to have the opportunity to see the course and practice more open water swimming, but I was scared. In the end, it was fantastic. What's nice is that this is a 'women only' triathlon and supposedly caters to beginners, which is why they do the rehearsal. Check it out -- I SAID WOMEN ONLY!!
Got up at 6am for an 8am start. Had a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and banana and a small cup of coffee. Took off around 7:30am and met the group at 8am. We rode our bikes with our gear down to the beach and hooked up with a bunch of others.
The event organizer did a little talk on organizing your gear and helped us visualize where the racks would be and the entrance/exit for the different legs. Then, it was time to hit the water.
Here's what the beach looks like on a normal day (actual picture of the beach):
Here's what it looked like to me (actual picture of the beach during a storm):
The mind does amazing things.
The water was pretty cold, but very still. Of course, the buoys weren't set up just yet, but there was a demarcated swimming zone that was about 1/3rd of the course. Our group of 15 or so waded in hesitantly. Most of the women wore wetsuits and looked like this (credit to all3sports.com):
Whereas I looked something like this (credit to amazon.com) note the pained smile on the model's face accurately reflects what I looked like:
It was a true dichotomy of triathlon wear. I'm too cheap to buy a wetsuit and too lazy to have to bother with it, so I suck it up.
Oh yeah, the swim. It went much better, and I chalk it up to a few things:
1. The beach is protected by a series of islands, so the water was practically still vs. my last experience of choppy swells in true open water.
2. I wore my tinted goggles vs. the last time when I wore clear goggles. I usually use tinted goggles in the pool, but my husband gave me his pair of clear goggles, and I thought those would be more helpful the day of my triathlon because it was overcast. The problem with clear goggles in the ocean? You can't see anything anyway, so I think that freaked me out big time. At least the effect was muted with the tinted goggles.
3. I wasn't freaking out. I swam slow and steady, sighted well, and managed to front crawl/freestyle the entire way.
I did it! Now to repeat next Sunday...
What's even more awesome? The bike is very nearly completely flat and the run is entirely flat. Yay!
So, the training continues.
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