Subject: First Tri - set goals or just finish it? After some motivation from my (pregnant ) wife, and seeing a few not-so-pretty gut shots from some recent beach photos, I have decided to attempt my first tri (sprint ). The idea came to me 'out-of-the-blue' because I need some goal to workout each day, you know, have some purpose other than wanting to be generally healthy. (I'm shallow perhaps, but not enough to keep my bod in shape simply for the beach ). What I've encountered in my first month of training is that I'm becoming obsessed about it. When I began, my goal was to simply finish it. Then I began researching races and finishing times and now I have found myself setting goals as to each segment of the race and what I think a realistic overall time could be. Right now I swim the 1/4 mile in about 14 minutes. It takes me around 40 minutes to bike 10 miles and I run 3 miles in about 26 minutes. There are three more sprints left in this season in my area (South Florida ) with the first one coming September 16th. I want to finish in 1:20. Is that realistic or should I not worry about it for my first couple of races? My wife says to keep it fun and don't always compete so hard, but it's difficult for me. I have been in competetive sports most of my 34 years until the last few. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave |