My first time! (you know what I mean)

I completed my first sprint distance triathlon Nov. 8th on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California (www.pacificsportsllc.com).

Beautiful venue for the event. The tri crowd took the island over. Here's the links to my race photos:

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=2436&PWD=&BIB...


For training, I did 5 weeks of the sprint program on this site. Beacuse of my condensed time frame, I chose to do the 5 hardest weeks in the program. Often times I would sub bike rides for spinning class at the gym. Also, I maintained the weight program on the site during my training and plan to keep that going as long as I am training. Weights work for me. I like them, so why quit, right? For swimming, I would do freestyle and say to myself, "your feet aren't touching anything but the sides of the pool for the next 25 minutes - regardless of speed". I never really worried about distance, just time with everything. I figured that as long as I was exceeding the sprint distances, everything would be cool on race day. I definitely got a serious boost from the environment.


First, I want to say THANK YOU to the beginnertriathlete site for all of the advice. I had absolutely no idea what to expect on race day. Also, for anyone who wants to get into the sport, tracking your workouts is an absolute must. By keeping tabs on myself, I was able to approach my workouts in a far more structured manner. But all of that went out of the window when I got off the ferry and mixed in with the 700 other participants. I grabbed my goodie bag and t-shirt, got "marked", and fumbled over to my wave group. I was extreemly pleased to overhear a number of other participants in my 25-29 age group saying, "yeah this is my first one too". About 5 of us immediatly bonded in ingorance. I hung around for about 30 minutes, nervously straigthtening my transition area and checking my gear. I took a chocolate "Gu" shot too. Stay away from the chocolate ones. Nasty!

The swim: (0:12:10 / 0.5 miles / #169 overall) I was comfortable during the swim being a former water polo player. The water felt ice cold at 66 degrees. I was one of the few guys in my wave without a wetsuit. But not the only one, to my relief. This inspired me. I though, watch me woop up on these fancy wetsuit guys. Wooped some, ate wake with others. Good enough. With swimming, I can't hear anything or see very much. So I easly retreated into the "zone" and just kept swinging one arm in front of the other. I'd look up every twenty strokes or so to make sure I was swimming a straight course for an object (either a bouy or, on the last leg, the transition enterance).

T1: (0:2:36) Already in my shorts, I threw the top on, grabbed the bike helmet, got the shoes and socks on, grabbed the book, and hauled ass in the wrong direction for a second! I figured it out when I saw the writing (a big yellow arrow pointing in the opposite direction and the word "BIKE" written underneath it). I finally figured it all out and got on my way. My arms and hands lacked some dextarity, but all in all I was ready to start cruising on the bike.

Bike: (0:44:27 / 10 miles / #126 overall)) The bike was a massive uphill climb with 3 false peaks before the true peak followed by a long windy downhill spilling out into a half-mile flat. The course was around 3 miles and we gave it 3 laps. I just got a new road bike (Specialized Allez Comp '04) and love it, but have little to no road bike experience. The climb with the double chain ring was tough, but I fought it out and did fine. I also had that nice saltwater taste in my mouth, which made me feel a little tough. Laps 2 and 3 felt better than 1 because I was warmed up and knew the course. However, laps 2 and 3 were a bit of a mosh pit with so many riders bottlenecking around the climbing turns. Sometimes I would find myself sitting back following someone else's tire. Bad habit. Reminder: Know the course so you don't have to hold back anywhere or even think about where to go. Every time I had to think, I broke my stride and consequently felt a little "off" for a while.

T2 (0:1:46) Honestly, I don't even remember being there. I was a bit numb at the time!

The run: (0:27:31 / 3.1 miles / #392 overall) YIKES!!! Let's see here, #169 of nearly 700 on the swim, #128 on the bike, and what, #392 on the run??? What happened? It's called running out of gas! about a half mile into the run, I cramped up a little. The run was a 1.5 mile slight uphill grade, turnaround, and 1.5 mile slight downhill grade to the finish. I sucked. Basically, I was speed walking compared to my normal workouts. Lots of BRICKS for me in the next few months. At one point a runner passing me on home streach noticed that I was sticking my fingers in my gut trying to massage out the cramp while running. He yells out, "RUN THROUGH IT, YOU'RE ALMOST THERE". I can't tell you how much that helped. Come to think, people were encouraging one another all over the course. I did it too. A guy passed me on the same bike and said, "nice bike" as he passed. Jokingly, I responded, "yeah, but why does yours go faster than mine?". I then said, "you better not let me catch you!"

The finish: (1:28:30 / 25 of 53 in my age group / 169 overall) I was practically in tears, and bananas and powerbars never tasted so good. Best feeling I've had in a LONG, LONG time. The tri bug definitely bit me. Seriously folks, I'm even writing on random internet forums. What's happening to me???


My goal is to move up from 1:28:30 to a 1:20 (1 hour flat wins the entire thing!). Agressive, but I think it can be done. I just need 1 minute from the swim, 4 minutes from the ride, and 3 minutes from the run. Running will always be my weak spot, but it is definitely the "root" of tris. Running will help my riding, but riding won't help my running as much. I'm OK on the swim, so it I guess I had better start liking the run (which I currently LOATHE).


-Adam