My First Triathlon and Building Endurance

Well, there’s no turning back now. I’m going to be doing the Dilettante Women’s Triathlon on June 15! I’m not sure there could be a more perfect event for my first triathlon since the 8th grade–that’s like 23 years ago! Why?

• It’s an all women’s triathlon. I don’t have to worry about being muscled out or run over by dudes (okay, I’m not sure that actually happens at any race).
• It’s only about 15-20 minutes away from my house. I hate worrying about the logistics of races, so this takes a load off my mind.
• It’s a smaller race. Less intimidating for noobs like me.
• My friend Jill, one of my trusted tri advisors, is going to be doing it, too.
• There will be chocolate. Good chocolate.

Adding to the excitement, I was asked to help promote the race and can offer readers a $10 off discount code (see code at the end of this post)!

RETURN TO THE POOL
Since I actually had a race scheduled, I decided to get to the pool on Friday. My goal was to swim 1,600 yards total, and for 800 of them to be in a row.

Sadly, I could only go for 400 yards without stopping. It’s not so much that I was out of breath. It was more that my arms wouldn’t work anymore. So, I have my work cut out for me. For the Dilettante Tri, I am signing up for the Olympic length. I will need to be able to swim 1,500 meters (.93 of a mile!) continuously in a choppy lake around other people.

I am not sure if I should register in my age group (I’m 35) or as an Athena (I’m 156 pounds right now). Thoughts? If you had to make this decision, what would you do?

I did finish 1,600 yards in 45 minutes. The first 100 was slow freestyle, then 100 breaststroke (my easiest stroke). Then I did the 400 free continuously. Afterward, I did 100 breastroke (because I wanted to die). Then I did 100’s of free with 30 second rest intervals in between each 100 until I got to 1,400 yards. I finished with a combo of free and breastroke.

ON THE ROAD
On Saturday, I completed my first outdoor bike ride on Hot Wheels with my friends Chelsea and Lisa! It was awesome (and cold). I did fall once, though. Ouch. The day deserves its own post (plus I have a TON of biking questions), so look for that in a couple days.

LONG RUN
On Sunday, I woke up with a pounding headache. I am trying not to take Ibuprofin every time I get a headache, which seems to be every few days recently. I tried drinking water. Nope. Drinking coffee. Nope. And having some food (and some chocolate). Nope. It lessend, but it was still there just under the surface. Ugh. I hoped a run would help, but I had to wait for the temperature to come up a little.

Around 11, it was about 30 degrees or so, and didn’t seem too bad, so I went for my long run for the week. My goal was to run at an aerobic pace for about an hour. When I was running, I decided that if I got to 6 miles before an hour, I would stop.

I took the trail by my house that runs by the lake and it was gorgeous–some of the surface was frozen! I had to stop and take a photo, but I’m not sure you can really see the detail of the frozen water.

I did today’s run without music or any kind of entertainment. I really have been missing my dirt and gravel trail. The quiet sounds of birds and trickling of many small waterfalls was better than having Flo Rida blasting in my ear anyway. Last year, I ran the trail a lot when I was using the Run Less Run Faster plan to PR in the 5k. I had a lot of really fast long runs on the trail, and I really enjoyed running without music then, too.

When I run the trail, I try not to use music. I want to be aware of my surroundings. I feel safer on the weekends because there are usually a lot of people out exercising on the trail. But I also take Mace. I have a little carrier that I can strap around my hand, but I dislike holding things when I run. I strapped it around my wrist today, and that worked well. There was one creepy dude and I simply moved the Mace from my wrist to my hand to be ready. But when I got closer, I recognized him. I see him on the trail a lot. You never know, though, so better safe than sorry.

This year, I’m trying to “run more and run smarter.” I need to build my endurance. I will worry about speed later. I haven’t been running that many miles per week since fall, and I’ve been sick a lot, too. So, today’s run was nice and easy–at a conversational pace–and I reached 6 miles just short of one hour. Perfect. (Unfortunately, the headache returned when I stopped running. I tried to combat it with a shower and a protein smoothie, but no. A couple hours later I had to take some Ibuprofin. Bummer.)

BUILDING ENDURANCE
I plan to build my endurance in the swim, run and bike until March–when we have a little vacay–and then start “real” tri and half training when we get back. Dilettante Women’s Triathlon is June 15 and then Seattle Rock ‘N’ Roll is the following weekend. Talk about a fun couple of weeks!

So…who wants to do the Dilettante Women’s Triathlon on June 15 with me and a bunch of awesome women?! Sign up now and save $10 with the discount code: INSANITYDWT13

Finishers get a medal, Dilettante chocolate (of course!), quick results posted on race day, post-race food, prizes for overall and age group winners, chip timing and a great experience! Plus, 15% of your race entry fee goes to support King County Parks, which I think is pretty nice!

ONE FINAL NOTE
Also, I wanted to say thank you to those of you who left me comments on my last post. It really helps me to hear other opinions on issues–even personal issues. I guess I just feel like I should have had my career all figured out by 35 years old, and that it would be something really fabulous and impressive, but I don’t and it isn’t.

I thought about it some more and realized I haven’t put that much effort into figuring out what that fabulous career is and what it would take to get to it, so maybe it’s not that important to me. I think maybe just being happy and being with family, friends and enjoying my hobbies means more to me than having that fancy job.