So after reading some blogs of friends and fellow racers I decided to write my own blog, to remember for myself the journey I have started and hope to travel in the world of triathlons.
Meagan has for a time talked about one day doing a triathlon as she grew up in a very active family who has always been involved in Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I didnt know much about triathlons other than it involved running, which I never liked outside of organized sports like baseball or football. Last year I had some friends run the Ironman and I learned a lot about the sport, but starting dental school and having a family I figured I wouldn't have time to get involved, and I still hated running, until this year.
At a friend's daughter's birthday party in June a buddy of mine suggested doing a sprint tri somewhere around August. Sounded great, so I said I was in, and only days later we headed to Idaho to be with the in-laws for a month. For most people that would be hard, but my in-laws rock so it was a great trip. I also had to start "training".
The first step to training was to watch IM CDA, which was awesome. One of my buddies from high school qualified for KONA so that was just awesome. Then came my running. The first run I did I figured just go till it hurts, which was a mile. The next two runs though were 1.8 and the last run I made was a good 3.3. The run was going well, and my in-laws made sure to get me on a road bike to practice for that portion of my race. My first ride was almost 13 miles through the hills of Hayden on a bike much too large for me. Since I survived that ride they decided I was ready to ride 25 miles around Hayden lake....trial by fire. Lucky for me I was able to make the ride twice before leaving Idaho.
We made it back to Kentucky with 2 1/2 weeks to prepare for the Lame Duck sprint that I signed up for. I ordered a new bike, the Tommaso Coltello, through Giantnerd.com. I must say this bike is awesome and I couldn't have got a better bike. Giantnerd is an awesome store and Tommaso puts together some sweet rides for an affordable price. I was able to ride some 50 miles in the two weeks I have had the bike for a total of 120ish miles in preparation for my tri, The only hiccup with the bike was that it had a bent deraileur hanger, but the shop took care of that no problem. I'm excited to race the bike!
Swim training has been the hardest for me. I love to swim, but my technique is designed for floating on surfboards and playing with the kids. I went to UK's pool and the first day swam 300m before having to call it quits. Two days later I went back to the pool, hit 200m freestyle and the other 650m needed for the race were done with a modified back stroke. I was able to put it together for a 24 minute time to do just over a half mile. I hope to reproduce that, but training in the pool was over because the pool was shut down till September for annual maintenance.
With three days to go to the Lame duck I'm running 2.6 in 25min, biking the 9.1 in 40ish, and swimming in 24. I have yet to do any block training, but with the race and the start of school only days away, it is what it is. My goal, to finish, better yet to finish under 2 hours, and if I can put everything together in training time it should be close to 1:30. Time will tell!
