Pre-Training For My First Tri

My Book Du Jour

I have been contemplating doing a tri for over a year now. The first time I kind of thought of it was when Tom and I were in Albany to do our first Covered Bridge Bicycle Tour last year and we were walking through a shopping center and for no particular reason either Tom or I asked the other about swimming and trying to do a Triathlon. I'm pretty sure Tom brought up the subject and I'm pretty sure that I replied that I had been thinking about it. So, being fashion forward about things I started to hunt around for a swim suit - finally found one that I liked (which fit) on TeamEstrogen.com and even got a couple of accessories too.

So, it took most of the year, but I've actually been getting into the pool at the gym and swimming! Earlier this week there were a herd of people in the pool, each lane with at least two people and some others just hanging out in the hot tub area. It was crazy! Normally, I would probably just turn around and leave, but I actually stayed and swam in one of the over-populated lanes. I think I'm getting serious about this tri stuff! In the last 3 weeks I have gone and swam at least twice a week, sometimes 3 times...that's a good thing!

Running has been pretty slow since All Women's...mostly non-existent. A couple of weeks ago I got on the treadmill again and I remember now why I have not been in the gym to run almost all summer...it's BORING! I know that my time on the road will be limited so I decided it's time to get back on the dreadmill and just do it. I'll be going back to weekend road/trail runs pretty soon so I better make good use of the mills at the gym.

Tonight is the first of the last three time trials at the Port. Last week I beat my fastest time from the beginning of the season. At that time I decided that for the rest of the TT's I would go out and just have a good time and ride hard of course without trying to beat last week's time. I don't know how that will go...we'll see if I ease off and just enjoy the night or not.

My pre-training will consist of following one of the 12-week plans in the book I have been carrying around with me almost always. Then next spring I hope to step up the training and add open water swimming - that's on the condition that I can actually swim the distance without too much trouble. Oh, and open water swimming in the spring...yeah, that doesn't sound good at all. That might just have to wait until right before Blue Lake.

Blue Lake Sprint Tri here I come!

This look makes sense in the water

If she can do it...

I think I can too.

So, met Kristen at the gym and did a few laps this morning. I did a total of 8 laps, mostly freestyle, with some breaststroke because I have this knack of swallowing water which makes me want to stop. I am hoping to get over that at some point. I'm pretty sure that if I didn't have Kristen to rely on for a morning swim, I would have happily stayed in bed because I did not get a good night's rest as I had hoped. Anyway, Kristen was swimming away and I was plugging along taking rests in between each length - have I mentioned that swimming is hard? Overall today wasn't so bad.

Around 6:10 I decide it's time to get out and get showered/rinsed and dressed and meet Mr. Tom and go to coffee. All was well and I was in and out of the shower lickety split. I had a little trouble with getting my sports bra on - I was still a little wet. If you have ever tried to pull one of these things over wet hair and still wet back...don't. It's not pretty. I am half dressed and another woman comes in after her shower and we started to chat a little. Mostly because I had put on my All Women's T-shirt and that peaked her interested. Enough that she declared that she would be doing her first tri this coming weekend! This very nice woman, I would guess, in her early to mid fifties and a little on the plump side. She is going to do her FIRST TRI! Well, if that just doesn't give me a little encouragement! With encouragement from her daughter she trained and trained her little heart out and will be out on the course on Saturday in Seattle. She was very excited...which made me excited for her upcoming challenge. This is what I needed to remind myself what I'm working for.

Yeah, I know I can do a tri at....Blue Lake 2011!

Thinking about...

starting up training again.

Didn't run all last week, did a big event ride on Sunday and actually swam a couple of days last week. I have the picture above as my wallpaper on my monitor at work as inspiration...that should keep me going to the pool...I hope. More goals abound - a Tri in 2011!

Tomorrow I'll be heading to the gym early with Tom and might get a little treadmill time before changing and meeting Kristen for some swim time. This will be the first time for us meeting to swim at the gym - there were a couple of other attempts, but schedules got in the way.  This will be good though, last week I had every intention of walking on the treadmill until John showed up to lead Tom's class and then get into the pool. That was a great plan, but he never showed up! I walked on the mill all the way until 6:00 and went marching into the spin class to find out what the deal was. I decided it was time to go home - so Tom hopped off the bike and gathered up his stuff and we were out of there!

I'm glad for Kristen though, now I have someone to be accountable to ;) although I'm sure that there will be only a few opportunities to meet at the pool. Should be a good time though, she is so laid back and relaxed and fun to be around. I'm pretty sure I won't feel like a big fat loser - she's looking to do her third tri this summer in a few weeks. 

So, before last week I hadn't been in the pool since the middle of June. I have to admit that it didn't so freaky this time around. Progress maybe? We'll see...I've got a long way to go to get to half a mile, but then I have 10 months to do it...it's seems doable.

Swim, Ride...RUN!