A New Adventure – My First Triathlon
Posted on June 24th, 2011
So, after some coaxing by a friend of mine that is moving into my apartment complex I agreed to enter the Austin Triathlon, and train with him! I had always told myself I would never enter a Tri, but I think I knew deep down inside I wanted the challenge. The swimming part has always been my biggest fear for two reasons. One, it’s just different and for some reason a lot more scarry than biking or running, even thought at one point I had never done either of those. Two, I simply fear being the one guy that doesn’t look good in a speedo, but I have recently learned that speedos are pretty much no longer a part of tri’s.
To make this an even crazier challenge, I am entering the Olympic distance. That is a one mile swim, 25 mile bike ride, and six mile run. I’m not in the least bit worried about the bike or run portion of the race. My only fear is being completely exhausted after the one mile swim. It will be even worse if I’m not able to train enough to swim the entire mile. Thankfully I know a couple of people that are willing to help train me in the area of swimming. With some luck and hard work I should be able to pull this off.
This is will by far be the most challenging thing I have done in terms of endurance sports. I have had plenty of challenging climbing endeavors, and worked hard to finish my third half marathon in under 1:50, with a pace of 8:21! It’s also been a while since I have even done any endurance running due to my bicycle accident last October. But having almost fully recovered from that I am up for the challenge.
I will also be doing the run portion in my Vibram Five Fingers. I have been running exclusively in them lately, but am still struggling to build up the muscles in my calves, but the frequency of my runs is also not what it used to be. But, six weeks (the time until the Tri) should give me plenty of time to build up the necessary muscles. It helps to have natural running resources like Endura Lab. I have become a huge advocate for natural running ever since my bike accident (I tore meniscus in both knees) and have noticed a huge difference in how I run. I had always had arch pain in my left foot due to it being slightly smaller, but since I’m now running without arch supports… NO PAIN! I highly recommend leaving traditional running shoes behind and picking up natural running.
Barton Springs Pool
I will be hitting the open waters of Barton Springs tomorrow morning for my first official swim. Barton Springs is a naturally spring feed pool, so the water will be VERY cold. Hopefully it will be a hot, sticky humid morning so diving in will be a welcomed relief.
The training program will be pretty rigorous compared to the training I have done in the past for half marathons. So finding time to do everything may be difficult, but I’m up for it, even if it means waking up at 5 a.m. and riding twenty miles before hitting up Barton Springs. I’m thankful to live so close to the springs since admission is free before 8 a.m. So I won’t have to worry about pool fees during my training. A short 2.5 mile bike ride puts me outside the gate.
My training has pretty much already begun, as I have put in more workouts this week than I have in a long time. I look forward to updating everybody about my training progress. I will be posting all my workouts on Dailymile, and Tweeting a lot, so be sure to follow me there. I have also added a category “Tri Training” so you can keep up with me that way as well. I’m also open to any advice you might have for training if you have participated in Tri’s, yourself.
Cross Training, Cycling, Health & Fitness, Tri Training, Uncategorized by OrganicClimber
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