My Big Fat Triathlon

I Tri'd My Best...

Technically, it was a Sprint Triathlon - a shorter faster version of an Olympic length triathlon. Sprint = 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. First and foremost, I did not cry before or after the finish line. I did a lot of sweating and that may have looked like crying but I assure it was only my skin crying from exhaustion.

My second, although previously unstated, goal was to get some profound insight into my soul, a deeper understanding of myself and my ambitions in life, or at the very least an overpowering sense of self satisfaction from competing something that only a year ago would have been enough to scare me into getting really hammered and I don't know... Drive around or something. In this regard, upon crossing the finish line resulted in complete and utter failure but not total dissatisfaction. My friend Mark Lancaster (no relation) told me he started running and didn't get that clarity/satisfaction/deeper understanding for a long time after he started running, so I am going to trust his wisdom (since it has helped me on more than one occasion) and go ahead and keep at it...

The one thing I did get at the finish line was complete and utter exhaustion. I had swam 1/2 mile faster than I've ever swam before (21 minutes - grease lightening if your name is Denver), biked 10 miles and hit the wall so to speak for miles 10-12 (46 minutes) and got off my bike and tried to run a total of 3 miles (42 minutes - long story). Every muscle and joint I used in the previous 2 hours hurt. It was either cramped, completely limp, or it just hurt. It was the most miserable I can remember feeling in a LONG time. I hated it. I'm going to do it again in 5 weeks.

Swim 21:32
Bike 46:18
Run 42:18
Transition 6:15

The Plan
This race served as a good starting point. My swim can be improved dramatically if I can build the endurance to swim continually and turn around effeciently. As it is, I get to the end of the pool, stand up, cough up a lot of water, breathe, and jump back in and go. Biking can be improved by starting a real training routine instead of going out once or twice a week for 12 miles and riding until my legs hurt, then whining some more - so my plan is to begin a structured bicycling exercise routine. Running - this was truly a pathetic low for me for more reasons than I care to count. One thing I wasn't read for was knee pain. I had a surgery a year ago on my left knee. After the first mile of running (very slow) my knee started to hurt - it got to a point where I had to walk until the pain went away and jog again. Unfortunately this didn't even allow me to run hard or long enough to get my heart rate up - SO, one of my biggest goals in the next 5 weeks is to strength train my left knee and hopefully run and condition it to a point where there is no pain running. My transition time was also pathetic - so I will work on cutting this in half. My goal for for my next triathlon is to finish 25 minutes faster than the first - most of this will come from running. My goal is to maintain at least a 10min/mile pace.

Below are some pictures... Click on the image to make it larger. Camera work is fuzzy - I blame Dave Conners.

Very quickly, my bike (again if you missed the first time) and my slow turn.

Too bad I couldn't keep that thumbs-up attitude through the entire race...

These two are going on my resume for Baywatch.

Go Denver!!




-d

Gagging on dirty gulps of irony...

I'd be lying if I said I'm not nervous about my upcoming triathlon. Physically I'm mostly unprepared. I'm not even worried about the transitions between events, I'll shed no tears over 30 seconds lost not finding the most efficient way to go from swimming, to biking, to puking, to running, to puking, crying, and finally collapse.

I've always enjoyed swimming, until I did it for exercise... It's not something I ever thought I could break a sweat doing - regardless of how fast I flailed my arms or how much water I swallowed. Luckily the water at The Ridge tastes like a combination between week old dishwater and sweat. Something about natural water cleaners instead of chlorine... I've been swimming a lot (nightly for 2 weeks) trying to get my strokes, kicking, and breathing all in sync. It gets better every night. Still, I can't help but wonder how much easier it would be to learn if my eyes burned instead trying to swim constantly gagging on salty dishwater.

The biking is going well... I should be able to crank out 12 miles in about 40 minutes - which for me will be a very swift pace.

Running: who the hell knows. I've been doing my First Day to 5K intervals for 10 weeks now - but I've done all the work on a treadmill. I went for a few runs, nothing significant. Two nights ago I went on a 2.5 mile run (the competition is 3.1) and I thought I was going to die. Treadmill running doesn't translate to real running very well at all. I'm sure when it comes time to run - trained or not - I'm going to be exhausted from biking and swimming. Here's hoping I don't puke my guts out!!!

I hope that when this is all over I have a brief moment of clarity that will allow me to reflect on this whole thing in a different and motivating light. The only real goal I've set in the last couple weeks is that I want to cross the finish line without crying like a baby. Wish me luck!!!

Below is a couple graphs from my training log... So far, since learning the exact date of my own personal apocalypse, I've significantly ramped things up - both in intensity and duration. If I had any sense - before my next event, I will train the same amount of time (and more) but keep most of it in Zone 1 (blue) and gradually ease into more rigorous Zone 2 (Red) and Zone 3 (Yellow) exercise bouts, decreasing duration as intensity increases.

A rash decision...

I made a rash decision two nights ago and decided to sign up for a mini-triathlon. Specifically, it is the Queen City Traithlon - in Helena, MT. 1/4 swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. This was the shortest possible triathlon I could find - and I'm most scared of the swimming. It's been a while since I've been in a pool so I've decided to use my free membership to The Ridge to try to learn how to swim. Not so rash when you look at it that way, right? The Triathlon is June 1 (which gives me less than 10 days to train) and let's just say I haven't be spot on doing my running intervals lately. It should be interesting however it works out. Stay tuned...

My Newest Toy

I bought this new plaything at Summit Bike Shop in Bozeman, MT. It will take me about 4 months of riding to work and back before i start saving money on gas - 2 or 3 months if prices keep rising :). I have plans for this bike - I really do. I'm going to start doing some of the nightly rides the some of the bike clubs and shops put on, and hopefully do a couple longer tours this summer, as well as a triathlon or two - I would really like to be fit enough for a big triathlon at the end of the summer. Wish me luck!!!

And the winner is...

This is Lucelle. She is the winner of the 1st ever Springmeadows Wii Golf Tournament. GO LUCELLE!

The salty dew of success...

I've been exercising pretty regularly these last few weeks. My physical activity level (and weight) has fluctuated some since my original few posts about losing weight. I said I wanted to exercise X number of hours/wk and start doing plyometrics and other such things. None of it panned out. I turned out to be a lazier bum than I expected and shortly after those posts, I stopped exercising all together. Took a couple weeks off. It was a mistake and set me back in a few ways.

I'm back at it now - and I HAVE BEEN SWEATING A LOT with a new program. I have been running. I started out running as long as I could at a slow pace... I was going about 5 minutes at 5.5 MPH to start with. I think the farthest I ran to start out with was under a mile. My HR creeped up to high 170's, low 180's. After I got a little endurance built up, I started a more scripted interval program I found as a podcast. It's called Podrunners Intervals: First day to 5K.

I've been following the program the best I can in terms of actually getting off my butt to exercise. I do it 3 days a week for around 30 minutes. On the off-days, I try to get to the gym for at least 30-40 minutes of very light biking or stepping on the eliptical machine. So far it's a really motivating program. I can run a couple miles now, nonstop and my heartrate doesn't go over 165 running at 6.5 MPH (a huge success). I recommend anyone who wants to get into running to give this a shot, it's worked out very well for me. Also, my total weight went from about 252 lbs to 235 lbs. I haven't noticed a huge decrease in the way I look, but I've gone down a beltloop on my pants and I feel like I have more energy during the day. I will keep you posted. This week is supposed to be my first non-stop run. It should be fun (jk).