Triathlon Inspiration from 1st-timers!
Join me this Saturday at the club from 1:30-3pm to answer any questions you have about competing in a triathlon and get signed up for a group training that will make finishing a cinch! If you were part of the club last year or before it would be great to have you here to support the newbies. Anyone can come, men or women – there’s even a kid’s tri! The Triathlon club will meet Saturdays at 9:30am for training for 13 weeks before the event. (You can sleep in and have the whole day to feel so accomplished and strong!) We will cover everything from what to wear, what to eat, how to swim in open water and how to make that transition quick and easy.
Read the following first-timer stories to get pumped for your own adventure! All of you who’ve done this before – send your stories! I’d love to share them.
Just keep moving! My first Triathlon. Blog exerpt from Manifest the Best (July 2009) by Remy Maguire
I just can't say enough about the importance of trying new things! You never know what you'll discover about yourself until you do. Turns out I like Triathlons! Who knew?
It was perfectly gorgeous at Frenchman's Bar in Vancouver, Washington the day of the Inaugural Girlfriend's and Dudes Triathlon. The week previous I found myself out-of-work and stuck in bed with a fierce bit of some stomach sickness. Yuck. I could barely move and didn't even think of putting on my workout wear- pj's only! Finally feeling better on Friday I feared for Sunday's event. A half mile swim followed by a 12.5 mile bike ride followed by a three mile run! Ouch. I had been looking forward to putting myself to the test for the past few weeks and no way was I going to stay home sick! I woke up Sunday feeling good and nervous - I'd never worn a wet-suit, my bike was just days old and I just had the flu and I was about to do a Triathlon!
The sunshine was bright and the rock-n-roll was blaring on our way to the beach. On your marks, Get Set, Go!!! Everyone was excited, smiling and talking together -what a great community event. We swam along the shore of the Columbia. It was breath, stroke, breath, stroke until reaching the beach and started running for the bikes. I managed to strip off the wet-suit, tie my shoes and buckle my helmet in under two minutes. The bike ride was looooong! I thought it would surely be the end at every curve but no....more corn fields, and more corn fields, pedal, pedal, pedal. Thank goodness Andrew was there at the transition to remind me that I just had to park my bike and take off running! I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do? Oh yea, just go! My legs felt like absolute lead, heavy and slow. But I knew it was almost over. With a smile on my face I took long deep breaths and took off for the finish line. Almost to the end, I felt a great sense of joy knowing I had made it! I really did it. What an incredible feeling! And I was certainly beyond thrilled and (almost) totally shocked when Andrew told me I'd placed 3rd! I haven't won a trophy since high school:) Try something new! You’ll discover something you never knew.
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You can do this: triathlon
WH's Cristina Goyanes always considered herself athletically challenged — until she finished her first triathlon.
Photography By David Madison / Getty Images
Bang! The race gun goes off at 7:43 a.m., and I dive into the cold waters of lower New York Bay. A woman kicks me in the face. It doesn't hurt, but she stops mid-stroke to apologize. I smile, and then we both start swimming for dear life along with the other 125 women in our group, or "wave." As I twist my head out of the water for air, the sun gleams in my eye, and I wish I had tinted goggles instead of clear. The distraction slows me down a bit. Then I remember what my gym lifeguard, Dave, told me when I was training: "Give yourself to the water as you would to your bed." In other words, relax. Nervousness means quick, short breaths, which don't keep you as buoyant as air-filled lungs.
When my big sister Maria first asked me to sign up for this triathlon 10 weeks earlier, honestly, I laughed. I'm the athletic type who trips over the soccer ball instead of kicking it. Then again, the idea seemed so farfetched that I decided I had to prove to myself that I could. And it didn't hurt that the triathlon was the first-timer-friendly, all-women Danskin sprint tri — only a 0.5-mile swim, 11-mile bike ride, and 3.1-mile run — in nearby Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
I knew swimming would be my weakest event, so I was at my gym pool every morning at 7:30 for 30 minutes. My first day in the water, Dave actually thought I was drowning — I could hardly clear a lap without gasping for air. I was also splashing more than kicking — which was why I wasn't going anywhere. He showed me how to rely mainly on my arms to propel myself and to use my legs for buoyancy and balance. As for running and biking, I figured I already had the skills — I mean, who forgets how to ride a bike, right? Riiight. It actually took several weekends of riding with my boyfriend, Mike, for me to feel totally comfortable again with starting, stopping, and just going fast. Once I realized I wasn't going to pitch headfirst over the handlebars, I learned to become one with my bike and, ultimately, the road.
I'm swimming madly now, with the shore in sight. I get out and run barefoot past the spectators down a cold, hard paved road to the transition station — the designated area where everyone stows items for the next event, such as a bike, helmet, water bottles, towel, and sneakers. Maria's nowhere in sight, so I decide to wait for her by slowly putting on my socks and sneakers. (I find out later that this touching display of sisterly love cost me 6 whole minutes!) When she shows up, I lean in for a hug and she yells, "What are you doing?!
Get out of here!" And then it hits me: Shit, the clock is running!
I gotta go!
Pedaling along the flat bike course, I yell, "On your left!" — which really means "Get outta my way!" As I glide by, the other women shout back, "You go, girl!" — which I find incredibly empowering. Back at the transition station, I grab my visor and start the run. Adrenaline is all I'm riding on now, so I reach for the energy gel in the pocket of my trisuit (a swimsuit with built-in padded bike shorts). When I finally see the finish line in the distance, I sprint like a Kenyan for the big photo finish. I've completed my first sprint triathlon — in 1 hour and 46 minutes. With a shiny new medal around my neck (all racers get one), I smile and nod my head in disbelief. I can't believe I did it.
Before that morning, I never would have called myself an athlete — let alone a triathlete. Now, 6 months later, I'm training for my first Olympic distance triathlon (double the length of a sprint).
My First Novice Triathlon - A Brief Story on my Triathlon Fixation
I like to go out a few times a week. I like good food. I have often lost my way on the path to the holy grail of fitness.
Now before you quickly skim over this page and think, “Not a chance!” I’d like to say that I’m not superfit, I don’t have biceps on my triceps, and I don’t like eating birdseed for 3 meals a day. I’m your average Jersey (that’s Jersey in the UK) resident. Which, for those of you who don’t know, contains the highest ratio of alcohol consumption per capita in Europe. So, I like to go out a few times a week. I like good food. I have often lost my way on the path to the holy grail of fitness and all that it entails—the six pack, the rippling muscles, the ability to walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath! But there has always been a part of me that has wanted to test myself, to see if I could hack it in an endurance event, such as a marathon or a triathlon. So upon my 30th birthday last year, I decided that this was it—no more hiding from it, no more excuses, I would go for it.
So I duly started to train and educate myself about what a triathlon would entail. Like most sports, it was a bit overwhelming initially. But I eventually managed to buy a bike for £25 out of the local newspaper, I built up my base level of fitness by swimming, running, and cycling for a few months. Then I started to look around for events to enter. We are lucky enough here in Jersey to have a rich diversity of sports clubs, and we do have a triathlon club (called, funnily enough, “Jersey Triathlon Club”). So I got in contact with them, in anticipation of there being an event I could enter. This was where I learned my first lesson: Triathlon is a seasonal sport, and the season was nearly over.
There was one event to go, which consisted of a 1.5km swim, a 40km cycle, and a 10km run…all in one day, ladies and gentlemen!!! So I decided to give it a miss for the year and to have a go the following year. As luck would have it, the Jersey Triathlon Club holds a novice event in June, so I set my sights on this—a 750m sea swim, a 20km cycle, and a 5km run, which I felt was much more manageable. Of course I had to wait another 11 months until this event, and I’d like to say that this was the part of the story where I trained hard all through the winter, breaking all my personal bests, and becoming a lean mean physical machine. However, the reality was that I, like many of us during the winter, forgot all about the concept of exercise, drank too much, ate too much, and made some vague resolutions on New Year’s Eve about doing a triathlon this year—really!!
So fast forward to late March. I had been following my “get your beautiful beach body” gym routine for a few months, and I suddenly realized that the novice event was upon me. So I started to train, still not believing I had the bottle to do it. But in a flash of inspiration one day, I posted off the application form, paid the £5 entry fee, and it all seemed a little more real. I was now committed…..
On race day, I was on Long Beach in Gorey, nervously surveying the other competitors. Some looked like they knew what they are doing, and a few, like me, were obvious first timers, wearing their bike helmets back to front, etc.
So at 8 o’clock (that’s in the morning, by the way, folks—Lesson 2: Triathlon is an early morning sport!) we were lined up parallel to the beautifully calm Gorey sea, awaiting the klaxon to go off and signal the start of my triathlon career. And then we were off; swimming in a pack of about 50 people to the first buoy, until the quicker ones got ahead and the slower ones went to the back. I was one of the latter, but I managed to stay afloat and going forward. I exited the 750m swim with at least a few people behind me, which was all I wanted. As I exited the water, there were people on the beach applauding all the competitors as they made their way to their bikes. As soon as I left the water, I was a little unstable on my feet, but managed to get out of my wetsuit, put my trainers on and find my £25 bike amongst all the other shiny new carbon fiber super bikes.
So now the 20km bike section. I set off and nearly crashed into someone ahead of me straight away. But I managed to negotiate the 20km route with the aid of the all-important energy drink, and the bystanders clapping each time I went past the transition area. Once I got back and was heading out to do the run, I thought I was home and dry…but little did I know about the effect of cycling before you run. Your hamstrings tighten up due to the different motion of cycling vs. running, then when you get off the bike and try to run, you feel like the tin man from The Wizard of Oz!
I ran along the promenade, and by this stage my mind was oblivious to the pain my body was in. All I could think about was the finish line, and the free banana cake I had spied when I came from the cycle to drop off my bike!!
Again the bystanders were amazing, clapping and cheering me on. Looking back at the photos of the event, in every single photo I am beaming like a Cheshire cat—even though it was one of the hardest things I have ever done! I finished the event in 1 hour and 15 minutes, and even got a t-shirt to say I completed it.
I’ll now admit that I am completely hooked on the sport, have invested more time in training, and have completed 2 more triathlons since. I am now in off-season training, looking to build on my fitness and speed for next year and hopefully knock a few minutes off my Olympic time.
So I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to do something badly enough, then by hook or by crook you can achieve it. Set realistic goals and set aside a bit of time to train and track your progress, and anything is possible.
YOU CAN DO IT!
Coach Remy
For more information about the meeting…go here, http://www.nwpersonaltraining.com/subs/events/event_details.php?event_id=205
Join the club here, http://www.nwpersonaltraining.com/subs/events/event_details.php?event_id=210
Triathlon Event details here, http://www.nwpersonaltraining.com/subs/events/event_details.php?event_id=194
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