Seven weeks ago I did not believe that I “had what it took" to complete a triathlon. Lois inspired me to complete a Tri with her quote, “when was the last time you did something for the first time?” I decided to challenge my own thinking (I brought James along on the journey, too).
Lois (middle) inspired me to register for the Tri!
The first week of Tri training, James and I went to the YMCA to swim for our seed time. James, nor I, had ever participated in swim lessons, and we certainly did not have experience in swim racing, or competitive swimming. Let’s just say that our seed swim was a humorous scene: I busted out my sweetest doggy paddle/pseudo breath stroke, and James tried the over hand crawl for a couple of minutes and then decided to switch to his back and bust out some back stroke (at one point, during the swim, he blew into my lane and wacked me in the face).
I completed my seed swim in 11:20 and James 7:80. Immediately after the swim, we felt exhausted. My body felt like a million bricks, and James felt like a semi-truck smashed into him. With dead bodies, we went directly home and laid on our coach. We enjoyed a loooong discussion that involved numerous inquiries of, “how on EARTH are we going to bike 12-miles and turn around and run 3-miles after that swim???”
 |
| Me & James after the race! |
The second week of Tri training, James and I completed our first bricking routine. Bricking is completing one activity and immediately moving to the next. Our first bricking consisted of a 12-mile bike immediately to a 1.2-mile run. When I jumped off my bike and started to run, my knees literally felt like they were going to bust out the back side of my legs. My legs did not want to move, my body felt like I weighed about 600 pounds. I had to talk to myself through the entire 1.2-mile run and convince myself that I wouldn’t die.
Once the bricking routine was over, I had to lay down. Seriously, I never want to lay down in the middle of the day. Usually, my energy is never-ending, NOT after bricking!
 |
| James- almost at the finish line and SMILING- WOW! |
I had multiple doubts along the Tri training journey. I doubted that I could learn to swim in time; I doubted that I could run the entire race. I doubted that I would be able to function after the race. However, I never let my doubts interfere with my training.
When the training was hard, I just kept going. What I discovered along the way is that our bodies are miracles. Every time I bricked, I recovered faster. Every time I swam, I could breathe better. Everytime I ran, I could ran faster and farther.
On Saturday, May 22, 2010, James and I officially completed the Triathlon. Not only did we “finish” but I swam the entire distance using the crawl swim with fully intact breathing! I completed the swim in 8:38 seconds. I biked the entire 12-miles on a mountain bike, and I cheered on every 50+ year old biker that passed me (yes, every person who passed me was OVER 50 years old). I ran the entire 3 miles in 29 minutes, and I finished the race with a .20-mile SPRINT to the finish to beat the woman who trailed slightly in front of me (I beat her with 1 foot!) I placed 8th in my age group and 135 overall!
 |
| Sprinting to the finish- check out the chick behind me, she tried to bust ahead! |
James earned 2nd place in his age category and 27th overall!!
 |
| James finishing up his bike and staring his run! |
*Our next Tri is July 10th! The swim is ½-mile IN THE OCEAN! Training starts: TODAY! Let’s see what we can accomplish in 7 MORE weeks!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave comments here: