I "tri"ed today!!

Ok, I know the "tri" jokes are getting old, but I just think it's hilarious...more proof of my turning into a complete dork. Haha. Anyway, I wanted to update about my early morning training this morning.

I took tylenol PM last night at around 8:30 because I didn't feel tired but I knew I needed some sleep if I was going to be able to drag my butt out of bed at 5:15. Well, in what seemed like 5 minutes, my alarm went off. Let's just say the tylenol PM was still pumping through my body...it was kind of a hazy wake up. After getting dressed and eating a bagel with PB, I headed out to Walden Pond. I brough along my bottled water, since I couldn't prepare my own bottled water because of the boil water order I just had to make sure the water bottle I bought fit in my cage on the bike. Luckily it did. I got to Walden around 6:30, thinking other people would be early to set up too. Turns out this wasn't the case.

I was the only one there for about 10 minutes, then this other guy came, and we chatted a bit while we waited. After driving around to about 3 different parking lots while adding more people to our group, we finally found the right parking lot and headed down to the swim start. Luckily the leader of the group, Barry, had an extra wetsuit that I managed to pull onto my body. Barry is much thinner than me, so it was kind of a struggle to get the suit on, but once it was on it felt very comfy, and it kept me warm on the swim so I was happy about that!

So after I got the suit on and had Ruben help me set out my transition area, Barry explained what we were going to do. He had set up bouys to make a short course...only about 200 yards. The plan was to do the swim three times...the first 2 would be practice and to get used to the cold water...the third was going to be the "real" thing...well, as real as you get when it's just practice.

We all put on our double layers of caps and headed into the water. Barry yelled go, and we all went running. This was my first mistake. I dove forward and started swimming. No sooner had I put my face in the water and taken 2 strokes than I started feeling like I was hyperventilating. I wasn't expecting this...when I swim in a pool I am completely calm, in fact I love the swim so much because I feel so relaxed during it. I knew open water swimming in a group would be different, but this scared me. I struggled through the first swim, stopping to tread water several times, and focusing much more on just breathing than on my stroke. I ended up near the back of the back, and when I climbed out of the water it took a few minutes to get my breathing back to normal. I talked to a couple people about this sensation, and the consensus was that this is normal, it happens to most people most of the time, and the cold water certainly doesn't help. It also didn't help that that was my first open water swim and my first time swimming in a wetsuit. Let me just say I am SO GLAD I had the chance to feel that before the race. I think I would have freaked out if that happened in a race and it had never happened before. Now I know to expect that feeling.

The second swim was a bit better. Some people gave me suggestions for things to do if I feel panicky or short of breath. They suggested rolling over on my side or back and looking at the clouds for a few strokes, this is supposed to be calming. They also said I should sight for 4 or so strokes, which is good to know, I was only sighting for 1 or 2 strokes. One person gave me the best suggestion, she said to go when I was ready. Since my goal in the triathlon is to finish, the 20 or 30 seconds I might wait while the pack thins out is not going to be a big deal. I did this on the second and third swims and it was much better. When Barry said we could go, I just kind of started to slowly wade into the water. I took a deep breath and then started swimming when most people had already gone and I felt comfortable. This was MUCH better. I still felt a bit panicky and short of breath, but I rolled to my side and looked up at the clouds, taking long, slow breaths and letting my stroke extend. This time I practiced taking my wetsuit down to my waist when coming out of the water. Getting it back on while still wet was NOT easy!!!

The third swim was great...I still had that nervous, panicky feeling a bit, but now I knew to expect it and I knew what to do about it. Just knowing that I could deal with it made it feel less scary. The swim was 200 yds....so about 600 yds all together.

I practiced everything I remembered from reading about the swim and I talked to myself (silently in my head! Don't worry, I'm not that crazy girl chatting with herself!) ....swim until your fingers brush the ground...pull on the neck of the wetsuit before standing up to let in water...stand up and start run/walking to the shore...while you walk/run, pull the cord on the wetsuit and start working your arms out and pull the suit down to your waist. Pull off goggles....pull off cap...run to T1 area and throw down goggles/cap. Pull off wetsuit (which, by the way is hard to do because when you come out of the water you are dizzy...so standing on one foot is NOT easy!)....throw wetsuit down (not on towel!)....step on towel to dry feet...grab other towel and quickly dry legs and body...pull on bike shorts....decide not to wear shirt, throw shirt on ground...pull on socks and shoes...tie shoes...put on helmet, decide not to wear sunglasses, take quick sip of gatorade....pull bike off rack and run up the HUGE hill to get to the road!

The bike was pretty good, it was challenging to get my heart rate down after running with my bike up the big hill to the road...we were down by the swimming area of the lake and there is a big ramp to take you up to the road...it was actually a relief to get on the bike and start pedaling, it felt at least like I could get in a rhythm then. The hills on the bike felt huge...and they really weren't huge..but I think that since my heartrate was so high to begin with and I had a little trouble bringing it back down, that the hills felt huge. Right before the turn around there was a huge downhill though, so that was really nice. I made sure to remember to drink water on the bike. Even though today's ride was short, and I would have been fine even if I hadn't had anything to drink the whole time, I want to get in the habit of drinking while I'm riding so when the real thing comes I will be ready. The bike was about 5 miles.

I hopped off the bike at the bottom of the hill, where Barry had drawn a dismount line. This is really important because in the real tri, if you pass the dismout line while still on your bike you can be disqualified. I jogged/tripped/shuffled my bike over to the rack and started T2.

T2 was super quick..I racked my bike...took off helmet....sip of gatorade...grab my visor, and I was off....I jogged/walked up the huge hill again to the road, and then started jogging off on the run. I put my visor on while I was running to save a little time. The run was hard...even though it was only 1 mile. I got a cramp in my right side again...I don't know what is causing this, but it has happened in the same spot the last 2 times I have run...not fun! Anyway, I walked a few times...but only 5-6 steps each time....I think it was the slowest mile I have ever run...it took me about 16 minutes, but that's ok, I finished it and that was my goal. I felt so good when I ran back down that bastard of a hill and into the transition area. Everyone in the group was so supportive and they were all saying I did a great job. I felt awesome afterwards!

The whole thing was a great experience, and I am really looking forward to our training ride/social on Friday night. I'm really glad I joined this group. I am proud of myself for doing that today, because I haven't even done a brick workout yet. A brick is when you do two events or three events together...so far I have just been training each exercise separately...so it's pretty good that I put them all together and managed it without feeling too horrible!

I came home and took a nap....and now I am gonna put in my AC and then get to work on some homework and job search stuff. I think I need to go to the store too at some point...boo.