Finished my first tri

And I loved it!

Me thinks I will have to change my blog name...

How about...

Ramblings of a Swimming, Biking, and Running Addict,

or perhaps

Ramblings of a Triathlon Addict. :)

What a blast these events are!

Here is a quick summary of my day. I will have to post pictures later, I am at Starbucks and forgot my camera to upload the pictures.

Swim
I have only swam a handful of time this year (well OK maybe twice), with one of those swims being on Monday, so I was very nervous about the swim. Even though I have swam a lot in the past, I knew that it would be an interesting experience. I was also nervous about wearing my wetsuit, and oh did I mention that this was my very first open water swim, not to mention first time wearing a wetsuit?!! I figured there would be lifeguards if I got in trouble :) :)

Well anyway, the swim was fun, I just tried to stay steady. I usually breath bilaterally alternating sides, but I found it easier to breathe every stroke, since there were so many people around me. I kept calm, but this would not be good for someone who is claustrophobic.

Swim time: 17:40 (2.22 minutes/100m).

Very pleased with the swim. I know I can improve on this with some training and also not veering off course so much. I am a bit of a zig-zagger!

Transition to bike
I don't have my T1 time (I wish sports stat would provide this), but I can tell you it was a wee bit rough. I came running out of the water and I felt a bit like a lead balloon. I had trouble getting my suit off, I felt clumsy coming out of the water, like I might trip and fall. I then had to run with my cycling (tap) shoes until the bike mount point. I felt a little dizzy at first on the bike, and had trouble clipping in. I finally had clipped in and then there was a huge hill. I grannied down and pushed up the hill, but my heart was racing, and I decided to dismount. Not a great feeling, but it really felt like the right thing to do since I felt dizzy. I waited a few minutes, the dizziness passed and got back on the bike. I think it was just inexperience with the transition swim to bike - I must practice this in the future!

Bike time: 58:47 (21.9 kph).

I know this time can be improved. Just this past week I biked a BRICK time trial with the Nachos, and my 16.3K time was 34:01 (28.5 kph), and it was because of the dismount, but I still felt happy that I pushed through and this was about experience, not trying to kill myself, and just going through the motions was enough.

Transition to run
This transition was much smoother. I decided to keep my cycling shirt on, and was off without much fuss, although I forgot my handheld water, and Hubs caught up to me with a cold bottle of PowerAid. Thanks Hubs, you are a sweetie! Again the legs felt funny, but the BRICK workouts I have done (well one on Thursday) prepared me for this feeling. It was hot, but I just ran it, walking occasionally to take quick sips of water

Run time: 27:31 (5:30km/min)

I felt pleased with this time, since I felt like I was going much slower, I think alot of it is heavy legs after the swim/bike.

Overall time: 1hr 43 min 53 seconds. Not too shabby, and I guess I blew away my 2 hour time goal. Still I think I can improve, especially if you add up "race times' (86 minutes) to total time (100 minutes). Yep, almost 14 minutes, but I think some of that is running to the transition from beach, to bike mount, from bike dismount. Or of course I could just be a high maintenance girl, which is likely true too!

Thoughts for next time:
-less is more I will ditch the cycling top for a onesie tri suit under the wetsuit
-practice swim to bike transition
-practice swim in open water

Other than that, I loved it, and can't wait to do another. I think I will sign up for the Ironman 70.3. First I have to develop a training plan that will allow me to train for both this Ironman and St.George in October.

Anyway, thanks for all your well wishes. Some of you mentioned that you were hoping to try one to and I say go for it!! You can do one with not much training, just try one for fun and see how it goes and if you like it!!

I will try to catch up on your blogs before my 2hrs free at Starbucks expires (on holidays with no wifi!!)
Thanks for reading!