1st ever triathlon. UCSD Tritonman, sprint distance. It was a 100.0% success. I was only 3 weeks into an 8 week sprint training schedule, my goal was to gather data points on my fitness. Even if I got a DNF (did not finish) I would have been happy as I would have an objective snapshot of where I am.
I went to bed Saturday 10pm completely relaxed. Alas I woke up at 1am with pre-event jitters, I guess I wasn't as relaxed as I thought. And I couldn't go back to sleep. It was an EARLY race, transition setup at 6ish, and I had planned on waking up at 4:30am anyhow to shower/chill/drive there.
I got a bit anxious in the water, back stroked 65% of the time. I made the exact mistake my swim coach warned me about - I swam 50% further than needed. The event kayak dudes kept pointing as I was off course. As a result of the exhaustion T1 took 8 minutes vs my stretch goal of 3 minutes. I'm not upset, just something to address.
I did strong on the bike, caught up then lapped a few men. For the run I intentionally kept a 10:30 pace despite having energy left and enjoyed the day. No point in burning my legs on my very first triathlon.
My next one is Napa, April 9th, also sprint distance. I'll have 2 goals: 1) freestyle far more if not 100 %, 2) find a way to calm down so I get more than 4 hours of sleep.
Assuming all goes well I'll do an Olympic Triathlon in May, the 72 mile AMBBR in June, an Olympic in July, then a half ironman in September (Santa Cruz).
Wish me luck!
p.s. Enjoy this post? Please consider donating to my Leukemia & Lymphoma Society fundraiser. Details here.
Comments