Shifting Gears

On Thursday morning I’m going to participate in my first triathlon.  It’s called a Sprint Triathlon because the distances are short in each event – at least they are short for real athletes.  For someone like me, they are plenty long!

The course requires that I run 2 miles which is about the max that my legs, lungs and funky left knee will take.  Then I transition to my bike and ride for 12 miles which should be fairly benign.  And I finish by swimming 400 meters in an outdoor heated pool.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been half-heartedly training in between laying wood floors.  I know I can do each event on its own – what I haven’t done is put them all together!

Today Mike took me to the YMCA which is hosting the event and showed me the course layout and let me do a mini-tri along with a tutorial on how to transition. 

The run starts in a wide drainage culvert – we run about .2 mile, climb a short hill, run on a soft gravel trail for another .5 mile and then out into the street.  I was glad I got to experience the start of the run because I’ve done all my training on hard surfaces and this is definitely different.

I did the drainage ditch run along with a short bit on the gravel trail and then doubled back to the parking lot where I had laid out everything I’d need to transition to the bike.  Under Mike’s guidance, I changed shoes, put on my helmet and took off on a run with the bike to the “mount line” where I could then get on the bike and take off.

The biking course is a 3-loop route around several blocks and due to heavy traffic, I did a simulated bike ride in the parking lot and returned to what was now the “dismount line”.  I got off the bike, ran to my transition point where I put the bike up, took off my bike sandals and helmet and grabbed my goggles and hat.

I then ran across the parking lot and through the YMCA (a more direct route will be available during the event), jumped in the pool and swam.  Since I couldn’t remember how many laps I had to do, I swam several more than necessary but it was good to get the feel of the pool.

It was encouraging to know I will end at steps where I exit and then cross the finish line.  I feared if I had to hoist my bod out of the pool, I might be there next week!!!

I really appreciated Mike putting me through the paces and I think it was fun for him to share this passion with me and teach me the ropes.  At least now I’m not quite as nervous as I was.  He also told me the men will start 10 minutes before the women so I won’t have to run in a crowd of 500 at the start.

We have to have our bikes in place prior to 6:30 on Thursday morning and since Mike wants to snag a prime spot (first come, first served) he suggested we leave home about 5:00.  That’s 5 in the morning!  Since the youth race is first, maybe I’ll have time for a nap before I start.

We’ve been so busy these last few days that I haven’t had much time to think about training.  I did get in a 20-mile bike ride yesterday and tomorrow I plan to do a long walk at a more leisurely pace than normal.

My goal is to finish in under 95 minutes.  I’ll keep you posted!