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Peas n carrots

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I did my first triathlon this past weekend, and I think I caught the bug.

 

I've been a runner for several years, and after going through almost 2 years of injuries I came to the conclusion that doing running all the time was just too hard on my body. Plus, I wanted to try something new.

 

Now I've always enjoyed running, but I tended to enjoy the "after" part of running more when you drink a beer and eat a lot. But I feel like I enjoyed every second of the actual triathlon competition itself. It may have been the setting - which was in a scenic, rural area and the run part was on wooded trails. But I think I like having the variety of 3 different sports.

 

And surprisingly, I enjoyed the swim the most! I seeded myself towards the back, but it ended up I was a good deal faster than a lot of women in my wave, and got stuck behind a large group of slower swimmers.

 

The cycle would have been more enjoyable had it not been for a mechanical issue (somehow before the race my derailleur got banged up and shifting was not very smooth).

 

I can't wait to do it again! This weekend's competition was a sprint, but my next one is an Oly, so I have a lot of training to do!

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  • 1 month later...

I did my first XTERRA Tri a few weekends ago. It was an amazing experience, very exhausting and exhilarating. I should have trained more. Coming out of the 61 degree water I was tired and knew it. I had difficulty with the wetsuit and could have skipped it. I could have done with more open water practice. I was kicked in the face, there was so much drafting and splashing and I swallowed so much more water than normal. I used an inefficient stroke and know I could have done better. The bike portion was terrifying and felt like it was never going to end. I knew most of the course, but I was so tired and slow that I just couldn't manage a good speed. The run was fine, except boring and on a way too familiar trail. I feel completely humbled about my experience and know that my dream of an ironman is very far away. :-)

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Hey cool! Triathlon!

I did my first half Ironman this past June, and I'm doing my first Olympic distance race on Saturday!

I'm one of the odd ones whose weakest leg is cycling. It seems like most people either struggle with swimming or running, not cycling.

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Hey cool! Triathlon!

I did my first half Ironman this past June, and I'm doing my first Olympic distance race on Saturday!

I'm one of the odd ones whose weakest leg is cycling. It seems like most people either struggle with swimming or running, not cycling.

Not going to lie, I rank much lower on cycling. For one, I don't do it as much as swimming or running. I enjoy it a lot more than running, but it takes special equipment. And I think at some point it just becomes an "arms race" as in, there is a lot of emphasis on equipment. You can take minutes, even 1/2 hour in a sprint tri off the bike by just upgrading a your bike. If you look at the times, it seems (in my area anyway) that the best women's times are coming from the higher age groups, unlike the swim & run events. My guess is there are a couple of factors, the first being money, the second being time & discipline. And most women my age have small children with them most of the time so they are either used to hauling around more weight, then when the go up a group they just have all these awesome leg muscles. :)

It seems like in my area everyone freaks out about the swim, but I find the swim to be the easiest part. Especially if it's a pool swim.

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Not going to lie, I rank much lower on cycling. For one, I don't do it as much as swimming or running. I enjoy it a lot more than running, but it takes special equipment. And I think at some point it just becomes an "arms race" as in, there is a lot of emphasis on equipment. You can take minutes, even 1/2 hour in a sprint tri off the bike by just upgrading a your bike. If you look at the times, it seems (in my area anyway) that the best women's times are coming from the higher age groups, unlike the swim & run events. My guess is there are a couple of factors, the first being money, the second being time & discipline. And most women my age have small children with them most of the time so they are either used to hauling around more weight, then when the go up a group they just have all these awesome leg muscles. :)

It seems like in my area everyone freaks out about the swim, but I find the swim to be the easiest part. Especially if it's a pool swim.

Yeah, I notice that too, about the better times being better in the higher age groups. I've come to similar conclusions. There is no way in hell I'd ever be able to buy a $1000 wheel set like some folks have. Plus, people rarely come into triathlons having done them their whole lives. So it takes several years to become competitive.

My boyfriend follows cycling religiously and knows a lot about the equipment, and according to him, there's kind of a law of diminishing returns. You can spend $100 for a shitty bike or $1000 for a bike that is 10x better. But then you can spend $5000 on a bike that's only 50% better than the $1000 bike. Same thing for pedals, helmets, what-have-you.*

*All numbers pulled from the Ken Alexander School of Statistics, otherwise known as my ass.

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I wouldn't say never in regards to the $1000 bike. I say never to the 3,000 bikes, but 1,000 seems pretty average for a high / medium end road bike. I never thought I'd ever afford lots of things, but sometimes it just works out.

Of course, I'm currently swapping out tires and pedals to try and get a little more speed for an upcoming event.

Race fees are the death of my pocket book

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  • 2 months later...

Oi vey so long since I've checked in here.

MM - congrats on your first Xterra! Though I'm curious did you go into the race tired, or was it the swim that really took it out of you? I'd love to do one of those races, but my location prevents me from being near any good trails to train on for the cycling leg. Will you do another one?

Firiel - congrats on the HIM. Which race did you do? The Oly must have felt easy! I signed up for my first HIM this July...I'm starting to wonder if I'm :cray-cray: Any advice? I feel confident I can do the distance in each individual sport, but putting it all together is another story.

Bikes: Last tri I did (Chicago Triathlon) is one of the largest races in the world of its type. In the months before the race I made a couple minor upgrades (added the ITU style shortie aerobars and adjusted my seat post to a more aggressive position) that were relatively inexpensive. During the race I ended up blowing by men who had far more expensive machines with all the bells and whistles - I think there is a lot of truth in the law of diminishing returns. A lot of those dudes had great bikes, but they didn't have the "engines" to really perform on them. In reality they are age groupers spending thousands to shave off a couple extra minutes - unless you are a pro or elite who does this for a living and those extra seconds matter it doesn't really make sense at all.

Now that I finally have all the equipment I need for racing the only upgrade I'll probably do next year is get rear mounting bottle cages for extra hydration options for the HIM.

Oh, and I fully admit to being a serious consumer of bike pr0n. This is my current obsession

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2014/04 ... s_96163/14

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  • 2 weeks later...

Firiel - congrats on the HIM. Which race did you do? The Oly must have felt easy! I signed up for my first HIM this July...I'm starting to wonder if I'm :cray-cray: Any advice? I feel confident I can do the distance in each individual sport, but putting it all together is another story.

{L_MESSAGE_HIDDEN}:
I did Boise! Craig Alexander (my triathlon crush!) was there and I got to meet him-- it was really cool! Which one are you doing?

Anyway, I don't think you are crazy! Do you have a training plan worked out yet? I just used the free one on beginnertriathlete.com, and it worked out really well for me.

Advice... hmm... my advice for training is pretty boring-- sleep, water, blah blah blah.

My biggest race day advice is don't risk minutes to save seconds. Like, take the time to put on sunscreen and socks or you could be in major pain the next day or lose a bunch of time due to blisters. My transitions were slow because I checked and double-checked everything, but I'm glad I did. Also, familiarize yourself with the course as much as you can, even if it's just on Google Maps. I was fortunate enough to be able to do a few training rides on the actual course, and that helped a lot on the bike. I knew what to expect regarding hilliness and wind on every part of the course.

If you have any other questions about doing a HIM, feel free to PM me. You can post here too, but I don't check here as much. :)

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Oi vey so long since I've checked in here.

MM - congrats on your first Xterra! Though I'm curious did you go into the race tired, or was it the swim that really took it out of you? I'd love to do one of those races, but my location prevents me from being near any good trails to train on for the cycling leg. Will you do another one?

I think it was a combination. I never intended to do this race, I knew it was above my level. The only part I wasn't worried about was the swim. I got in the water (which was much colder than it was even the day before, due to rain, Alaska, and time of day), and was excited. The horn went off, I started swimming, and I immediately freaked out, I wasn't used to being in the water with other people. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't get into a rhythm. There was kicking and fighting and it was awful. The lake (which is 2.5 miles from my house) suddenly seemed much bigger. I had only trained in the wetsuit once, didn't care for it.

Got out of the water middle of the pack. Took forever to change and get started, was cold and was immediately greeted by a steep uphill. My friend didn't even try to ride up, she just walked. I rode it, barely made it. Felt sluggish and slow. The next 13 miles I felt that way. A few days before the ride I had taken a pretty bad fall (over my handlebars, cracked helmet) so I was extra slow. Finished the bike dead last ( my friend quit at mile 10.) only kept going because everyone was cheering and being supportive, I shouldn't have entered. The only reason I did was because a friend was killed on his bike a few days before. He was the one who told me about the race.

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