Year of the Triathlete

Facebook now has the feature of reminding people of their past with the “this day in 20xx” feature.  Besides a firm reminder that I pretty much only post about amazing food and working out and races, it also reminded me that yesterday, a year ago, August 22nd, I completed Sweet and Twisted and became a triathlete!

…holy crap, it feels like forever ago.  However, I have very vivid memories of that morning in question.

I was practically knock knee terrified for the swim.  I had open water swam TWICE, the first of which was accompanied by a bit of a freak out.  I didn’t have freestyle down yet, so I was planning to do the best I could, but lean on breast stroke a lot.  I took as long for that as I do now for about 2.5 times that length, but I was WAY spent afterwards.

I still had my big ass heavy department store Schwinn.  It took me over 1 hour to ride those 12 miles and I even got heckled by a volunteer who told me that maybe I should get a heavier bike.  This was the first time that I would ever have fathomed I wanted to spend more than 200 bucks on a bike, but it was apparent that I was going to need it if I wanted to continue.  I remember thinking the course was hilly, but I’m pretty sure I’d eat it for breakfast now.

I remember finding out the special hell that was running outside in the late morning heat during August.  I mean, they were nice enough to hand out cold towels throughout the course, but still – it was HOT (and definitely influenced my decision to take July-Sept off this year, I’d rather race Apr-Jun and again in Oct when the temps are below 105 highs).  Also, I was rolling sans garmin, so I was super excited to see the finish line… and then we curved away from it (I mean, I could almost touch the fucker, it was so unfair).  That last mile was the longest of my LIFE but I made it through the finish line and was just giddy with joy that I was a TRIATHLETE.

Besides major nerves about the open water swim, I was pretty confident – my ultimate goal last year was an Olympic (which I did in October), and I was already training longer distances, but it felt great to put it together in a race.

Then I went home and drank too much champagne.  I believe this was the race that started that tradition…

In the last year since then I’ve:

-Purchased a new bike.  A week before my next race.  It worked out because I went from utter crap to a decent entry level road bike, but don’t be me.  It could have been bad.

-Raced an Olympic.  Holy exhausting race, batman!  I got a 3rd place in the Athena division (out of 3, heh).  I definitely want to do more but I just don’t have the time commitment right now.  I’m actually training those distances+ right now, but not as much volume or brick work as I would if I was signed up.  I’ve been continually tempted to just jump into an Oly race one weekend and see how I do, but I’m trying to be a good girl and not do a billion races this summer as I’m looking into a decent amount once the weather turns more to running season.

-Improved my swimming and biking skills like crazy.  My average chillville pace on a 35 miler is 2.5 mph more than I was racing last year.  I’ve neglected my swim a bit lately, but I can still jump in and knock out a mile in about 35 mins.

-Racked up another 2 Sprints this year, and signed up for a 3rd. – all with my Zliten!!! He has become my triathlete partner in crime and I love it!

-Entertained some 70.3 and Ironman dreams in the future

And I simply can’t believe it’s only been a year.  In the next year, who knows what titles I can add to my racing repetoire… marathoner?  century bike race finisher? half-IM finisher?  Age group podium winner (in what, I care not…)? Who knows?

It’s a great reminder to just embark and see what happens.  Two years ago, the idea of a triathlon scared the bejezus out of me.  Biking?  Haven’t done that since I was 14.  Swimming in open water?  Haven’t done that since high school.  Who could do all that together?  Apparently me.  And I’m hooked.  And I love it.  And I can’t imagine life without triathlon.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go home and force myself to rest this evening, as apparently 10 miles ran with a fast 5k at the end isn’t enough to keep me down lately (I wanna swim, wahhhhh).  What have you embarked upon recently and now can’t imagine life without?