So last Saturday I completed my first open-water triathlon; at the last minute I decided to enter the Olympic length race, rather than the Sprint length, as I had originally planned. My goal for the race was to not to panic during the swim. Perhaps a better goal would've been: don't let panicking stop you from completing the race. I wasn't completely successful with my original goal, but I did finish the race, and even enjoyed the majority of it, so overall it was a success.
I rented a wetsuit for the race, mostly for the peace-of-mind the buoyancy would give me. I didn't practice with it before the race; I really should have. I didn't get in the water to warm up before the start of the race, so my first strokes in a wetsuit were as the race started. I don't know if the wetsuit was too small, or if I hadn't pulled it up enough, but the arms felt more constricting than they had in the store, and I soon felt claustrophobic, and started to freak out. I started to doggy-paddle, and a life-guard on a surfboard quickly paddled over to make sure I was okay. I hung on to the board for a minute until I calmed down. She told me I was doing fine and to just backstroke if I needed to, which I really appreciated. At that point I was less than 200 meters into a 1500 meter swim, wondering how the hell I was going to finish one loop, much less complete a second one. I had to hold on to two more surfboards during the next 200 meters; I was kicking myself the whole way for biting off so much at once. Eventually I settled into a comfortable rhythm of free-styling for 10 breaths, then backstroking until my breathing settled down again. It took awhile (43 minutes), but I finished the swim (surprisingly I wasn't the last one out of the water).
Because I was so far behind, the bike ride was pretty boring. I really need to start biking more, my legs get fatigued pretty quickly. The run was a lot of fun though. I ran the first two miles at a 7:30 pace without feeling like I was pushing myself at all. Last time I ran that pace I felt like the whole thing was a struggle, so that was surprising. I finished the run in 48:08 (overall pace of 7:44) and the whole race in 2:51. My other goal had been under 3 hours, so I was happy with that. I'm excited for when I get more comfortable with the swim, it will improve my time significantly but also my energy levels for the rest of the race (you use your legs more in backstroke than free style).
I felt surprisingly good during the rest of the weekend. I went to McDonald's after the race with some of my grad school friends who shook their hangovers long enough to come watch me. Probably not the best recovery food, but delicious none the less. After a nap, I went to the Greek festival and enjoyed some amazing gyros, desserts and coffee. Then it was off to a surprise birthday party, where I replenished my glycogen stores with plenty of beer. Not surprisingly, I started feeling sick yesterday, so I'll probably choose a different way to recover from my next race.
I rented a wetsuit for the race, mostly for the peace-of-mind the buoyancy would give me. I didn't practice with it before the race; I really should have. I didn't get in the water to warm up before the start of the race, so my first strokes in a wetsuit were as the race started. I don't know if the wetsuit was too small, or if I hadn't pulled it up enough, but the arms felt more constricting than they had in the store, and I soon felt claustrophobic, and started to freak out. I started to doggy-paddle, and a life-guard on a surfboard quickly paddled over to make sure I was okay. I hung on to the board for a minute until I calmed down. She told me I was doing fine and to just backstroke if I needed to, which I really appreciated. At that point I was less than 200 meters into a 1500 meter swim, wondering how the hell I was going to finish one loop, much less complete a second one. I had to hold on to two more surfboards during the next 200 meters; I was kicking myself the whole way for biting off so much at once. Eventually I settled into a comfortable rhythm of free-styling for 10 breaths, then backstroking until my breathing settled down again. It took awhile (43 minutes), but I finished the swim (surprisingly I wasn't the last one out of the water).
Because I was so far behind, the bike ride was pretty boring. I really need to start biking more, my legs get fatigued pretty quickly. The run was a lot of fun though. I ran the first two miles at a 7:30 pace without feeling like I was pushing myself at all. Last time I ran that pace I felt like the whole thing was a struggle, so that was surprising. I finished the run in 48:08 (overall pace of 7:44) and the whole race in 2:51. My other goal had been under 3 hours, so I was happy with that. I'm excited for when I get more comfortable with the swim, it will improve my time significantly but also my energy levels for the rest of the race (you use your legs more in backstroke than free style).
I felt surprisingly good during the rest of the weekend. I went to McDonald's after the race with some of my grad school friends who shook their hangovers long enough to come watch me. Probably not the best recovery food, but delicious none the less. After a nap, I went to the Greek festival and enjoyed some amazing gyros, desserts and coffee. Then it was off to a surprise birthday party, where I replenished my glycogen stores with plenty of beer. Not surprisingly, I started feeling sick yesterday, so I'll probably choose a different way to recover from my next race.
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