Did my first triathlon today (sprint)

It feels like it's been a long time coming, but it's actually only been a few months... Like less than 3, I think.  I started off in March, after not doing any real exercise for many years.  207 pounds, 41 years old, sedentary computer geek.

Started swimming in March, got up to 3x per week, for 45 minutes per session.  Then in April I bought a hybrid bike, but didn't really get on the bike much before May (poor weather was my excuse).  In May, I got busier with biking, and started more serious walking.

In June, I got to thinking about doing a triathlon.  The only piece I was really missing was the running.  So on June 2, I signed up for a local sprint tri, which was a 750m swim, a 20k bike ride, and a 5k run.  At that point, I still hadn't run more than a minute continuously, but I told myself the worst case scenario, I could just walk the run portion of it to finish it off.  I also registered and started a "Learn To Run" clinic, which was aimed at taking a non-runner to being able to do a 5k run.  My goal with that was to try to stay ahead of the clinic, as my last clinic date was just before the tri date.

Throughout June and July, I continued swimming 2x per week, went to my clinic and did my run/walk 3x per week, and cycled to work once a week (30k round trip) as well as some evenings.  I managed to get a couple bike/run combinations in as well, but not as many as I would have liked (or possibly should have).  Most of the runs were in the 3 to 5k range (higher towards the end of July), and my extra bike rides were typically 15k or so, just because of the route I did.  I was ok with the training I was doing... It was enough to keep me very active, and it really helped with my weight loss, I think.

So today, it was 3 days after my 42nd birthday.  I'm down to 170 pounds, and in a weight maintenance mode.  Packed up my bike and equipment last night, and got up this morning at 5 am.  The wife and kids were sleeping in, and were going to wait at the finish line for me.  Had a light breakfast, and stashed some bananas in my bag as well.  Made it to the start location by 6:30 or so, and with the help of some of the experienced guys, got everything all laid out.  Then wandered around, got my body markings put on (#161!) and the chip timer.  My co-worker, who I talked into joining me, showed up later, and we milled around, chatting.  The pre-race meeting was about 20 minutes late, and I think the first group didn't hit the pool till 8:30, instead of the scheduled 8.  I was in the 4th wave of swimmers because I had a faster expected time (I came from a swimming background long ago), so I had a longer wait.  And it was darn chilly in the morning, with no sun out to warm us up!  I ended up having a banana just after the first heat started, just because it had been a long time since I'd eaten.

The swim itself was a good start.  There was only 3 of us in my lane, because one of the people pulled out.  We had a brief discussion before starting, and got our order worked out.  We had one lady about my age, who had done some tri's before, so I bugged her about what to expect, and she had some suggestions to help our swim go smoothly.  Once we got in the pool, it was nice and warm, which was great! I got done my swim pretty close to my expected time (15 minutes), and got over to my bike.

Took me longer than expected to get saddled up and ready to go.  I think it was close to 3 minutes from the time I stopped swimming to the time I left the transition area.  It's hard to get clothes on when you're still wet! :)  Got going on the bike though, winding our way through some of the side roads in town till we hit the highway.  We were lucky that the wind was mostly a crosswind, with a bit of a headwind (and a bunch of up-hill) on the way out, so coming back, it was a bit of a tailwind and mostly a gentle downhill coming back.  I think the next time I do a tri, though, I'll have to aquire a real road-bike... I was pass numerous times on the bike, which was really frustrating.  The hybrid bike just isn't set up to do the higher speeds, especially with a headwind.  In the end, I think I was 27 minutes heading out, and 24 minutes coming back.

Then the run... This was the one that worried me right from the time I hit the "Enter" button.  My legs felt like jello after the biking.  Within a block of starting, I had cramps in my right calf muscle, then the left calf joined in for fun.  Not big huge cramps, but they were there.  So I ran for 4 minutes, then walked for a minute before starting again.  Thought I'd try doing 5&1's, like we did in our clinic.  Nope, no joy there.  So I stopped and tried to stretch out on a tree.  That seemed to help, and after another set of 5&1's, I was feeling better.  Bumped it up to 8&1's after that, and kept chugging.  Got passed a couple times, but I could live with that.  Hit the 2k marker, then 3k... At 4k, I was actually feeling pretty strong, and started going harder.  Caught up to one of the people who passed me, and then I could see the approach to the finish area... Found another gear with about 500m to go, and started cruising.  It FELT like I was running faster at this point than I'd ever done in my training.  Then my kids were waiting with about 200m to go, and they ran alongside/behind me as I made it to the finish line!   I was now a triathlete!  I was pretty beat by the end of it, though... In case anyone was wondering, CC figures my calorie burn for the event was 1300. :)

It was a great experience, and I'm looking forward to the next one (with a different bike).  The people were great, and even though there were some that were a lot more serious than others, everyone was helpful and supportive.  I'd like to try a full tri next year as well, but I'm not sure how I feel about the open water swim.  Have to practice that to feel comfortable with it, and maybe with a wetsuit as well.  And keeping up with my running will be a huge plus too, rather than starting from zero when I register for the event. :)

And if anyone reads through this whole thing, they deserve a medal! :)

Clint

Congratulations man, you are an example to me! I'm 27 years old, used to weight 302 pounds, now down to 205 or so. I'm doing my first marathon on september 12th, been doing half marathons for a while now (every sunday through slopes and rough terrains to get me used to worst than what I'll go through on a real marathon.

I hope not to get too many cramps, hate those damn cramps!

Wish me luck on my marathon :)

Congratulations!  I have been swimming on a team for a couple of sprint triathlons this summer.  We think we are going to do one more in September, but this time we are going to shoot for an Olympic distance- which means that I am going to go from a 400y swim to a 1500m swim. 

I really want to get a road bike for next spring and do a few by myself.  Training for the swim has really helped me get in shape for the other events as well - I did a 5K run this summer and did a 9:00 pace with only 2 weeks of training... 

If you do the open water swim, start with a sprint first.  Both of my tri's this summer were open water and it is *very* different.  I had a lot of problems with the first swim, but learned from my mistakes and had a very good second swim.

Congrats ! I have started the c25k program, I plan on running a race on my birthday..

Congratulations on your first triathlon!  I did my first one this summer too and it was one of my best experiences ever.

Congrats!  You did excellent!  I'm going to race tri's next year... any advice?

Well done! ^^ If only I weren`t such a crappy swimmer, I`d love to try my hand at one of those too.

Original Post by angellos:

Congrats!  You did excellent!  I'm going to race tri's next year... any advice?

 My advice... Do a few practise runs through the 3 events in the weeks prior to your tri.  The bike/run combo in particular is tough, but even the swim/bike combo was affecting my legs on the bike more than I thought it would.  They don't have to be full distance practises, but maybe a 10k bike & 3k run.

You'll spend most of the event on your bike, so make that as efficient as possible.  Get your bike tuned up, and work at getting your average speed up as much as possible over the distance.

Other than that, just put in your training time on all three events.  I was running 3x per week (around 5k per session), biking about 4x per week (15k per ride), and swimming 2x per week (1.5k per swim) at the end (before I tapered off on the last week). 

If you've got any specific questions, I'm not an expert, but I'd be happy to throw in my $0.02!  And thanks for the comments, all!

Clint

Wow, congratulations!!! I want to try triathlon sometime in the future and you are a great inspiration. Right now, I'm swimming and spinning regularly and I'm going to pick up running again soon. Thanks for inspiration, pbear!!

Congratulations!! your wife and kids must be proud of you.

Congrats!! that's an amazing accomplishment!

Thanks! 

Congratulations, triathlete!!  In my first sprint, it took me 7 minutes to transition from swim to bike.  LOL...  and I rode my hybrid too.  The more you do it, the better it gets.  I hope you are hooked!  Are you?  When's the next one?

If you need any help moving forward, do not hesitate to ask...

Wes

Thanks, all!

As far as a next one goes, it might not be till next year.  There is another one close to me here in about 2 weeks, but I don't think I'll try another tri till I replace my bike.  And get some more running time in. :)  The season around here seems to die off after the first week in September, so it doesn't leave much time.

But next year, I've got some races already bookmarked.  They start towards the end of May, and I'd like to get in a full tri sometime over the summer.  I've also got my sights set on a long-distance bike ride next August as well (1400km, 11 days)... So that's another excuse to get a new bike.

This morning, they had the results posted on-line, so I got some more details on how I did.  On the plus side, I finished... :)  There were 111 people who finished the race, including teams.  Out of that number, I finished 96th.  I was also 10th out of 10 in my age group, and had a time of 1:45. :(  My one good result was the swim, where I had the 29th fastest time overall.  Only one person in my age group beat my swim time, and he's the guy who won the whole thing.  So that's good.

But on the bike, I had the 96th fastest (or slowest) time overall... Really need to work on that.  I figured I'd put in my miles on the bike this year (about 300km since I bought my bike in April), so I'm disappointed by that.  I averaged 22.5 km/h.  I don't know how much faster a true road/tri bike would have made me, but I'm guessing another 5+ km/h, which would have cut almost 10 minutes off my time right there.  In my age group, 6 out of the 10 were under 40 minutes for the bike.  I was 53 minutes. :(

And on the run, I did the 5k in 36 minutes (103 overall).  Considering my best training 5k run was 32 minutes, and that when I started running at the beginning of June, I couldn't run for more than a minute continuously, I can live with that time.  But there's obviously lots of room for improvement on that.  There was only one other person in my age group who was over 30 minutes for the run, and he was barely over the 30 minute mark.  I've actually signed up for another 5k race this weekend, so I can see how I do without the extra exercise before the run. :)

On the other hand, there were two others in my age group who "DNF'd", so I don't feel too bad.  I finished, no ambulances were involved, and I even beat a few of the tri teams. :)  And I've got a target for next year!  Overall, I'm feeling better today than I thought I would after almost 2 hours of exercise.  I did my stretches yesterday after I got home, and that seems to make a huge difference in how my hips feel the next day.  Do the stretches, and my legs are simply tired.  Don't do the stretches, and I have trouble getting up the stairs because my hips hurt, not just ache or are tired.  Finally clued in on that.

Oh, and for those who mentioned my family, it was GREAT to see them there, and they were definately happy for me!  Great feeling!  I posted a picture in my gallery of me and the kids running towards the finish area.  Not sure if they should have done that, but they stayed to the side, so nobody else was affected.

Clint

Congrats again, It's awesome that your family was there, I'm sure that gave you a big boost.

Congratulations, you triathlete!!!   My first sprint tri is over Labor Day, and your post (and the other's replies) gave me some good advice.  I'm a cyclist, and like you, figure I can walk during the run if needed, but most importantly, I'm hoping the slight chance of an alligator chasing me in the Florida lake cuts at least a minute off my swim time.    But the hardest part was actually signing up and hitting the "submit" button. 

You are an inspiration to many, Clint!