Am I a Triathlete now?

Its been most of a month since I updated.  I don't particularly think anyone is interested in reading the same old, every day stuff. I am actually crazy busy and training a TONNE :)

red is bike, blue is run, grey is mostly ball hockey

although according to the Triathlon club training schedule Im likely doing half what I should be. Trying to coordinate a tri schedule and a marathon schedule means neither one is getting done very well. 
SO I did my first Triathlon yesterday.
It was a Sprint, not a full Olympic distance. I actually think it was enough. LOL

Ive been doing swimming, but not very consistently, because I have to go somewhere else to do it and cannot do it from my house. I even did a salt water swim but it was super calm and did nothing to prepare me for what I had to do yesterday :(
The biking is a little better, at least 2 times a week or so I am doing some distance although I do need to increase that somewhat.
Running is running. I've been missing my long runs past 2 weeks due to Tri training. 

I figured if I didn't sign up for something I never would so I picked the Guysborough Triathlon because it was also TriNovaScotia's club championship.  We managed to get 4 ladies and 5 men from our Truro Triathlon Club to come out as a team and compete. 2 of us had never done a tri before!  :)

So we got up at 430 am and drove 2 hours to Guysborough, arriving after the sun came up ;) but before packet pick up started. Yay me on time! :)
I arranged and rearranged gear and walked around start and transition lines, picked up race kit, moved bike to rack, without warming up or testing it, by the way, got body ink:)

 I took some pictures before it was time to get too nervous; nerves were kicking in watching the wind blow so hard in Chetabucto Harbour blowing the buoys towards the right. :( wind and waves were strong.

The transition area was congested and a little nuts. The turnout for this race was more than 4 times what it was the year before and they were caught a little offguard. There were not enough racks for the Sprint and Try-a-Try bikes and therefore they were crowding them in very tight. I protected my space til it calmed down.

My warmup wasn't so great; I did go for a little run, did some stretching exercises, although I did not touch the bike. I just hoped it worked ok after it's bouncy ride to the race. I didn't swim before the start, which really was a good thing since it was FREEZING cold and very rough and wavey; I didn't need to be thinking about that. 

The swimmers were watched over by a full crew and I always felt they were nearby while I was swimming. Those fellows in the kayaks were tossed around a lot :P The prerace meeting was pretty much a waste of time because we could not hear what the race directors were saying and the people around us obviously didn't need the information, as they were chatting loudly about everything else except the race. I don't know if we missed information or what :)
Waiting for the Olympic Distance triathletes to finish their swim was unnerving.  We talked and discussed strategy and just waited for them to be finished.
Once most of the Olympic distance racers were finished, we got ready for our shot at the race. The guys went first, then they finally let the ladies go. I guess they didn't want the ladies holding up the men; or they didn't want the men swimming over the ladies? It was a big crowd.


We waded into the water over a bunch of big rocks; the entrance and exit was a narrow ramp between rocks. Therefore we had an "in the water" start. We had to wade in and get wet. I thought we might have a few seconds for a few strokes in the water to acclimate but unlike the 2 starts before us, they started right away and I was barely wet and still couldn't catch my breath from the cold.
And it was cold.  I had a brain freeze up to at least the first buoy! 

The crowded swim wasn't bad. I hung to the back, and swam over a few people, and got kicked by a few, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The waves were bad enough.  I swallowed a lot of salt water, did a bit of breast stroke for it's calming qualities. It took ages to get used to the cold, and ages longer to fight the waves. The tide was going out, and it was dragging the same direction as the wind was blowing. I thought the long distance from the first to second buoy was the worst distance, but the swim back to the ramp was the worst because we had to swim sideways to avoid being swept out to sea!  I must not be a strong swimmer at all ;) It was even hard to avoid the docks, the wind was so strong.

So we swam back up the ramp we entered, over the rocks, and ran between the big rocks onto the matt and up a hill to the transition area. about 24 minutes swimming. ick. I worried a little about all that salt water.




I did have some trouble getting out of the wet suit which I knew I would; I don't know how people do it in suits tighter than mine!  I mean really tight wet suits?  Mine isn't very tight and I still struggle to get out! 
Transition 1 was fast, I was out of the suit and pulled on shirt and shoes, helmet and glasses, and was off. 

I went bare feet on the bike for the first time. It was kinda gross LOL. I think I prefer socks. At the end of the bike there was a long way to run, and I didn't want to do that in my bike shoes; running over the pavement ruins the cleats on the bottom. But I didn't want to ruin my socks either; so bare feet; And then I couldn't get out of my shoes easily on the bike, so I ended up running in my shoes anyway. A long way!

 The bike ride was good. On the way out to the turnaround, the wind was strong in front, which made it hard. And it seemed like there was a lot of uphill, which was awesome on the ride back. I worked hard to drink lots of Energenix on the bike, since that was the only chance for taking in energy.  It took some work lol I spilled a lot but got at least half a bottle. I meant to eat a Cliffs bar on the bike but didn't feel like it so skipped it; error. Rethink! Maybe something lighter than a bar needs to be considered.
 It took almost 30 minutes to get to the turnaround which was disappointing to me, but only 20 minutes to get back to the dismount. Scott was directing bikers by this time so photos were scarce.
Back in Transition 2 I found someone (a very young man) had parked his bike sideways on the rack in my spot with his front tire on my towels with all my gear underneath. I was NOT happy to have to move his bike just to rack mine and get at my gear. I didn't expect it to be tidy but to actually park a bike on top of someone else's gear?  REALLY????

 I put on socks and runners, switched out my helmet for hat, had a drink, and then figured I would grab a bite of Cliffs Bar.....without another drink to wash it down. I swear I couldn't swallow it for like 5 minutes. I considered spitting it out but didn't.  Ugh another error.
The run was mostly trail with some grass and gravel road. It was a little rough and fairly hilly. It was nice but I didn't feel like I had a lot of speed, like running in mud. At the turnaround on the run there was shade which felt nice. at a water stop there was a girl shooting water guns at people and that was nice.
 

The end was nice. I always feel so much better to stop. It doesn't take long to forget how awful the run felt lol.

 

So my first Triathlon is finished. It was a Sprint distance but I cannot imagine having done 2 times everything. That sounds like torture LOL.  I need more endurance training for that. Need to up my miles again!  And the swim ! UGH.  need to stay in the open water!

Swim 750 m, Bike 20 km, and Run 5 km.

91/104

10/12 F40-49 for age group. Im in a new age group. It didn't seem to help my results anyway ;)

I was 94th out of the water, in 24:13.

I was 86th on the bike, in 51:08.

76th on the run, in 30:33.

 

Im glad I wasn't last. I may still be a little disappointed in my placing, but after seeing how slow my times are and how I cannot keep up with anyone, Im not exactly surprised. I need speedwork?  SIGH.