Clueless Runner: Attempting a Triathlon

Fish. Out. Of. Water.

I should probably stick to running! I see why sometimes 'pure-ist' runners don't mesh with with triathlons/triathletes. The mentality/experience is a whole different ball game.

How did my triathlon go? Well, it was hard, but fine.
After the race was over, I felt way more exhausted--and beat up--than I did after 26.2 miles of running. And I did the short version of the sport.

Here are some pics:

Everything about my experience=awkward.

Mentally?
Huge difference between runners and triathletes. I see that now.

Also, triathletes I feel are more about crossing it off the list, whereas running is a release. As a list-crosser-off-er, I enjoyed the training! I had so much fun swimming and it even turned into another love of mine. Training for the swim/run of this race was actually a blast, and it was fun to switch it up. I also gained a ton of muscle and thus gained some weight in the process, which is again another awkward for me who is used to the opposite happening in running.


Training Summary.
Cindy's Bicycle: 1 Cindy: 0.
Well, I definitely did train. For the swimming. Alone.  I focused my energy on swimming--assuming it was the hardest part. Well, I ended up being able to swim a mile in 45-50minutes after a month of training. However, my Awkward Race went something like this.....

PANIC--okay--Swim, swim, swim--Lost nose clip PANIC--Swim, swim, swim. Where am I--Right, Out of pool, PANIC,  Run, run, run. Find bicycle, put on gear, What the heck am I supposed to do now, Right, Bike, bike bike. Still on bike, it's been 25freakin minutes are you serious, Bike, bike, bike. Am I still on this thing,  What's that,  I have to do TWO loops, why did I sign up for this, Another hill, no way. Getting off bike, running with bike up hill, now I'm making some progress. Other cyclist sees me, gets of his bike, does the same, We're all running with our bikes this is ridiculous. Get back on bike, finish loop, find bike rack, Get off bike, What the **** happened to my legs, Oh my gosh My legs are gone,  Knees hurt, Keep going, run, run, run......Finish.

Collapse.

And I came out alive but minus one buttock. Whatever, I'll do it again I know. Even though nothing about triathlons feel 'natural' or 'normal' to me, it was a fun and challenging experience I wouldn't mind doing again before baby #2.

Clueless Runner: --er Triathlete?

Why haven't I been blogging as much lately? First of all, still recovering from party-madness. We had honey-bear's first bday, then Honey-Bear's 30th birthday, after which I collapsed. How is it so exhausting throwing parties? I feel guilty  for being tired because I had so much help from Grandmas! But it does wear you out, in addition to teething/baby hating whole milk/ poopies out the wazoo.

Whew.


Got the idea from my brother, who is doing the Ironman in 2012. Not to mention.....I have an irrational fear of both bicycles and open water. (& middle eastern camel spiders eating my flesh in my sleep, but nevermind that). I thought doing a tri could help me overcome a fear of these things. So I had to sign up for one because I knew if I didn't, I would forever be tormented by my lack of basic-life skills that will make me an uptight-non-risk-taking-Claire-from-ModernFamily-kind-of mom if I don't learn at some point.

And, who knows, triathlons might be an easier hobby than running to maintain as I age, right.

 So here I am, committed. But it's actually not so bad--  borrowed a bike from my step-mom, am using our neighborhood pools, and will just have to buy all the other junk I will never want to use again. (Fortunately, Justin is starting triathlons so he'll just use all the stuff). I'm actually growing a lot! (both as a person, and physically...my calves are the size of my face I fear )

My training so far? Well, it's working out well! I *actually know how to swim now!! It's incredible. Years of swim lessons as a kid did nothing for me, but pressure to not to humiliate myself in front of hundreds of meat-y athletes did the trick. Justin&I spent the first week of 'training' learning how. It took me every night that week but by the end, I was swimming laps! That was week one, then last week, I kept pushing myself to go 400 meters straight. This week I went on my first bike ride--6miles of hills. (It's amazing how motivated you become when the other option is walking home...) The biking was the hardest. I will say that marathon-training gave me a good base, so the cardio isn't as difficult as it would have been, but it was hard.  I thought swimming would be a nightmare, but I actually enjoy the swimming, and it's the biking that feels stressful and time-consuming. Kinda like driving. Have to use your brain and junk ;)

I'm not really going to blog much about this process, this will probably be the last of it. I just wanted to share, in case anyone wonders--why I am MIA for the next 6 weeks. (I am tweeting about it after each workout though if anyone's curious (cinders_gr))

Because even though Justin already laughs a little too hard when we watch her,  I refuse to become Claire Dunphy.