51

So those of you in Texas know that it goes from winter to hot in like 24 hours. And hot is here. It was like 80 today. This should make swimming more fun, but biking and running a little tougher.

Speaking of biking, our coach evaluated all of our performances from Sunday, and decided our weakest sport is biking. So, we're going to start doing tons more biking. In that spirit, we're going on a fifty-one mile bike ride this Sunday.

Now, I'm all for a challenge, and obviously you need to push past the distance you'll need to do in the race, but 51 miles seems a little much. In my races, I'll be doing either 12.4 or 15 miles. So, 51 seems like a little overkill. In a half-ironman, you bike 56 miles.

My biggest concern is that I haven't learned how to drink water while cycling yet. The move to let go, reach down by my knee, grab the bottle, pop the lid, and drink...no way. I've seriously tried, and I just go skidding off course every time. I can't maintain a straight line at all. I guess I could just pull over every so often and drink. I dunno, I think I'm overthinking this.

Also, after two fruitless shopping trips to find a particular brand of trisuit, I just gave up and ordered two online. (I also ordered two pairs of crocodile pumps from Nine West, which has nothing to do with anything, but was much more fun.) SO, I should have two trisuits in my possession in 5 to 7 business days. I'll keep you posted.

ohmygodohmygodohmygod

I am a triathlete. Oh man.

So last night, I fell asleep totally unsure if I was going to do the tri this morning. My teeth were KILLING me, and every time I tested the waters and breathed in through my mouth, I wanted to cry. Bad.

This morning however, I was good to go. Teeth felt fine. Totally determined to finish. My little bag was all packed, my Amino Vital was mixed up, and I was off!!!

I got to the pool at 9:30, where everyone was setting up their gear. Now, I've never actually practiced the transitions between events, so I was just winging it. Basically you get a space big enough for your towel and whatever you can fit on the towel. My towel was JAM PACKED. Didn't want to forget anything.

Next to our towel, we set up our bikes on trainers. A trainer basically turns your bike into a stationary bike. To me, riding on a trainer is MUCH harder than riding on the road. My coach cranks the resistance WAY up, and then puts us in the hardest gear, so it kills my legs.

OK, so now for the actual triathlon:

SWIM: Everyone hopped in the pool and swam 225 meters to warm up. One length of the pool is 25 meters (side to side, not the long way) to give you an idea of what distances we're talking about).

Then we were seeded based on speed to start the triathlon: a 500 meter swim. Since we were swimming in a pool, we swam a method called the snake. Basically, we dove in 10 seconds apart, then played follow-the-leader. The route was down and back lane 1, then over the lane line, down and back lane 2, over the lane line, etc, etc, etc, for ten lanes.

I am quite proud to say that I was actually seeded too low. I was totally faster than the lady in front of me, and several times I accidentally grabbed a foot and had to tread water to let us spread back out. My time was 13 minutes for the 500 meters, which was slower than I expected, because of all the treading water.

Things learned regarding swimming:

1. Swimming with a sports bra under my suit is a-ok. Totally worked.
2. I like swimming. It's the most mindless and easy of the three sports.

TRANSITION ONE: After the swim, we hopped out, ran over to our towel, and got ready to bike. Here is where I realized my first critical mistake. I did have a towel with all my stuff on it. I did NOT however, have a towel to dry myself off with. I tried to roll with it and just pull my bike shorts on. Um, that is not a great idea. It was quite a struggle to get those on. Also, my shirt was inside out. Also, gloves are tough to get on wet hands. Overall, I just realized that a towel would have been handy.

BIKE: What can I say. Forty-five minutes of bike, bike, bike, bike. Tough for like 30 minutes, and cake for the rest. Fun.

TRANSITION TWO: Again, critical mistake. I changed my shoes, THEN realized I was still wearing my bike shorts. Not easy to remove bike shorts and put on running shorts while wearing a pair of Asics, but it can be done.

RUN: We finished with a three-mile run, which I am astonished to announce I finished in 31 minutes. That means 10-ish minute miles. I have NEVER run that fast. Including elementary school track meet day. Including the marathon. Including anything. How is that possible? I dunno. I think it was a combo of adrenaline, desire to be finished, and maybe warm muscles from the biking. Also, one Vanilla PowerGel.

And then, all of a sudden, I was done. Bam. I'm a triathlete. I couldn't believe it went so well. Honestly, I just felt fantastic the whole time, and felt absolutely amazing after it was over. I definitely think I can do the real deal, and I think I can do it faster.

The most fun thing, though, was hanging out with my class. I just really like those people. Everyone was SO encouraging. Sweet little G finished about 30 minutes after all of us, but EVERY SINGLE PERSON stuck around to cheer for him at the finish line. I just thought that was amazingly nice.

So, that's it. I did it. And we're only 8 weeks into the 18 week class. My coach was all teary at the end, and gave a motivational little speech about how every single person in our class could totally compete in a triathlon today, and that she looks forward to helping us improve to competitive athletes in the next 10 weeks.

So, in the post-tri afterglow, flushed with this mini-success, I'm contemplating trying a longer distance tri at the end of the summer. By mid-June, I will have finished my class and done four sprint distance tris. Maybe, MAYBE I could handle an Olympic or Half-Ironman. Ask me when I'm not pumped full of endorphins...

Crap

This morning I went and got my teeth whitened. I have a little self-improvement "to do" list, and that was one of the first things on it. My dentist told me it might make my teeth a little sensitive, and that the sensitivity could last up to 24 hours. No problem.

Um, we have a problem. It has been four hours since I left the dentist. While I DO have sparkly white teeth, I also feel like I'm biting into ice cream basically all the time. It used to be an infrequent jolt, but now it's constant pain.

I read online that this pain can be caused if the solution irritates the nerves inside your teeth, and it is made worse by eating or drinking cold/hot things, or....drumroll.... breathing through your mouth. Great.

We are currently T-minus 16 hours from my triathlon. I don't think I can hold my breath for a 500 meter swim, so I can basically assure I'll have to breath through my mouth. And I'm sure I'll breath through my mouth while biking and running.

So, I just popped a Vicadin and I have my fingers crossed. If my first tri is going to involve two hours of screaming, inflamed nerve endings, I may have to pass.

Low Grade Panic

Holy moly, my first triathlon is Sunday morning. I'm nervous, and can't really think or talk about it. What I apparently AM capable of doing, however, is shopping for it. I bought three, count em, three triathlon books at Borders tonight. And tomorrow I'm making another attempt at trisuit shopping.

Ah, America, where all troubles can be anesthesitized by consumer debt.