Triathlon - One week to go

A Team Tricurious Post

It's been 15 weeks since I received an email from Laura and Katie asking me if I wanted to do my first triathlon with them and be part of Team Tricurious, and now there is just one week to go until the big event. One week until I can hopefully call myself a triathlete.

A week to go

With four months of training under my belt, I not only can't quite believe how quickly the time has gone but also how much I've enjoyed it. The variety of training for three sports is really fun and as I've mentioned before, really sociable. I love running but found marathon training can get a bit monotonous and lonely; mixing it up with swimming and cycling has kept the boredom at bay. I've also enjoyed the freedom of not following a plan. When I missed running longer distances, I just built that in to my week and held back a bit on the other sports. When I was recovering from a half marathon I took to the open water instead. I realised that in both training and organisation, it's all about balance.

I'm also really pleased at how far I've come. When I first went for a tentative dip in the pool I was frustrated that I couldn't even swim a whole length of front crawl and couldn't fathom breathing on the go. Now I can bust out 800 metres in the pool. I can't manage this in the open water but back then, swimming outdoors was something other people did, not me. Now I get into the Quays usually twice a week and have really been surprised at my times decreasing, even with lots (and lots) of breaststroke thrown in.

Whilst I previously cycle commuted, I never traveled any distance further than 6 miles because I had no reason to. Triathlon training has pushed me to ride longer, discover new routes in and around my city and even enter my first cycling event. I have sought out longer rides, taking opportunities to cycle to far away places that I previously had always put in the 'too far away' file.

And I'm pretty sure adding cycling and swimming into my weekly training has helped my running come on. Over the past four months I've got running PBs in various length races and was just 10 seconds off of my half marathon PB the other week. But it's not all about the times; I've felt stronger in my legs and really looked forward to going running when I've been playing away with other training.

Whilst triathlon training has been fun and different, that's not to say I'm not nervous ahead of next week, I very much am. But I'm nervous about the unknown rather than the actual 'doing it' part. Before I was scared of having to be rescued in the swim but I know I can cover all the distances and I'm just trying to take a tip from Laura and Katie and think of the day as just doing three things I enjoy in quick succession, rather than my first triathlon. My main worry now is getting a puncture, forgetting to eat or fuel up during the triathlon and getting it very badly wrong in transition. But I guess this is all part of the 'first triathlon' fun.

I'll now be spending the next week worrying about whether I should be tapering or training, and practicing replacing an inner tube.