So I've decided on my next big race: a triathlon in Jekyll Island, Georgia on May 21, 2011. The Turtle Crawl Triathlon is a great choice for a number of reasons:
1) It's on Jekyll Island, which is completely flat and beautiful.
2) It's where my great friends Abi and Bryan England (and their children, Anna and the B) live and work, so I've got a built-in fan base and a place to stay.
3) I love swimming much more than running.
Triathlons, for those of you that do not know, come in a wide variety of distances, but always involve three things: Swimming, biking and running, in that order. The longest is the Ironman, which consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles of biking, and a marathon - 26.2 miles. There is also the half Ironman (literally, the distances are roughly half of the Ironman), the Olympic distance and the sprint distance, which is what I'll be doing. Sprint distances vary, but mine will be a .25 miles swim, a 14.5 mile bike and a 5k, which is 3.1 miles of running.
I did a lot of looking into training plans this past weekend, but that didn't do me a lot of good. I can already handle all of those distances individually right now. The training plans were all trying to build you up to where you could do those distances. So I kind of made up my own schedule of swimming, biking and running each twice a week. I'm going to try and do some speed work during my running sessions to improve my 5k time. I'm also going to research swim workouts to see if I can improve my time with that. Right now, I just jump in the pool and swim for 40 minutes, which is about a mile distance. Biking is CLEARLY my weakest discipline. Today I tackled my first ride in a long time and, man, am I going to be sore tomorrow.
The Turtle Crawl also has an Olympic distance triathlon the same day, which is a 1.5 mile swim, a 29 mile bike ride and a 10k or 6.2 miles running. I strongly considered doing it instead of the sprint distance. The swim is not much farther than I am currently used to doing in the pool, and I've already done the 10k distance for running several times. I'm not sure how difficult 29 miles would be on the bike. That would take some work. Right now, I'm pretty sure I'll stick with the sprint, even though I would like to challenge myself more. A triathlon is such a different type of race because of all of the transitions involved from swimming to biking to running. I could probably take advantage of the easier distance just to get used to the format for my first time.
Care to weigh in? Think I should play it safe for my first Tri or challenge myself with the Olympic distance?
I agree that it's probably better to start off small and then work your way up.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about actually doing a fake tri as training? Like, do the swim distance, biking and running as close together as possible and time yourself? It might be more challenging than just training on one event at a time because you don't take into account how tired or sore you'll be from the event before.
Worth a try...
I say this year do the short one and then next year the long one. What a special trip to Jekyll this will be! (Yes, I am totally, unabashedly assuming that I am going with you.)
ReplyDeleteI have actually done a sprint distance tri in the gym. Swimmimg in a pool, using a stationary bike and running in the treadmill, however, are quite different from the ocean and the road. It is way more challenging to do all three. Your legs feel like jelly at the end. Since I just barely made it through that last 10k, I probably should stick with the sprint.
ReplyDeleteI"m excited to hear you are doing the tri! I am finishing my first month of tri training this week. You'll have to let me know what your training schedule looks like. I am more focused on the swim/bike right now because of my "calf strain" and i'll be adding more running later when this thing finally heals.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to do a sprint length in May and the rambling woman (its on the lite side for a spring) in september. YAY!