Tri-A-Lot

I did my first triathlon today and before you wonder how I trained up for it and how I snuck in biking and swimming practice in between all the running, it was a mini-micro-triathlon.  That doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful or significant, just that the lengths of each segment weren't overly long.

I signed up with my niece, Olivia.  The swimming was four-hundred meters, biking followed at seven miles and then we ran one point eight miles to the finish.  I felt confident that I could do all three lengths with ease so I didn't do any training. 

I'm glad I went to the preparation clinic the coordinator held, because I was not aware at all how the transitions from one event to the other took place and the requirements for when you could bike and when you had to walk as well as what was recommended to take or wear and what was going to be a hassle as you progressed through the race.

At that clinic we did a bit of swimming, biking and running to get a feel for the transitions and it was at that point that I decided I hated the swimming first leg.  I had run eighteen miles earlier in the day so I was tired, but I didn't expect to be gasping for air while doing a one hundred meter swim. 

This morning, my niece wisely suggested that I do some warmup swimming and I decided that was good advice.  I swam five hundred meters to warm up for the four hundred meter swim in thirty minutes.  That warmup made a big difference in the comfort I felt during the swim.

I transitioned to the biking portion of the race fairly easily and biked the seven miles (three laps around the shopping mall.)  Then I moved into what I thought would be the easiest leg of the race, the running.  But no, my legs were unexpectedly tired from the other two activities and how they were used differently.  My shin splints came back with a vengeance and I had a hard time just running for a while.

When I crossed the finish line,  I had a surprisingly new perspective on how multiple exercises, combined together, can be more challenging than a single exercise over a longer period of time.

The Big Boy Update:  In the car today he sang, "A-B-C-D-E-Your Buggers..."  I promise, he didn't learn that verse from me.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Yesterday at the lake at Nana and Papa's camp ground she discovered how to pee in the grass.  She would take her pants down and we'd try to hold her up over an invisible potty but that suited her not.  She preferred taking her pants off, sitting down in nature and going on the spot.  She did this more than once and was very happy about it, no matter what uncomfortable surface she was sitting on.

Fitness Update:  First mini-triathalon:  Four hundred meters swimming, seven miles biking and one point eight miles running with my niece, Olivia, who beat me hands down.