I'm Running my First Triathlon in 12 days.

Does anyone recall a mention in my last post about eventually wanting to start triathlon training? Well, that desire hasn't really left me, in fact it only has gotten stronger in the weeks since the marathon.

Even before the marathon, I had thought about signing up for this Mini Triathlon my sister had told me about. Deep down I really wanted to do it, but between the training burn out and not knowing anything about swimming I had kind of talked myself out of it. That all changed this past weekend. A short phone conversation with a friend that decided to do it got me thinking that yes in fact I should go ahead and sign up. Only thing was, the Triathlon was a mere 12 days away. But I didn't doubt that I could do it. After training for the marathon I do feel like anything is possible. And I did really want to start Triathlon training. The main thing holding me back to jumping into is the cost. I don't have access to a free pool, some of the tri equipment can get expensive, etc. But at this point I thought I could just get by with just buying some goggles and paying some admission charges at a local pool.

So "I'm Running my First Triathlon in 12 days" was on. Day 1 of 12 was in the pool. I had never same a lap in my life, so I really didn't know what to expect out of my first swim. I decided to start with the distance of the actual race of the swim which was 200 yards. I ended up doing 250 yards and my biggest problem was breathing. I felt like I couldn't catch my breathe at all after the first 25 yards. I feel like this will get better though as I just get used to being in the pool. Right after I decided to run the race distance of 2 miles on the indoor track. I pushed hard, and ended up being really happy with my run post swim.

Day 2 of 12 wasn't so positive. I decided to try and bike the race distance of 9 miles on Grants Trail. As you may recall, I had just bought my first bike last month. And if you follow me on DailyMile, you know I had been putting in some good miles on my bike trainer. I was REALLY enjoying the bike trainer and it was good because I was getting used to the bike. I hadn't ridden a bike of any kind in 10 years and I had never ridden a bike with gears. I know that's crazy, but when I did ride a bike as a kid it was always a simple bike that just had pedal brakes.

I was nervous on the bike due to my inexperience, but I really thought it wouldn't be too bad because I was super comfortable on the bike trainer. Oh, was I wrong. I jumped on Grants Trail and was instantly terrified. I felt COMPLETELY out of control. I was on a slight incline and felt completely unsteady and like I could fall off any minute. About a half mile in I had to stop at an intersection and almost fell off the bike because I hit the brakes too hard. YIKES.

I spent the next 4 or so miles terrified. If I went over 13 miles an hour I was completely freaked. I was squeezing the handle bars so hard that my hands were in pain. I did end up riding 10 miles, but I was bummed when I realized I was doing half the speed that I did on the trainer. I thought the bike portion of the tri would be fairly easy, but yesterday made it obvious that is not the case. I am really hoping that a few more rides will get me more comfortable with the bike. ::Fingers crossed:: Tomorrow I'm going to give the bike ride another go and hopefully more swimming on Friday.

The next 10 days are going to be a real test of my physical and mental capabilities but I feel ready for the challenge. I'm excited to push myself a little more! I'll keep you all posted as to how it goes.