Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Tri-ing not to get too frustrated

Last night, I biked to the pool, swam, and then biked home in my swimsuit. This was supposed to give me sort of a trial run for the swim/bike transition in my triathlon, which is on SUNDAY! Holy Crap!!!

Anyway, I learned several things:
  1. I am totally going to have to figure out the logistics of the transitions. Up until now, I didn't think it was that huge a deal, but last night I realized that I am going to have to plan what I need for each portion, and set it up beforehand in an easy manner, or else I'll be totally confused and stressed out.
  2. Circle swim? Sucks. Especially if you are a crappy swimmer, like I am. For those of you who don't know, circle swim means that instead of swimming back and forth on one side of the lane, like you would with two people, you swim as if you're on a race track -- with the ropes on your right side both going down and back. The main thing is that I'm not able to do flip turns, so I would get to the wall and wait and see if the other people were coming so I could let them pass. Also, with that many people in the pool, there's a surprising amount of wave action, which I am not fond of.
  3. Riding your bike in your swim suit? Also sucks. My ass was so wet, even though I used a towel to dry off. I am not sure what to do about the shorts aspect of it, either. I wore my running shorts last night and realized that my legs were pretty dang cold on the bike. But I am not buying a $60 pair of triathlon shorts for something that I'm not sure I'm ever going to do again. Pants will be a huge pain in the ass to drag on over my wet legs, and they'll get hot when I run. I would like to wear my bike shorts because they are a bit longer, but I'm afraid that running in them would not be fun (they have padding inside them, which might make it like running in a big diaper). Plus pulling the bike shorts on over my wet legs might also be a problem. So I do not know what to do. I have one more day of swiming (Thursday), so maybe I'll try to wear the bike shorts that day, and then try to do a short run in them on Friday and see if it works out.
Overall, I am just not sure that I really enjoy this triathlon stuff. The swim to bike thing is a logistical nightmare, and I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Of course, the race will be so much more fun than training, so we'll see how I feel about it after the race. Anyway, the point of doing this race was to try it out and see if I like it, and to finish a triathlon. So if I do end up deciding it's too much trouble, I never have to do one again, but I can say I've done one at least.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe throw on some spandex after the swim. You can towel off your legs, maybe, and then put the spandex on. Will help you stay warm. Spandex won't get all floppy when it's wet, and is easy to run in.

Anonymous said...

hiya squirrel. have you considered boy's swimming trunks? they dry quickly and are looseish, so they don't stick to you and are like shorts once they're dry.
you don't have to wear anything under them because of the meshy thing.

i discovered them last year and am NEVER going back because they are ideal for camping etc when you want to swim every so often without having to sit around in a damp, tight swimsuit making your butt and other parts clammy.

L said...

Hmmm....both good suggestions. I actually borrowed some spandex from my friend last night and may end up doing that.

I never thought of boy's swim trunks, though. They would be pretty nice to swim in. Maybe I'll invest in a pair for camping and stuff.