2019, decided to give “sprint” triathlon a go. To get ready, went to the gym multiple times a week over 4-5 months to practice “swimming”, riding the new road bike 2-3 times a week, and running twice a week, etc.
Come race day I wasn’t amazing, trust me, hah. I was (and still am) a very terrible freestyle swimmer, but a decent cyclist and runner…. So while I ended up the 268th ranked swimmer out of 285 people, being 138th ranked on the bike and 148th in the run meant I managed 167th overall. 16th of 18 in my age group, I wasn’t last and I didn’t drown, mission accomplished; and fell in love with multisport in the process. Outside of high school sports though, and one time I super trained for half-marathon 9-ish years ago, probably some of the better shape I’ve been in. But I vowed to train hard and go even faster the next year, and obviously 2020 happened.
Cut to Sep. in 2021, the next time this race actually happens again. Haven’t been to a pool to swim laps in 18 months since COVID lockdowns shut gyms down and we cancelled our membership. Haven’t run since April when I injured my knee/leg via back to back months of adventure racing/training to the point two doctors told me to take a break from strenuous activity for a while. Only really been road cycling and mountain biking all this time, but none of it has been training/workout focused, just fun outings, or getting outside during lunch breaks; plus two pretty decent MTB crashes (one resulting in bruised ribs).
To top it off, last week before the triathlon I got this strange and stupid bout of vertigo/fatigue/virus something to the point I spend most of Wed-Fri laying face down in the bean bag chair cause I can’t keep my head up straight… fun times… Come Saturday I can stand up again so I go pick up my race packet just so I can at least have the race shirt, and I tell Kelly if I feel ok in the morning I’ll go to the race just for fun. Sunday morning I wake up feeling pretty ok, so why not, obviously zero expectations, no training, haven’t tuned up the bike in forever, but don’t want to waste the registration.
…and…
4+ minutes faster than 2019… what!?
Haven’t been in a pool in almost 2 years and I swam 10 seconds faster this time, hah! Biked almost 3 minutes faster, lost about 50 seconds on the run, but trimmed off the other 2 minutes in transition. Finished 95th out of 248 overall, 7th of 17 in the age group; 67th on the bike overall against a lot of people riding tri-specific bikes (3rd in age group)… and don’t worry still a terrible swimmer 219th of 248, which lets be honest, not swimming for 2 years made me faster, so we’re gonna continue that strategy 😉