Swim…Bike…Run…REST!

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So its been a few days since I completed my Olympic triathlon and I did say I would post a recap of how the experience was, but honestly it’s taken me a few days to figure out how I feel about the whole thing. And I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure if I’ve figured it out.

First, a quick run down. An Olympic triathlon is 1500m swim, 40km bike and a 10km run. This is how it went:

After a rainy Friday night, I woke up to blue sky and I knew it would be a beautiful day. It was! Getting ready for the swim, we were smiling and having fun.

race dayOut of all three of the events, I was feeling best about my swim. This year I’ve really improved my stroke and my swimming has become a lot stronger. I was confident going into the lake, thinking to myself, “You got this.”

Turns out, I did not ‘have this’. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I panicked in the water. I couldn’t catch my breath, there were people everywhere and at one point, I felt as if I was going to go under. WTF?! I’m a strong swimmer. This shouldn’t have happened. But it did. At one point I considered calling the boat over and saying F*** it. There were many thoughts going through my head, fortunately one of them was, “Just keep friggin’ swimming, Elena!”

So I did.

It took me about 700m to calm down and get in my groove, but once I got it, I was fine. Then of course the swim was over.

On to the bike. It was windy heading straight West into the mountains, and a slight uphill all the way. For the first few kilometers I was a bit shaky, but then I hit my riding groove and it started feeling good. By the time I hit the 20km turnaround pointing me East with a tailwind and a gentle downhill slop, I was loving my bike.

Off to the run and I was actually feeling good. Especially since I was 2/3 done.
Unfortunately my feet had fallen asleep on my bike and they remained that way for at least three kilometers of the run. But they finally woke up and joined the party. I was the most concerned about the run portion of the race since my knees have been so bad and my training in this area suffered a bit due to that. But I actually finished it in about the time I thought I would.
When I rounded the corner and saw the finish line, I took off at a dead sprint. I was done! I got my medal, a bottle of water, my t-shirt and a hug.

Done. 3hours 22 minutes
And the first thought in my head was, “Thank God I’m done.”

Now, three days later, I can think back on the race and be happy with myself and my performance. Because, apart from the swim, I am pleased. But I also know my heart wasn’t into this race and I’ve been fighting that feeling for a few months now. I wasn’t excited about it,  I considered not participating and the overwhelming feeling when I finished was relief. Which makes me think…a lot.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a super fun day! And I AM happy that I did it. But I think it’s time I take some pressure off myself for awhile. So I’ve made the decision not to do anymore races this year. I will be participating as a team in a local Sprint team, which I think will be a ton of fun because I’m only one third of the race. And then…well, I don’t know. But I think it’s time that I spend a little time figuring it out.

medal

What do you think? Have you ever had mixed feelings after reaching a goal?

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The Swickie

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Swickie: Swim hickie that results from shockingly painful chaffing on the neck while swimming.

This isn’t a technical term, well at least not that I know of, but it should be.

For me, a swickie will result during long distance training swims (when I wear a certain bathing suit) because I only breathe on one side, or during a lake swim when I wear a wetsuit. It can be prevented with a simple little product called Body Glide. But only if you use it…

I ran out…

swickieNote to self, body butter does not work the same way.

Ouch!
Plus it looks stupid.

To-Do List for Today:

-Buy Body Glide

My goal triathlon is on Saturday. Clearly, you can see where my focus is right now. Next week the focus will be back on writing and completing a Castle Mountain Lodge short story with some of my favorite characters from the series!

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The Fourth Event

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If you’re competing participating in triathlons, you probably already know about the fourth event. But if you’re new to the sport, or you’ve up until now, participated solely in ‘pool triathlons’ you may not be familiar with the totally exhausting, always challenging, sometimes embarrassing event of…putting on the wetsuit.

At first glance, this piece of neoprene looks harmless. I mean really, how hard could it be to get into a wetsuit?

wetsuit

HARD.

First of all, the garment in question is about twenty sizes too small. At least it looks this way, although, as you wrangle it over your ass it will feel more like thirty sizes too small.

Second, it’s made of neoprene. THICK neoprene. Ya know, to protect us from certain hypothermia.

Third, the human body is not meant to glide easily into a twenty sizes too small neoprene glove. It’s. Just. Not.

Regardless, the wetsuit is essential. Particularly if you participate in triathlons in Canada where the race season is jammed into the months of May through September and it’s been known to snow at one time or another in each and every one of those months. Sure, it’s rare for it to snow in July or August but even if it doesn’t, I assure you that the lake will almost always feel like the ice just melted (in some cases, that’s an actual fact!) Such is the beauty of swimming in glacier fed lakes.

So, with my race only a few short weeks away, it was time for me to try on the wetsuit yet again, and jump in the lake. Joy.

I don’t mean to make it sound terrible, in fact, donning the suit can actually be quite fun and yet another opportunity to get up close and personal with your training partner as they pinch, pull and yank the suit up and over your ass. (Remember it’s at least thirty sizes too small.)

Actually getting the suit on involves slicking every inch of exposed skin with body glide, which isn’t nearly as sexy as it sounds, putting your feet (and sometimes hands) into plastic bags and then putting on gardening gloves (for grip) to tug, pull, sweat and sigh your way into the suit. By the time you actually get it zipped up, you’re sweating, exhausted and over heated.

I’m pretty sure the strategy behind exhausting yourself with the wetsuit is that by the time you’re stuffed inside, and have completed ‘the fourth event’ you’re actually begging to jump into the frigid waters just to cool off.

Now that I’ve made it sound really fun…are you ready to tri?

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