Triathlon - The Prep

This past February, my sister-in-law Natalie came to DC for some meetings on The Hill.  I was lucky enough to have her stay with me!  We had a very short, but fun time together talking and eating yummy food in the evenings.  One of our conversations led to her inviting, encouraging and CONVINCING me to sign up for the Lake St. Louis Triathlon!  I don't know how she did it, but in the 48 hours that she was here, she was able to persuade me to commit to doing it.  I went online, paid the fees, and officially signed up to participate in the Lake Saint Louis Triathlon - Short Course.  I figured it had only been a few months since I had completed my half-marathon, so I was still in pretty good shape.  I just needed to keep active to maintain my current fitness level; plus I had 6 months to really train for it.  The short course required a 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 2.5 mile run.  Didn't sound impossible.

In March, I heard about some 5K races that were put on by Crystal City (an urban neighborhood in Arlington County).  It was called "5K Fridays".  The city hosted a 5K race each Friday in April; a total of 5 5Ks in all.  You could sign up for specific Fridays, or get a discount to sign up for all 5.  I decided to go for all 5.  The half-marathon I completed was my very first race ever, and it was such a great experience that I thought what better way to train for the triathlon than to sign up for some official 5Ks?  I hoped I would get the same "high" on each race day that I did for my half.  I went online, registered for all 5 and paid my dues.  I also signed up for my 3rd season of co-ed soccer, and a separate soccer clinic that would last for 6 weeks.  I figured all of these things would definitely keep my level of fitness going.  I was getting excited.

April rolled around and I was ready to get my body moving!  I took it easy in March, just going for small leisure runs, bike rides and played some tennis.  Now it was time to get serious.  I ran my first 5K on April 2nd and was happy with the result.  I didn't stop, and my time was decent; 31:12.  I was hoping to get better with each consecutive race.  The first full week of April consisted of the following: Wednesday - personal training session, Thursday - first soccer game of the season, Friday - 2nd 5K race, Sunday - first soccer clinic.  It was a busy week!














The weather was nice on the Wednesday of my personal training session, so we did it outside.  He made me run sprints and did a lot of quad work; squats, lunges, etc.  Thursday's soccer game was played in the rain.  Friday's 2nd 5K was cool weather, so that got me excited to hopefully perform better than the week before.  But it was very windy.  I had to fight to keep my speed against the head wind.  I was pretty upset when my official time showed 1 second slower than the week before!  UGH!  I was thoroughly annoyed.  It made me that much more determined to beat my time the next week.  Saturday it was gorgeous weather, so I shoved in a 15 mile bike ride -- which isn't that long, but there were some killer hills I pounded up.  My body was sore (especially my legs!) from all the activity of the week, but I was feeling good going in to my soccer clinic on Sunday evening.  I was eager to improve my soccer skills and meet some more people who had a love for the game.  We ran some drills and toward the end of the session, I was sprinting out to get the ball and both of my legs seized up!  It was the weirdest thing ever.  So much pain all of the sudden.  My left quad was considerably worse.  I was down and out for the rest of the night.

The next few days consisted of me working from home, icing my thigh, wrapping it in an ace bandage, and trying my best to stretch it out.  Walking was painful.  Going up and down stairs was worse.  I spent considerable time doing my best to work out whatever was causing the pain in my thigh all week (even skipped my soccer game that week), so by the time Friday rolled around, I was confident I could run my 5K.  However, not doing any physical activity all week had me a bit nervous.  I headed out, but traffic was AWFUL!  I pulled up to a parking garage only to get trapped with a ton of cars trying to find a spot -- lots of dead ends and 35-point turnarounds.  Long story short, I sat in traffic looking for a place to park long enough to hear the starting siren blow.  Then all the thousand runners filed past my car while I was STUCK.  This was so frustrating!  I wanted to just throw on my hazards and jump out of my car to run with them. I was really disappointed..  and angry.  I got home and it had been more than an hour since I had left.  Usually it only takes me 7 minutes to get there.

I made myself run around my neighborhood, thinking that I would run my own 5K...  I started out and soon felt a new pain - shin splints!  They were so painful that I had to stop and walk, and even walking was painful.  I was confused.  Why is my body suddenly shutting down?  Sunday I went to my soccer clinic and while my quad held up OK (I had it wrapped and it only hurt during part of one of the scrimmages), my shin splits were crippling!  I used the excuse to re-wrap my ace bandage to take a break and try to stretch out my calves and shins.  I was so mad.

Weeks went on and my quad continued to give me problems.  I was only able to run in one more 5K, and it was my worst performance, as I had to stop and stretch out my quad and shins after the first mile.  Playing in my soccer games only made my quad worse.  Plus, I ended up getting kicked in the Achilles one game, so I just kept accumulating more injuries.  I ended up canceling my soccer clinic.  April turned out to be one huge frustration & disappointment.

By mid-May, I was pretty discouraged and I was getting really nervous about my Triathlon training.  I ended up signing up for another 5K - the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure - that was at the beginning of June.  My quad was becoming manageable and I thought that I could pull off this 5K without any major problems.  I also hoped that it would kick-start me in to getting serious about my triathlon training.  I had mapped out my specific training schedule that would start mid-June.  I was most nervous about the swim.


The morning of the Race for the Cure was VERY hot and humid!  I didn't perform well at all.  Now, not only was I nervous about training for the swim portion of the tri, but the run portion as well.  What used to be an easy distance, was now difficult.  It's amazing how quickly you lose your fitness when you are not constantly working on it.  I signed up to have access to the local high school pool so I could start teaching myself how to swim.  It had been since my Freshman year in high school - about 15 years - since I had actually done a crawl stroke correctly; the last time I had actually swum a considerable distance for a workout.

Well, due to having company in town, watching the World Cup, attending a concert, and getting sick from accidentally eating beef, my training didn't start until the very end of June, when I attempted my first workout in the pool.  I picked a lane marked "slow" and jumped in.  Then I sat there for a minute.  I was SO nervous!  I was trying desperately to remember how to swim.  I knew I just had to go for it, but I was completely self-conscious.  My adrenaline was pumping hard.  Eventually, I kicked off the wall, put my head down in the water, and pretended like I knew what I was doing.  Kick-kick-kick-kick.  Right arm, left arm.  Right arm, left arm.  Oh yeah..  BREATHE!  I was so panicky in the water that I just couldn't get a big enough breath to keep going.  I made it to the other side of the pool totally winded, my heart pumping furiously.  My fear for the triathlon increased 100 times.  How in the WORLD was I going to do this?


















Eventually it became easier in the pool.  But for some reason, I just couldn't get myself in the groove of regular training.  Then the first week of July I went home to WA.  My intentions, of course, was to workout while I was there, but not surprisingly, that didn't end up happening.

Then a week after I returned from WA, I had another 5K to run.  I actually had forgotten that I signed up for this one; Run for the Gulf.  The proceeds went to help the oil spill.  That evening turned out to be the most humid EVER!  I could barely breathe, the air was so thick.  I had the most miserable experience and thus completed my worst 5K.  The panic and disappointment really set in now.  Undoubtedly, it would be hot and humid in St. Louis for the triathlon.  And so far my body simply COULD NOT perform in those conditions!

About a week later, my sister Tami came to visit from Germany.  Then a week or two after that, my parents and my brother & his family came in to town.  We had family activities for the first couple of weeks in August, and then before I knew it, it was time to prepare to travel to St. Louis!  Wow.  The summer had FLOWN by, and I did not feel prepared at all for the race.  The very hot and humid weather had not encouraged me to get outside to work out very often.  I had only trained about 7 times in the pool, gone on a handful of runs, a few bike rides, and only a couple of days had I combined 2 of the events - either a swim/run or a bike/run.  I was DREADING race day.

I ended up purchasing a plane ticket to St. Louis, since I couldn't take off enough days from work to drive there and back.  That meant that I also had to pay somebody to break apart my bike and pack it in a case I could rent to carry with me on the plane.  Then I would have to pay for somebody in St. Louis to put my bike back together.  Etc, etc...  This was becoming a VERY expensive race!  I added it all up and estimated that by the time this was all over with, I would have spent around $600 to participate in this triathlon.  I was not in a good mood about it.  If I had felt ready, the money wouldn't have mattered.  But because I felt like I would honestly FAIL at my attempt to complete this triathlon, I had a hard time being OK with spending so much money on the failure.

Little did I know that the money was nothing compared to what I faced when I got to St. Louis.....

**to be continued**