Just signed up for sprint triathlon- anyone else?

[Somanyillustrations]

In a post night shift fit of silliness, I have just signed up for a fun sprint triathlon in 12 weeks...
I'm 33, 5'6 and 10st. Am currently fairly unfit but working on it, and am on week 3 of c25k. Swimming is my strong point, but will be aiming to finish it rather than get a decent time.
Am I going to die?!
Is anyone else doing one this year?

[Mrsjones17]

@trigirl007 that sounds good. I'll get some tennis balls tomorrow!

[Mrsjones17]

@igottastartthinkingbee interesting talking about this finish in millennium square I went down to watch my husband finish after I had seen him off in the swim and they wouldn't let anyone in the grand stand bit. (you could buy tickets for the professionals in the afternoon but you didn't need tickets in the morning) so as a consequence the streets were lined with people cheering everyone on and then the finish was dead. My husband said it was a bit rubbish crossing the finish line in silence! Shame that was the only bit that let it down.

Yes it was a shame about the weather. I think the people that came to cheer me on were more wet than me haha!

Have you booked another one on this season?

[reallyneedmoresleep]

Oh dear god!! I've just tried to cycle then run ( inspired by your fancy brick training talk!) and half way through someone seems to have replaced my legs with very heavy bean bags. Please tell me this gets easier????

[Mrsjones17]

Haha. Yes I experience the same thing!!! Feels like my calves are about the cramp up but normally just after I get off the bike. After a few minute it normally settles down. Hubby reckons if you lower the gears on the bike so legs spin a bit and get a bit of blood back in them. Similar principle to kick legs on last bit of swim.

Yesterday I actually laughed out loud how at heavy my legs felt as I shuffled along and for some funny looks!

[TriGirl007]

It's funny my legs seem to be ok after the cycle bit transitioning into the run, I've not tried the swim onto bike bit yet and I'm far more worried about that as I get bit wobbly & light headed after swimming. I'll have to take my time I think going from swim to bike and hopefully make up for it on the second transition .

Tired today as did an early 10k it was 20c at 6am?? Flipping humid was energy zapping then ive just done a 6years old birthday party for my DD, which has to be far more exhausting than doing Tri training

[Mrsjones17]

Wow 10k is a good effort! What distance Tri are you training for? Hope the party went well!

[TriGirl007]

Survived the party just about mrsJones! I'm not very keen on doing them and my youngest DD has some non-NT sensory issues so overloads easily which makes her hard to handle but my oldest DD was absolute star at running most of the party games!

I just like running at the moment and have tried to do one "longer run" 10k+ a week and one shorter run 5K+ a week plus two swims, but I've hardly been out on my bike. The Go-Tri is only a 2.5k run so very doable I hope!

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

That's a shame about millennium square mrsjones. Now you mention it, all the pics I saw on Facebook looked very quiet.

I'm booked in for a sprint tri in September. Did it last year and want to improve on my time but I'm not sure it's going to happen. As usual I've left a lot of training very late! Done loads of swimming this year (started to learn front crawl from scratch in January) but not done much running/cycling other than training for the GoTri in June. I'll be happy if I can get my swim time down although I still seem to be faster at breaststroke than crawl!!

really my legs claim to have no idea what I'm trying to make them do when I do a brick session. I'm yet to do one without feeling like an absolute no hoper!!

10k and a kids party? Good effort trigirl! You'll breeze the run on your tri. When is it?

[TriGirl007]

My breaststroke is faster than my FC as well bee, I only learnt FC this year and I really have to concentrate on keeping my breathing relaxed so I don't think I'll be calm enough to do it in the Tri event if it's a busy lane. It's 3rd wend in Sept, my oldest DD is doing the kids one, there's a lot more in her catergory than mine!

I panicked the other day as I realised I got my swim time wrong but I tried out 16L straight in breastroke and did it in 10mins so I hopefully should be alright in the 8-10min category. I'm hoping I've got 4wks left if I swim twice a week I will get the FC more confident, as that is getting faster. I'm worried that there's no warm up swim and I seem to need 8-10L to get in the "relaxed zone" for FC.

[Mrsjones17]

I've been for a swim today and my breast stroke is fast than my crawl in a pool. I o Lt started crawl in April. Ive been doing a lot of outdoor swimming there is a lovely lake near me and crawl is fine in there because I have a wetsuit on and the buoyancy is doing half the work for me! I swam the 400m event on go tri in Leeds but it was a lake swim. My next two are pool swims and I think I'll be swimming breast stroke although worried about the legs a bit as I use my legs more. In crawl I just let them float along!

I couldn't run 10k if my life depended on it haha! I find running so hard!

[TriGirl007]

I like swimming FCwith a pull buoy float between my legs, I can do 10-20L like that as it's floating my legs, but when I take the float out I struggle to get past 4L without a breather at the end. Controlling my breath is the hardest thing I have to concentrate hard on relaxing into it, but then occasionally it clicks and I love it.

[TriGirl007]

I only started running C25K last year and got up to 10k after about 6mths, I never thought I could do it either

[Mrsjones17]

Ok so having a total panic! I'm doing a sprint Tri in three weeks (400m swim 20k bike and 5k run) I feel totally under prepared!! Had my bike in for a routine service on Tuesday and they rang me to say it needs done parts and might not be fixed until next Wednesday because of bank holiday! Agh!! Now I feel like can't do the training that I want to. To top it off we've been on a last minute trip away and so done nothing but eat and drink for 3 days!! Where do I start trying to prepare???

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

mrsjones don't panic!!!!!!!! No use panicking just do what you can with the time you have left. What distances are you up to with each discipline? Don't worry about the bike, just focus on swimming and running and make up the lost time on the bike later.

If it makes you feel any better I also have a similar distance tri to do in 3 weeks and I don't feel ready either! I've done the same as you, lots of holidays and trips out with the kids have been getting in the way of training and DH keeps being away with work on my tri club swim session nights Not to mention the amount of junk food I've eaten recently!

Anyway, not much I can do about it now. Just got to pack in enough to training to get me round in one piece!

[TriGirl007]

Just run and swim mrs jones. I've done virtually no cycling but went out last week and powered up a hill with no puff as I'd been trying to run twice a week and swim 1-2x a week. But the school hols have messed up my schedule too and now I've picked up very tight sore hamstring hoping I can nurse along abit as I've been so careful to avoid injuries. My DD and I did a mini "Tri" test today we cycled to the pool 1.5m, then I swam a 1km and she did 10L and practiced her tumble turns& dives, then we shared one quick dry towel left on our costumes & put on shorts & tshirts over the top jumped on the bikes & cycled home, then left bikes by house and ran 1m down road n back she was bush wacked at the end bless her but I felt ok apart from the flipping hamstring. I found out I could swim very comfy with sports bra under my swim costume & cycle & run in it fine. It helped it was 25c! She said she was still cold, so I'm abit worried about her keeping warm on the Tri even though her distances are short she's quite lean and always gets cold quickly.

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

trigirl you are going so well! But how's the hamstring?

I have totally lost my mojo. Got a cold which is doing nothing for my motivation. Haven't swam properly for a few weeks and can't see me being up for tri club swimming tonight. Should've run last night but I just couldn't be bothered. I haven't had a cold for ages and I like to think I would just carry on through it but I'm going into hibernation! That and the nights getting darker is making me so lazy. I need a kick up the arse!!!!!!!!!!!! Triathlon is in 2.5 weeks!!!!!

[TriGirl007]

Get well soon bee hope the cold passes soon. My fear is the back to school bugs hit after 2-3wks in so fingersXed we all healthy for our events!

I had a free PT session voucher with my swim membership which I used last night. Only 30mins and I do look like a tubby mummy so I think the hair flicking lad who was doing the session for me was tad surprised my cardio was high, he kept asking don't you need a 30sec rest? Errr no I'm not puffing yet I was thinking! The kettle bells bit was harder and my arms aching abit today hamstring is still tight but I'm doing lots of stretching n foam rolling.

[Mrsjones17]

Thanks for your advice everyone! I am up to distances with each discipline for a few weeks now it's more putting them together. Got my bike back and been out today 12km bike straight to 3km run which is what in doing on Saturday and survived so hopefully should be ok. Not going to do anything tomorrow in preparation for Saturday.

[TriGirl007]

Well done mrsjones. I'm struggling abit with motivation the last couple of weeks, massive hormone crash this month and school hols, but made myself go swimming last night and really enjoyed it. I've also booked a female PT at our local gym to show me some weights. I don't really like indoor exercise anymore but I'd like to learn more about weights workouts and see if I can do some at home over the winter. I'm a tad nervous but hopefully it will go ok!

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

Never done a personal trainer session trigirl so I'll be interested to hear how it goes. I'm considering signing up for a half marathon in the new year to make me carry on training. That and trying to continue improving my swimming over the winter.

First things first though, I'm still in hibernation Have actually lost my voice and have blocked ears now . Almost don't feel like doing the tri at all cause my training has gone to shite. Boo hoo!!!!! Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up bright and breezy and ill shimmy out of the house for a nice long run!

[Mrsjones17]

Ok no @bee hope you start to feel better soon!

In trying to relax ahead of race day tomorrow but feeling very nervous!!

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

Thanks mrsjones!

Good luck for tomorrow.

[TriGirl007]

Good luck mrsjones hope it goes ok. It's stunning blue sky morning here and only 10c my heart really really wants to go for a run but im still nursing my leg muscles so I'm going to wait until tom but the forecast looks shit tom.

Hope your cold passes soon bee, the PT lady was really nice and into weight lifting. I only had half hour but we did mostly squats with a power bag, lunges, some kettle bell swings and a flipping a tractor tyre which was really heavy! It was good but I can't afford it on a regular basis so I think I may just dig out my 30 Day Shred DVD for core body conditioning as its effective just I've done it loads in the past when on mat leave.

[WhereDoesThisRoadGo]

If it is any consolation, I am 33, 5'7 and 14 stone and have done 2 sprint tris this year. All sorts of people will compete so enjoy.

[Mrsjones17]

So finished today with a smile on my face. Enjoyed it once I got going! 2k longer on the bike and 1k longer run and knocked 16 minutes off my time from Leeds to pleased with that! Also came in top 10 for my age category! Weather was stunning too! I'm feeling stiff now though!!