Aldi 's Team In Training Page
Diaries of a wannabe Triathlete
Hello and welcome!
The cold, cold days...
Gesundheit! Bless you! The two phrases I heard every day during the cold I had the week of the triathlon.
The days on camp… The 2 days on camp was a complete blur. I had this constant Sinus Headache which occasionally popped up after my colds. I missed the pasta parties, slept 12 hours on Friday, and most of the day on Saturday. My cold has somewhat subsided but I was definitely not feeling well. I wasn't the only one with a cold though. Some TNT teammates also had the cold. I really wish I could have cheered more people who did the Half Iron and the Sprint.
The seconds before.... 10, 9, 8, ……1 GOOOOOOOO!
Time seems to have flown since the first wave of the Collegiate athletes were set to start. I must have looked ridiculous in my pink swim cap with my seal goggles. But then again, so did the other 40 guys in my wave.
The Swim.......
Remember how some sort of mishap always happens during my training session. Well something was just bound to happen.
As all the blokes in tight suits and pink caps were racing through the swim track lots of kicks and elbows were flying around. One kick just happened to hit my head and there goes my goggles.
I started to panic and swam round and round to find my goggles with no idea if I was going the right way. After about 10 minutes of meaningless swimming I realized 2 things: 1. I grew up in Indonesia. We never wore goggles. My dad taught me how to swim without them 2. This is a real race and I better get going
I got out of the water after 46 minutes of swimming which was about 16 minutes off my goal.
The transitions...
All your names that I wrote on my arm had faded off from the swim. I took my time going to the transition area. At this point I knew I was not going to make good time so I might as well have fun. I took off my wetsuit, put sunscreen on and started combing my hair. People were looking at me as if saying, "Dude, it’s a Fr$%^kin race!"
The Bike ride
The 40 km bike route was said to be quite challenging with steep climbs and fast down hills. Our coaches made us go through hell in training so as I was pedaling along it really didn’t seem that bad. My slow swim enabled me to be surrounded by beautiful female cyclists whose wave started right after mind. I must say I was distracted at times but eventually finished in 1 hours and 39 minutes about 10 minutes off my initial goal.
The run up the hills and walking down the hills....
Running was actually my main sport before all of this but as some of you know I injured my IT band so now I have to struggle. The IT band only hurts when I run downhill so I would sprint on the up hills and walk on any down hill. I still managed to stay within 1 hour which was pretty good considering I had to walk parts of the course.
The Finish line...
The best feeling in the world was when I sprinted down the finish line. I must say I had the best cheering squad in the world. Between all my fellow TNTers, coaches and Christy I could definitely hear my name. I had been thinking about what kind of celebration I would do as soon as I finished but eventually settled with a fist up in the air.
After the race....
To my disappointment I was not really tired. I guess I didn’t really go all out. The fact that I managed to sprint in the finish lane was good proof of that. Oh well, this just means that I will have to do it again. Don’t worry, I wont fundraise again next time. ^_^
Now What….
I find myself lacking of things to do actually. It’s nice to be able to mountain bike, play soccer and run for fun instead of training. I am currently considering doing an adventure race: An all day long challenge of mountain biking, kayaking and mountaineering. Either that or I’ll do another triathlon. Let me know if you want to train with me!
