Friday, February 4, 2011

I am IN!!!

I signed up for my first ever triathlon. May 28. It is called Island Lake triathlon and it seems pretty low key, so exactly what I need.

Olympic distance. Hopefully by that time I will build enough strength to swim 0.9miles in a respectable time, bike 24.8miles without completely destroying legs so I can run and not jog 6.2miles at the end. It sounds pretty easy on paper but I am sure it will not be that easy.
I have been complaining abut road races costs here. Ok, I am not going to do that anymore, because paying $70 bucks for a triathlon race is outrageous. That's like half the price of a bike I am going to ride that triathlon on! Unbelievable.

But I am PUMPED anyway. I am really happy I found this race. This being Michigan and people pretending it is cold here (it has not that cold, really), there are hardly any triathlons or road races before summer.
And I really wanted to do one before I fly back to Europe on June 1:(

Plus now I will have extra motivation to walk my butt to YMCA everyday. I really don't mind walking those 2.5miles there and then back but people at work were saying that I should be careful because this is not the best neighborhood and I go there after work when it is dark already. Even if I went there in the morning, I would be walking in the dark, so that would not change anything.
If they are so concerned about my safety, they should give me a car! (They have plenty of company cars and R&D testing cars that just sit there. My boss said that he would try to persuade someone to give me R&D car pretending I will be their test driver. But I am not a German engineer, so I do not expect such luck)

Unfortunately the 10k on road French universities champs is one week after this triathlon and I might not be well rested (plus I will fly over the Atlantic 3 days prior). But I am not even sure whether they will let me do the race because I will not run any qualifying races in France and I am not sure how waiver works. I will deal with that later for now I am thrilled about this triathlon.

No run today. It is a rest day.
Bike workout, steady riding and big gear intervals. Pretty hard and my HR shoot up to low 170s on those, which is really high for bike.

6 comments:

  1. Yay!! And you crack me up- $70 for an Olympic Distance Tri is absolutely as cheap as they come. We have a sprint here that is $95... 1/2IM's (big ones) are $250 and Ironmans are now $600. Just to enter. It's nuts.
    I love how dedicated you are- walking 2.5 miles in the dark and snow to go swim/bike. People come up with the craziest excuses to skip workouts- you actually *have* the excuses but you do not use them. THAT will make you a great triathlete. ;)

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  2. Seems I need to find a really well paid job just to be able to enter races. I will keep that it mind when applying for jobs this spring.
    It's true, I'm very dedicated when my family is not around:)

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  3. I just got the best idea ever. I should publish an ad that I will shovel sidewalks for people who are lazy to do it themselves. Win-win situation, I will make money, get in a workout and sidewalks will be cleared.

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  4. Ha - yeah particiapting in tris is wildly expensive in so many ways. But once you are hooked, it is HARD to let go - plus once you have all the equipment it gets less expensive (in theory, but then you'll want BETTER equipment). They are just so fun. I think an Olympic distance is a good distance to start with. I would definitely recommend getting your hands on a wetsuit before you swim in that freezing cold May Michigan water. I actually love swimming in cold water - but wetsuits are really what make it bearble - and you go a lot faster.

    Well, I'm really exciting to follow along in your training.

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  5. SLG, you are probably right about that freezing Michigan May water:) I don't like being cold so I should start looking into those wetsuits.

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