Signed up for my first Triathlon...

After a strong swim this morning (6K, 5K of which was continuous) I bit the bullet and signed up for the Sprint Triathlon in Lakeside (600m swim, 20km ride and 4km run) in a week and a half. As I noted here, I originally planned to do the Try-a-Tri in Orillia a few weeks back, but an injury threw a wrench into those plans. The ankle is feeling much better at this point, however, and with only a couple of races left in the season I wanted to make the training count for something.

The swim distance is a little longer than I would have liked, but as the Try-a-Tri distance for this event was sold out I had to choose between the Sprint distance or a race this weekend in Wasaga. In the end, I felt that the extra time to prepare would be more important and given the session today I'm hoping that the 600m open water swim won't be too much of an issue. It also means a more competitive field that I'll be in, so there will be more pressure to get everything right the first time.


As for my plan, I don't want to push too hard this time out as it's more to gain experience in the sport than it is to race all out. With that said, when you're toeing the start line the adrenaline has a tendency to take over so it might not end up that way ;) While I've done some bike-run brick sessions, I don't really know what kind of effect the swim will have on me prior to the other sports so it's difficult to peg down what I'll be able to do. Given my training speeds, I should be able to pull it off in around 1:10-1:20, but without knowing how fatigued I'll be it's difficult to say. Naturally, the transitions are also going to be a bit unpredictable as I don't really have a detailed idea of how this particular race will be set up. Plus, with my lack of experience I'm likely to make a few mistakes ;)


Either way, this means that I have a good deal of work cut out for me over the next few days. I've got a pretty good handle on the training end of things at this point, however I will have to look into and buy/rent a wetsuit and grab a number of other items (elastic laces, race number belt, etc.). I also have to figure out exactly how to lay everything out in the transition area, as well as the logistics of getting down to the start on the morning of the race (it starts at 10am, so I'll likely want to be there by at least 8am and it's a couple hours away).