New to Triathlons

Hello everyone,

My name is Mark and I am 48 Years old, married to my beutiful wife Kathy with two girls 7 and 10.

About three weeks before a Sprint Triathlon 750YD swim, 10 Mile Bike, 4.5 Mile run (the Tin Man) in Mt. Shasta California on September 1st, 2008 I decided I wanted to  do it.

History

Swimming:

I have never swam more than 50 feet in one stretch in my life.  However I am very water and river safe, from the standpoint of not drowning.  I learned to swim in canals, irrigation ditches, small lakes and creeks as a child.

Biking:

One time (15 years ago) me and my wife road 200 mile from Redding to Lodi California.  We camped along the way.  The trip took us five days.  Prior to that we had no biking experience except riding around the nieghborhood.

Running:

As a former US Army Combat Medic in 1980, I did a fair amount of shuffle (quick time) type running on a regular basis.   However I have only ran in a few charity races during the course of my entire life, usually not more than a few miles.  I can run a medium slow pace for 2 or 3 miles and am as good or a slightly better running than friends that are my same age.  Keep in mind though; I do not hang out with runners.

Physical condition:

I am healthy 5'10.5", 168 lbs.  Generally fit but not athletic and drink some beers just about every day.  It’s good for your heart you know?  I play team racquet ball one time per week for about 2.5 hours with a group of three other friends.  My occupation requires that I walk considerably farther than some other jobs.  At work alone, my pedometer would read between 8 & 13 miles per day.  This contributes to my calves being fairly muscular while the upper portion of my legs a pretty pathetic to look at.

Anyway, so I decide to do this triathlon.  In order to make sure I did not injure myself prior to the race I trained as follows.

Training for the race:

Road my daughter’s full suspension Mountain bike purchased from Costco, 6 total rides on a 3 mile walking trail in my neighborhood.  I did have slice tires installed as the nobbies seemed to restrict my speed.  I road as hard as I could during each bike ride which included one very steep short downhill section and long gradual uphill grades.

I ran only twice, 3 miles.  I knew that the swimming and biking were going to be to serious problem so I did not invest too much time or energy on running

I purchased a one month pass at the YMCA.  Hopped in the pool and could only swim about 50 yards (the crawl) without stopping.  So I did this several times until my total distance each day of swimming was 400 yards.  However, I did have to stop and rest between each 50 yard stretch.  Poor technique and non existent conditioning were the major problems.

Concerned that I could not make the distance, I confided in a friend who suggested the breast stroke (If I seriously intended one doing the event despite his concerns for my safety). So during one of our racquet ball games, he gave me a quick run down on how to do a basic breast stroke.

I went back to the YMCA and swam 6 or 7 more times, alternating from the crawl to the breast stroke swimming about 400 yards each time.  I had to stop and rest after each 50 yards though.

The race:

Swim:

On race day, I hopped in the water with the other 268 swimmers and swam like a maniac for 50 yards, then started to breast stroke.  To my surprise, faster swimmers were literally swimming right over the top of me.  Wave after wave of good swimmers simply swam over me, under me or any way they could get around me as I bounced up and down like a piece of drift wood.  Finally I got my wits back and swam to the buoy and back.  I had to stop and rest several  times hanging on to the safety floatation bouys the event coordinators had set up for people like me. The swim was a complete disaster and generally embarracing for me.

Bike:

Went to the transition area and I was so tired I could barley remove my wetsuit.  I put some dry cloths on and did the 10 mile bike.  It was real tough be passed like I was stopped by other bikers on road bikes as I pedaled away on my kids mountain bike. Oh well.   All in all, I though I did fair on the bike ride all things considered.

Run:

Back to the transition area, new shoes and off I go.  I was extremely tired at this point and the run started up hill for about 1.5 miles on a logging road.  I found that running super slow was using too much energy so I walked withy giant stride steps for a few hundred yards.  Doing so, seemed to make decent progress and use less energy do so.

I crossed the finish line in 1:55:14.  The three time winner whom is 26 years old finished in something like 1:09:00.  He is truly a machine.

The good news is, I finished.  Now I have the Triathlon bug.  Since the race, I have been biking and swimming everyday.  And last night I found this website.

My goals are to compete in several more sprint triathlons between now and next September, then compete in the Tin Man again. 

Anyway, that’s my story.

 Mark