I am training for a... TRIATHLON

I hope your 2021 has started off on a positive note and hopefully you have already made progress toward your goals for the year.

In 2020, my training goals were focused on improving my marathon time. I loved the focus that goal gave me in 2020 and I enjoyed my training all year. At the start of 2020, my personal best time in the marathon was a 3:24. I broke 3 hours in March of 2020 at the Los Angeles Marathon and I again improved my time in October 2020 to 2:53 in a very small, unofficial local race. I am very happy with my progress and I believe I can keep chipping away at that time. However, I am going to shift my attention away from the marathon for a few months to pursue a dream I have had since childhood.

I remember in 1995 watching the Ironman World Championships in Kona on television. My parents are not endurance athletes, but a friend of theirs was competing that year, so we were watching the broadcast. 1995 was the year that Paula Newby-Fraser was defending her title as World Champion and leading the women's race. Then suddenly stumbled and sat down less than a mile before the finish line. If you are not familiar with the story you can watch a clip here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_utqeQALVE

Or read about it here:

https://www.active.com/triathlon/articles/how-bad-do-you-want-it-paula-newby-fraser?page=6

Paula ultimately finished the race that day walking across the finish line, barefoot, 20 minutes after she had sat down. For some reason that scene has stuck with me over the years. It made me want to do an Ironman myself. I am not sure what it was, maybe seeing how hard the event was or seeing Paula’s determination to finish even after she knew she would not win the race. Whatever it was, it left a desire in me to see if I could do an Ironman too.

I have thought about signing up for a triathlon for the last few years however, I was never ready to commit to the sport. Triathlon takes a lot more time and gear compared to running. I did not want to ask my family to make that sacrifice for me to pursue a hobby. In December, my husband surprised me and signed me up for Ironman St. George 70.3 himself. It meant so much to me that he would “pull the trigger” for me and encourage me to go after this goal. He has also been figuring out all the “bike stuff” for me, which is SO helpful.

I started officially training for St. George on 1/1/2021. My running coach, Mickey, https://www.instagram.com/heymickeyman/ has agreed to continue helping me with training (even as I go off course) which I so appreciate. I have also been fortunate enough to be getting advice from Raymond Britt. He has been nice enough to answer my newbie questions. Many of the answers to those questions can be found on his extensive triathlon website https://www.runtri.com/p/homesite-map.html He has tons of stats on which races are best to qualify for Kona and stats on which marathons are best to qualify for Boston. I appreciate his take on triathlon training because he is an accomplished triathlete but he also enjoys running. I don't want to completely shift my focus and he believes you don't have to pick triathlon or running, you can do both... See his article here:

https://www.runtri.com/2007/05/runner-or-triathlete-why-not-both.html

My first full week of training looked like:

Sunday – Long Run

Monday – 60 min Bike

Tuesday – Medium Long Run

Wednesday – 60 min Swim

Thursday – 60 min Bike

Friday – 15 min Bike Warm Up plus 75 min run

Saturday – 45 min bike + 75 min run

I am still working on getting my "bike situation" worked out. I am currently doing my bike workouts using my spin bike with the Wahoo Cadence, Speed, and Ticker sensors to get some data. I am borrowing a road bike and I will be getting a trainer soon, so things will be improving. I can’t wait to Zwift!

Before starting any training cycle I always set goals for myself. My goals for St. George are:

1. To finish… Get to the starting line healthy and cross the finish line

2. Get comfortable on the bike… The bike is a whole new world for me. I am a little intimidated by it. I hope I can get to a place where I am at least comfortable riding and training on the bike in the next 4 months.

3. Get as fit as possible… I want to see how fit I can get and see how high I can place in my age group.

I am so excited to train hard and see what happens over the next few months. I will try to keep updating about training as it goes along. Let me know what you would be most interested in knowing more about.

#triathlon #swimbikerun #triathlete #ironman #triathlontraining #ironmantraining