Triathlon

On the weekend of July 19th, Hyunmi, Mike, and Rusty competed in the New York City Triathlon. Afterward, there was a party at Mike and Hyunmi's apartment. During said party, I was pressured into agreeing to sign up for a half ironman triathlon with them. It took them all of 5 minutes to get me to do it. How sad is it that my friends know exactly which buttons to push to get me to do anything?

On July 22nd I signed up for the race, to be held on Sunday, October 5th. This gave me about two and a half months to train for the Bassman Fall Half Ironman, aka Bassman Half Distance Triathlon. This race consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 58 mile bike, and 13.2 mile run. Considering that I had only ridden a bicycle maybe 2 or 3 times in the previous 3 years, and swam even less, I had my training cut out for me. With 11 weeks to prepare, I had to get in shape. Did I mention that I couldn't swim freestyle? Yeah, I'd have to learn to do that, fast.

Rusty, who has competed in many triathlons, put together an aggressive training schedule for me. The workload varies from week to week, with the intention of decreasing the intensity right before the race, in order to be fully rested and peaked. I have been following this routine since July 28th, with a lot of success.

Basically, I exercise twice a day, everyday. On weekdays I swim before work. After work I either run or bike and lift weights. On Saturdays I usually have a long bike ride in the morning, followed by a long run in the evening. Sundays are typically even longer morning bike rides, with short runs in the evening. Once in a while I've had a morning off, or even an entire day. (Not counting days I missed entirely due to travel or family events.)

This past weekend was my toughest set of workouts yet. On Saturday I biked about 40 miles in the morning, and in the early evening I ran 9 miles. Sunday was killer. On Sunday, Mike, Hyunmi, and I rode to Nyack (in upstate NY) and back, for a round trip close to 60 miles. I was supposed to run for 40 minutes that evening, but I was dead. The return trip was hot, sunny, humid, and killed me. But it was good.

My goal for the triathlon (besides finishing) is to finish in under 7 hours. I figure it will take me about an hour to do the 1.2 mile swim, 4 hours to do the 58 mile bike, and 2 hours to do the 13.2 mile run. That's actually a slow time. Last year there were 3 people who finished in under 5 hours, another 58 who finished in under 6 hours, and only 18 people who took 7 hours or longer (a 60-year old guy took 8 hours 40 minutes, while a 59-year old guy finished in 5 hours 18 minutes).

It is sad that the medal ceremony will occur exactly 6 hours after the race begins, which means that I won't even be finished before the medalists are finished, rested, changed, and awarded their prizes. Even more sad is that Rusty has a chance at winning a medal, and I won't be able to cheer for him. Perhaps next time.

Surprisingly, my body weight is the same. I've leaned out a lot, and put on muscle to offset the fat loss, keeping me at about 191 pounds. I am in much better shape than I've been in a long time, albeit a different kind of shape since I was mostly a strength/sprint guy instead of an endurance/distance guy. However, I think this has been a fantastic way to prepare me for the winter ice climbing and mountaineering season, where endurance is important.

Yilin has been supportive, but I think she's getting tired of not spending time with me. I wake up at 5am, swim, come home to eat breakfast and get ready for work, go to work, come home and immediately leave to exercise, get home to shower and eat dinner, and then maybe spend 30 minutes to an hour with her before getting into bed at around 9:30pm. Weekends are better, as I can spend more time with her.

I'll be sure to post my results of the race, and perhaps photos if I can persuade Yilin to take some. It's going to be a long, boring morning for her on Sunday, October 5th. :)