#triathlonblog

[trimaf-blog]

Qualified for the Age-Group World Championships in Rotterdam next month! So excited! Blog post about it here https://lifeonthemafmethod.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/goal-achieved-age-group-world-championship-qualification/

[trimaf-blog]

Bike problems at my first Age-Group World Championships Qualifier. Check out my race review here http://wp.me/p8uqQ4-3c

[trimaf-blog]

Fasted sunrise miles at MAF this morning

https://www.strava.com/activities/1006092119/

[swimbikerunsmile]

Motivation my way... On a sticky note of course! I was 2013 to be MY year. I'm going to get rid of this injury and put my blood sweat and tears into sport- whilst studying hard for exams. Impossible? We'll see!

[runnerturnedtriathlete]

a brief history

While going through posts in Tumblr with the tag of "triathlon" I was thinking to myself, "I should start some kind of blog. It'd be cool to go back and look through this at some point in the future or use it as motivation". So here we go, I'm not a huge writer and usually once I start projects they seem to go unfinished. This isn't the case with triathlons thus far. I've been obsessed since mid-June 2012 when the Tour de France was on tv. After cross country practice where I would coach I would come home and watch the stage for that particular day. I would sit there everyday in fascination with the sport of cycling. However, being a runner, I couldn't leave running on a shelf and put everything into this new sport. So I decided to look into triathlons. The result was thinking about swimming, cycling, and running for hours and hours on end. I would look up articles and books about nutrition and training. I bought "The Triathlete's Training Bible", Chrissie Wellington's "A Life Without Limits", various triathlon magazines, and USA Triathlon's "Compete Triathlon Guide". My family would laugh everytime I bought something new and would joke around that I had really become addicted. I could tell though that they were proud of me for picking up something on my own that I could throw myself into that didn't have anything to do with drugs or getting myself in any kind of trouble. 

Soon after, I signed up for my first sprint distance tri in August. It was a small, local race with the swim, following the bike and run, in a pool I spent many summers, since age 10, swimming in. I'll admit I didn't train the way I should have as I figured, at the time, that training with my high school's cross country team was enough. They were training for 5k's which was how long the run  would be. I could put in a few miles on the bike to get used to riding a road bike that my dad had since I was little. I'd spend a several hours a week in the pool to teach myself how to swim properly without drowning. The saturday of the race came much faster than I had thought. I had raced so many times before but nothing compared to the excitement and nerves I had that morning. I finished the run in 24 minutes. It's been one of my slower 5k's but I had to factor in the run and swim after. I came in 7th for the women, hopped on the bike and felt pretty good. About 3/4 through the second lap my back tire popped. My parents came and fixed it but my bike split ended up being an hour and sixteen minutes. The swim was quick and I was swimming into people because I had spent so much time on the bike. I swam 400m in about 9 minutes. My overall time was 1:49:39. I didn't think it was too shabby for only training for 5k's for the most part. I was hooked.

My second was only a month later at a bigger race in Phoenix. The swim, 750m, was in a man-made lake with water so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of me. The bike portion was flawless for still only getting on the bike several times before this second race. My run split was 23:50. Again, not so fast but I had only done a brick workout twice before this so my jello-y legs weren't working as efficiently as I had hoped. I ended up finishing this race in an hour thirty and placed 2nd in my age group. 

With only two races I am more addicted to this sport than I thought possible. I am so proud to be able to call myself a triathlete and can't wait for what's in store for me in this sport.