Tricked into a triathlon?

Who would actually WANT to do a triathlon?  I mean, who wants to train for it, who wants to feel pain through it, and who actually finds running fun?

Those were my thoughts a couple months ago, before I even felt the slightest desire to complete a triathlon.  It just didn't sound fun to me. Not even the short sprint version. 

So instead of signing up for the triathlon with my friends from the Warsaw International Triathlon Club, I just wanted to swim and run "socially" with the group. But of course, during our 8-10 km runs, Grzegorz talked to me like I was crazy for not thinking that swimming a million miles and running 2 million miles was fun.  But after a bit of convincing by a few people, I signed up for the sprint triathlon in Susz (a small town a few hours away from Warsaw).  It was probably a combination of going on weekend trips with Ken, getting sick of him starting every conversation with "When we do the triathlon in Susz..." "Ken, I'm not doing it".  "Oh, that's right, but when we do the triathlon in Susz...." and Grzegorz brain washing me into thinking that triathlons and marathons are the best thing ever.  Mostly I signed up just to get them to shut up and stop asking me (no offense guys).

 

WITC after a race

WITC was formed by Ken to get us all to be active in the 3 activities, and during the year, several members of the group sign up for various races (10ks, half-marathons, marathons, etc).  We get together a couple times per week to swim, run, or bike, in a social and very friendly way.  New people show up each week, and they realize it's more about the social aspect than being hard-core "athletes," as Ken likes to call us.  Somehow, over beers after a swim session, a few people signed up for the Susz sprint tri (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run), and from there, the participation snowballed.  Apparently it's trendy to sign up for tris.  In the end, about 17 of us entered, a dozen who were "tri-ing" for the first time.  Get it?  Tri-ing.  Like I'm tri-ing to make you laugh.  Maybe?  No?  Ok, so moving on. 

I don't know if you know this, but in order to survive any triathlon, the first step is to be able to swim without drowning.  So, in the winter we started swimming, and a bit later we hired a coach for a few months to help us improve.  Coach Tomek really transformed the way we all swim.  We're still a bunch of amateurs compared to the "masters" that swim in the lane next to us, but we could see major improvements in ourselves. Guys swam freestyle for the first time and some swam more than 50 meters for the first time. We recorded ourselves at various stages, watching the videos over beers every few weeks.  The difference was incredible, as we transformed from frogs to fish (slow fish, but still fish). 

Throughout the spring and early summer we did a lot more training, running, biking, swimming, biking to go swimming, biking to go running, and running to go swimming to go biking (there was also some climbing and cross country skiing thrown in there because we don't like being bored).  It seemed like every day we had something going on, but even so, it was nothing like the things guys doing the full Ironman do.  They swim 2 miles, then bike 100, then run 6 straight uphill marathons, eat breakfast, then do it all over again.  I'm pretty sure those guys have mental issues.

When swim training is followed by a BBQ, we show up

Of course, our training is more social than serious.  We're often chatting and complaining about what Ken and Tomek make us do, but it's all in good fun, and is usually followed by picnics, BBQs, and/or beers.  We were especially motivated to get our workout in during Euro 2012, so we could go watch the games afterwards.  Cousin Karen and Daniel even came running with us once.  On their honeymoon. In Poland. 

Personally, I signed up for a few races to help in my preparation. We did a 10k run on 16 June (I can't believe I write dates like this now, instead of "June 16th"), where I timed at 47:38 minutes.  Even though the time was OK, old guys who looked like they were running in slow motion were passing me.  Nope, that's not discouraging at all.  No wonder I hate running. 

I'm winning!!

The next day was my first open water swim race at the Zalew Cup.  The first race, 200 km, was tough.  It was a combination of first time anxiety, adrenaline, not being able to see in the brown lake water, and having to look up for the buoys for guidance.  I was terribly gassed afterwards, and I seriously doubted I could finish the next 1000 km race. Oops, I meant 1000 m, not 1000 km, but I wanted to see if you were paying attention.  Anyway, we gave it a shot, and I finished in 19:44 min, much faster than I thought I would...probably helped by the wetsuit I bought (who would have thought I'd buy a wetsuit for something I only want to use 1 time ever!). The first place guy finished in 13 minutes.  Wow.  Maybe a different wet suit would get me to go that fast?? (And actually, coach Tomek told me I should get a different one because the one I had was for surfing and created extra drag...so I got a different one, and returned the first one to Decathlon no questions asked...but it still isn't as good as the ones everyone else wears).  At the end of the races there was a "fun" 4 x 100 m relay.  Ken, Maciej, Alex and I entered the race "for fun" against some of the very experienced teams.  Of course we got smoked.  I was the anchor, and by the time I finished, everyone was already changing clothes and the organizers were bringing the bouys in.  Not even my teammates waited for me at the finish line!  Thanks guys. 

Surviving the swim

Maybe Alex would be faster if he wasn't wearing a sweater

After feeling fairly comfortable with the swimming and running races, the next thing to practice was the bike.  I brought my mountain bike with me from the US, but it's been protecting my storage room since I got here (which is exactly what it did in California). It even had a lock stuck to it from about 5 years ago, because I forgot the combo.  Needless to say, it had been a few years since I even sat on it, and the bike needed some work.  One benefit of the WITC is that we get some discounts at some local sports shops, and the bike shop Sklep Rowerowy gave me 10-12% off everything (although they told me they would have done it for me even if I wasn't in WITC).  I got a tune-up, slick tires to help me on the roads, new tubes, and a new computer for 400 zl.  I didn't want to race with my mountain bike tires, because that would be like riding one-legged on a sandy beach compared to the high-tech road bikes most triathletes have (but even with the slicks, I found out it's still much slower because my bike weighs 2 tons).

We did a bit of bike training over the next week or so, but to be honest, that's the part I was worried about the most.  Not because I couldn't do 20 km, but because I couldn't do it at the pace I wanted to.  20 km in the tri will take me 45 minutes-ish, so being able to pedal 2 or 3 or 4 kmph faster over the course of that would shave off a few valuable minutes.  My legs and bike just weren't in shape for that yet.

WITC on wheels

Some other fun tidbits from our training:
- On the St. Patty's day training run, I lost my apartment key and that day turned into a big, painful adventure
- Coach Tomek always makes fun of me, by mimicking how I can't rotate my head very far to breathe correctly
- Riding my bike back home after getting new tires meant I had to carry my old tires home too...it wasn't easy to ride with giant mountain bike tires hanging off the handle bars hitting my knees with every pedal.
- A lot of guys playfully talked about how we'd sabotage each other during the race to try to beat each other. We all wanted to win, but the great part about it is that even though we joked about it, we were all 100% supportive and encouraging of each other when it came down to the race.  So I decided not to put nails in Ken's tires, scorpions in Andy's shoes or Icy Hot in Igors' wetsuit (not this time at least).  
- Maybe the "worst" part is not going out the night before a training day, to make sure I got the most out of it...some of the guys can go out all night and still do the training, but I'm too old for that.

A couple days before the race we met with some experienced triathletes (Ken, Coach Tomek, and a couple others) and they went through a list of things we need to remember, especially during the transitions.  They told us things like "take off your shoes before you get off the bike to save time", "stretch your legs while riding by putting one of your feet on your seat and leaning backwards", and "buy quick tie shoelaces so you don't spend time tying them".  I mean really, they are talking about things that save 5-10 seconds, which can be helpful if you are really competitive and aren't just trying to not die (like me).  I was more concerned about things like not drowning, taking the wetsuit off without having to cut it off, how to remember where I left my bike, and which direction to run.  Instead of worrying about seconds-saving tips, I was focused on just remembering to put on my pants, shoes, shirt, number, and helmet on after the swim (in that order).  Anyway, it helped to talk about it, and we felt ready.  We got into the cars on Friday night and were on our way...at this point there was no turning back!

Race day results coming soon! (spoiler alert: I didn't die during the race)