Over 3 weeks on and I can report Marathon induced levels of feeling chuffed are still at an all time high. However, moving on to my next challenge, with summer just around the corner (and with my wibbly wobbly winter bod still hanging around) it’s triathlon time. I’m signed up to do a super-sprint triathlon at the Cotswolds women’s triathlon event on June 11th. The super sprint is the middle of three different distances/levels you can enter.
400m open water swim, 20k bike then 2.5k run. There’s an easier option and there’s also a harder option but I appear to have chosen the triathlon for me in the same way as I approach buying wine, not the most expensive bottle not the cheapest but something in between.
Now this is actually my third triathlon - which makes me sound a lot more clued up than is actually the truth. My previous two triathlons were both very different.
Triathlon 1: 5 years ago aka “the winging it whilst hungover one”
My 2nd baby Walter was 4 months old when my friend Bec roped me and a couple of other friends into signing up for a novice level triathlon.
I’m still not sure why I agreed to it - possibly with Walter being only about 16 weeks old I was sleep deprived and misheard “we should all do a triathlon’ for “we should all go and get cake” but hey ho - 3 months after signing up I was there at the start line.
Now my triathlon 1 experience would definitely be in the dictionary under ‘winging it’. With young children attached to us most of the time, my mum pals and I would go to a local park and take turns to jog round the playing field whilst the others minded all the offspring. I didn’t even have a sports bra to start with and my first run was in my lovely breastfeeding bra - which resulted in a bouncy leaky messy milky disaster. Invested in a sports bra that afternoon. Really my training never got off the ground other than the occasional jog - I wanted to open water swim before the day or do regular bike rides, but I just never got round to it.
I only got myself sorted with a bike a couple of weeks before. It was a shit bike. A big heavy thing from Halfords where we had the worst customer service and as it turned out they also did a shoddy job building the bike for me as the pedal fell off on the training day the day before the triathlon.
Given the lack of training and not knowing a thing about triathlons I did sign up for the training day which meant I travelled down to the campsite with my pal and her family to do the session, then camped over as it was an early start on the day of the tri. Mr F brought Arthur and Walter down the next morning to see me across the finish line.
So Bec and I did the training session which was useful - it gave me my first ever dip in open water, were I realised that I definitely couldn’t swim front crawl and so I would have to breast stroke the 200m. Then we were taken for a ride along the 20k bike route - which is where my peddle fell off and I had to just walk back the way we’d come, luckily we had only gone a couple of miles, but by this point the realisation that I:
- couldn’t swim, and
- had a bike with only 1 pedal …
wasn’t making me feel too great about the whole experience. So with the training session over Bec and I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon drinking Pimms, which flowed into a pub tea with wine, followed by Irish coffee. Not much sleep in our tent as it was pouring down and the zip on my sleeping bag was broken so I was freezing all night. So come the morning I was pretty knackered and hungover! Did the triathlon (a kind soul at the campsite fixed my pedal back on the bike) but yeah - the experience would probably be filed under ‘how really NOT to take part in a triathlon’.
Triathlon 2: bit more of an idea but none of the gear
Fast forward 4 years from that experience, to last year 2016. My family of four was now a family of 6 as we now had our two girlies to go with our two boys.
Not really sure why I got the urge to try a tri again - but signed up and somehow persuaded a group of mums from school to join in the madness - they didn’t take much persuading but I think it was the promise of Sunday lunch and a bucket of wine afterwards with peaked their initial interest.
Determined to be less of a shambles than with my first attempt we did actually train for this one. Not particularly hardcore/following a training plan but keeping in mind we were all busy mums with multiple offspring we put in a bloody good effort of regular runs and even did some open water swimming in preparation.
I taught myself to swim front crawl however struggled to adapt to front crawling in the lake when the cold water takes your breath away.
Cycling was the only area I failed to train in really. I want to love cycling, and I do enjoy it with the kids when in car free areas like at center parks, however a pretty nasty bike accident when I was younger makes me a nervous wreck when it comes to cycling on roads.
Anyway - yep so this time round - there was actual training and I was in a much better place fitness-wise to do a triathlon!
One thing I love about the Cotswolds tri is the setting at the cotswolds waterpark - with its beach and playgrounds and lakes - its great that we could make it into a family weekend away. We all travelled down to our apartment on the Friday after collecting Arthur from school. We had a self catering apartment with two bedrooms which overlooked a lake.
The day before the tri I did do the training session again as it was so long since my last triathlon and the open water bit did scare me so it was good to get in the lake the day before the day and get some tips.
The night before Triathlon 2 we had a nice family meal at the hotel restaurant, and wisely I decided against getting plastered this time around!!!
Tri 2 went fine - transition from swim to bike wasn’t a problem for me as my wetsuit was way too big and actually a surfing wetsuit so not a snug fit and was easy to slip off - although very ‘heavy’ to swim in.
On the cycle part I forgot to take the child seat attachment off my bike as well - what a numpty!
One other mistake was I did not cycle and run in appropriate clothing. After removing the wetsuit I pulled on heavy tracksuit bottoms (which were also light grey so thanks to my damp swim suit underneath … I looked like I’d pissed myself). I should have worn a tri-suit or cycle shorts/vest combo - but due to having a bit of a hate-hate relationship with my bod and mummy tummy I couldn’t bring myself to run in anything tight especially with people watching(!) I only felt comfortable doing the the bike and run in baggy clothes. It was heatwave weather, I had way too many layers - so just felt fat and hot to be honest! The run didn’t feel good ….. until I crossed the finish line which felt amazing!!!
Then came the best bit - a lovely lunch with my fellow triathlete buddies and their families to celebrate, followed by enjoying the sunshine whilst all our kids had fun in the pub playground.
So yes, there was still a fairly shambolic undertone to my second triathlon kit wise but it really was a fantastic day!
Triathlon 3: 2017, watch this space!!
So that brings us to 2017. Training is now underway !!! 3rd lake swim this year tomorrow! I have since invested in a new wetsuit and goodness me the buoyancy is amazing, but it really is a bugger to get out of so I am fully expecting it to take me about half an hour to peel it off myself at transition this time round. I’ll be ditching the heavy layers for the cycle and run this time round too - feeling a bit braver about my bod, although probably not brave enough for a tri-suit …. oh and must also remember to take the attachment for the child seat off my bike this time round!!
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