It's Not About the Bike...Until It Is...

Hey! A post not about food!

Sometime earlier this year, I decided to make the switch from being a runner (ha!) to being a triathlete (double ha!).  Partially it was because I started swimming at my gym and remembered how much I enjoyed it and partially because I finally got a bike (free! from a friend!), but mostly because I was really starting to lose interest in the running-for-a-long-Fing-time thing.  

I dipped my toe in the proverbial (and literal) water at a mini-sprint in July and had a blast. It was a .25 mile swim, a 7 mile bike, and a 2 mi. run. I did the whole thing in under an hour and felt pretty spectacular about myself.  So much so that I signed up for a "regular" sprint (.4, 15, 3.1) that I completed last weekend.  ...It was an altogether different experience. But, like every good race, it was a learning one.  And now, at no cost to you, I'm going to share what I learned during that long, somewhat painful triathlon, so that you might learn from my mistakes.

1.  This first one's a no-brainer: Don't underestimate the value of training. I was doing really well for a while on 2/3 of the program...swimming and biking several times a week, usually longer than the race distance. What I wasn't doing was running. And I'm apparently one of those people who immediately lose her running chops if she doesn't stay on top of things. (sigh) And since I failed to do a complete trial tri before the race, I was not as aware as I should have been that transitioning from bike to run would have been painful.  Like jelly-legs-for-the-first-mile painful. Lesson learned: more running, and less sleeping in and pie eating in the few weeks before the race.

2.  Those guys in the bike-repair tent are there to help you. Use them. My current set of wheels is a mountain bike with road tires on it....which is fine, but generates a degree of insecurity when you're surrounded by dudes with bikes that look like they were borrowed from Lance Armstrong's bike corral...never mind the sleek helmets with the pointed back-ends they were all rocking.  But I digress.

For some time prior to this, my bike had been doing this squeaky/rubbing thing where the brake pad meets the disk brake...probably because I take the front tire on and off when I'm loading it my car and it doesn't realign properly.  Race day rolled around and I thought "eh, it'll be fine. How bad could a little extra friction be?"  Answer: Real bad.  When you're pedaling like a mad woman on a flat, smooth highway in your lowest gear and a fat kid in a BeerFest t-shirt passes you on some sort of hybrid/cruiser bike, you know something isn't right.  Moral of the story: something out-of-whack on your bike? Take it to the race-day bike guys and let them take a look. They can probably save you some time, effort, and a lot of unnecessary exertion. (And also, don't snap judge the guy in the BeerFest t-shirt...there's no telling what he's capable of.)

3. Finally, doing a triathlon with a cold is hard.  If you can avoid contracting any sort of respiratory illness the night before your race, I would strongly advise it.

All that aside, when I was done (in barely under two hours...oof), I felt like I'd accomplished something...even though I knocked over an ENTIRE bike rack full of bikes when I came into the transition are for the run. (Sorry! Sorry!)  Besides, I learned a whole lot and will be better prepared for the next race. All I need now is one of those sleek, sporty bike helmets...