After the Triathlon: What's Next?

It's been a month since the triathlon and I believe it's safe to say that officially lost the tri "high." Sure, the pride and sense of accomplishment will always be there, but the thrill has waned. I imagine my family is grateful for the break. They were so patient listening to my incessant triathlon-this triathlon-that training chatter. :)

Last September's triathlon was on my calendar for almost a whole year and I hadn't realized how accustomed I became to having a goal towards which to train. Once the tri was over, it was a matter of days before I started thinking, "WHAT'S NEXT?"

So I've been PLANNING! Here's a running list--pun intended!--of events I'd like to do over the next several months:

_√_ October 1, 2011     5K Run for cancercare.org
_√_ October 16, 2011   5K Run for Make A Wish Foundation
___ November 26, 2011 5 Mile Turkey Trot
___ January 1, 2012     5K Hangover Run
___ January 21, 2012    Romp to Stomp Breast Cancer
                                      5K Snow Shoeing Event
___ July xx, 2012        Sprint Triathlon <--in ocean! OR Duathlon <--on land!
___ August 28, 2012    SheROX Sprint Triathlon
___ September 9, 2012  Danskin Sprint Triathlon <--so disappointed same day as Gran Fondo :(
___ September 9, 2012  Gran Fondo 100 Mile Bike Event
___ September 30, 2012  5KTunnel to Towers
___ November xx, 2012 SheROX Sprint Triathlon in Bermuda <--A girl can dream, right?

This is just a plan. Everything is subject to change. Events may be added or deleted at whim. But I do hope to do most--if not all of these events. In any case, it should be an eventful year for me. Literally.  : )

What about YOU? Do you have any Run or Walk Events on YOUR calendar? 


If not, you should find one in your area. It's FUN! 

My First Triathlon

Today was the big day when after nearly a year of mental and physical preparations, I competed in my first ever sprint triathlon! I'm also super happy to report that it was such a great experience and I met my goal of completing the spring triathlon in 1:30:00. In fact, I beat my goal by a little over a minute! Hey--every second counts! ; )

Here is my time card from today's race that includes all my stats. Times for the swim, bike, run and transitions as well as rankings for each event, my age division and overall rank. I am especially proud of my bike time and rank....  55 out of 1600 racers!!! Woooo! omg how did I DO that?

I signed up for this triathlon back in October 2010 after being inspired and encouraged by my small group of workout friends at the gym. At that time, I had been biking for a little over two years and running for almost one year. I was not a swimmer. In fact, I only learned how to swim freestyle after taking lessons just this year in February. Seven months later--today!--I completed a sprint triathlon. I swam a 1/2 mile open water swim, ranked in the top 4% of the entire race in the cycling, and ran a competitive 10:17 minute mile pace for the 5K... finishing with a total race time of 1:28:44. My final rank is 367 out of 1600 athletes, which places me in the top 23% overall. Woooo!!!! I almost can't believe it! ... but I DID IT!!!!

My friend Marie and I

I and my gym friends--missing the one taking the picture. 

Thank you all for taking the time to read my training posts and always leaving such kind words of support and encouragement all those times I write all about ME. I appreciate your presence throughout my journey--sharing this journey on my blog has been such a great outlet for expressing my doubts, concerns, plans for improvement and for rejoicing in my accomplishments both big and small.

I hope you to find something new and challenging to do in your life like I have with this triathlon. If I can do it, so can you. It'll be a journey you'll never likely forget. : )

Triathlon Check List

The triathlon is tomorrow! Finally!!! I've been planning and training and practicing for almost a year. Now it's time to pull it all together, "tri" my best and have a blast! I'll let you know all about it sometime tomorrow or Monday.

Thanks for all your support--you've been great cheerleaders!


 Clothing Items: [what I'll be wearing]
 •tri shorts
 •compression tank
 •ankle chip strap
 •sports watch
 •sweatshirt [remove just before swim]
 •flip flops [remove just before swim]

 Swim Items: 
 •swim cap
 •open water goggles
 •spare goggles

 Bike Items: 
•bike [race# attached]
•helmet [race# attached]
•running shoes
•running socks
 •spare running socks
•sunglasses
•race number belt [race# attached]
•water bottle
•flat tire kit
 •floor pump

 Run Items: 
•hat

 Misc Transition Items: 
•backpack
•headlamp [to see what we're doing at set up at 5 am]
•garbage bag [in case of rain to keep stuff dry]
•towel for transition area
•baby powder [to get sand off feet before putting on running shoes]
•vitamin water
•luna bars
•peanut butter & banana sandwich
•sunscreen
•bug spray
•antiseptic wipes
•tissues
•band aids
•lip balm
•cell phone

Fitness Challenge Report Card: July 2011

Interested in joining the Fitness Challenge? Please visit the Sign Up post for more information, including the challenge rules. You may leave a comment there or on this post if you'd like to join. Be sure to include your fitness miles goal in your comment.

I can't believe it's the last day of July already and it will be August in just a few hours! Poof! Well, it was a productive month for me in fitness. My fitness challenge miles totaled in at 123.2 miles for July! :) You can see my daily activities on my fitness blog, See how she runs... HERE. I got in a lot of swimming and biking this month and even participated in my first ever duathlon and practiced for September's triathlon by doing a mock mini tri with a local tri-women support group to which I belong.

I finished the duathlon [2mi run - 10.6 mi bike - 3 mi run] in 1:30 and a few seconds, with which I'm happy. The biking is my best component and I averaged 17.6 mph for that leg. The last 3 mile run after pushing so hard on the bike was brutal, but I did it!

I also participated in a practice min tri with a group of women from a local tri-women support group to which I belong just last Friday. The best part of that was that I did a 20 minute open water ocean swim! You may recall I struggled with that when I went to the beach earlier in the month to practice, but now I did it! Yay!!! The ocean was A LOT calmer this time and it helped that I was with such an encouraging and supportive group of women. I also did really well with the biking part, averaging 18.6 mph for a 7.3 mile ride! Hopefully I can do the same on race day in September! The run was still killer.. :/

So how did everyone do with their fitness challenge miles* this month?

*ONE fitness challenge miles = 1 mile walked or run for fitness OR = 15 minute increments of other exercise for fitness such as cardiovascular or strength training exercises.


How did you do with your fitness challenge goal for July?


What kinds of activities did you do to keep moving this month?

Triathlon to Duathlon

I have been busy preparing for my upcoming triathlon on July 17 with quite a few new experiences under my belt in both biking and swimming. One new learning experience was attending an open water swim clinic earlier this month--an hour in the classroom and an hour in the pool with drills for open water swimming as well as an open water simulation. The next step was to swim in a real open water situation, which I did this past weekend by going to beach to practice swimming in the ocean where next weekend's race will take place. Let me just say that after [trying to] swim in the ocean, swimming in a pool is piece of cake!

The surf on Saturday was perhaps a little rougher than usual, but that's not an excuse, because I have to be prepared for any possible surf situation--calm or rough--on the day of the triathlon. It took me a good 30 minutes to get up the nerve to get in the water and get swimming. The waves were pretty big and even after getting past the breaks, which was really tough, the swells were still so powerful. The feeling of being pushed and pulled and tossed about like a cork was so overwhelming for me. I just couldn't get calm enough to be comfortable. I wouldn't say that I was panicking, but I definitely didn't feel confident or in control, and I decided that I'm just not ready for open water swimming in the ocean. So I'm not going to compete in the triathlon next weekend. :(

The good news, however, is that next weekend's event is a multi-sport event that is simultaneously hosting triathlon, duathlon and aqua-velo events. So I'm switching my race entry to compete in a duathlon instead. A duathlon is a run-bike-run event so I'm basically replacing the swim portion with a 2 mile run. I'll be doing a course that consists of a 2 mile run, a 10.6 mile bike, followed by a 3.0 mile run. An aqua-velo event is swim-bike only.

I am still planning on doing the Danskin Triathlon in September as that swim event is held in a bay as opposed to the ocean. I think I'll fare much better swimming where the power of the water isn't nearly as fierce as the ocean.

I felt pretty sad and defeated on Saturday when I realized I couldn't do the open water swimming in the ocean, but once I let it sink in a bit [no pun intended!], I feel so much less stressed out about next week's race and am now spending this week training and counting down the days to competing in my first ever duathlon!  : )

Another Tri

I got persuaded by my workout buddies to do another triathlon. So in addition to the one I'm signed up to do in September, I'm also now signed up to do one on July 17.

As in ONE MONTH AWAY! *gulp*

The July Tri is also a sprint event and in fact, a shorter course, notably in the swimming event. The swim is only 300 yards, or about 12 lengths laps of an olympic sized pool, the bike portion is 10.6 miles on a flat course, followed by a 3 mile run.

Of course, I'm anxious about it, but also kind of charged about meeting the challenge. I can do this! :)

First things first, though ... what to wear?? ;)

100 Days to Race Day

I'll be racing in my first triathlon in 100 days.
I've got a few things on my mind . . .

swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run
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swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run
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swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run
swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run
swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run swim bike run
swim bike run and  RACE!   : )

Fitness Challenge Report Card: March 2011

Interested in joining the Fitness Challenge? Please visit the Sign Up post for more information, including the challenge rules. You may leave a comment there or on this post if you'd like to join. Be sure to include your fitness miles goal in your comment.

So how did everyone do with their fitness challenge miles* this month?

*ONE fitness challenge miles = 1 mile walked or run for fitness OR = 15 minute increments of other exercise for fitness such as cardiovascular or strength training exercises.

I met my goal and then some. My goal was set for 100 fitness miles and I came in at a whopping 143.25 fitness miles. Crazy.

I spent the most time in spin class and strength training, but also spent a lot of time doing the MelB workout at home on the Playstation Move, kickboxing, swimming, bootcamp and Zumba at the gym and running at the park. I'm looking forward to getting out there on my bicycle again, but waiting for temperatures to break the 60 F mark. Unfortunately, it's been pretty cold lately and in fact, we're expecting 2-4 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. Gah!

The swimming is going okay. I joined a local Tri-women group and am attending a swim clinic on Sunday hoping to get some more instruction and coaching to improve my stroke and breathing techniques. I'm a little frustrated with my lack of endurance swimming consecutive laps. I'm still pausing every 2-3 lengths for maybe 30-60 seconds before continuing. Oddly, my heart rate isn't even that elevated when I feel I have to stop (I've worn my heart rate monitor in the pool a couple of times). Maybe it's just a matter of practice, practice, practice before I can just swim, swim, swim.

I'm going to set my fitness challenge goal at 100 fitness miles again for April. If I break 100 miles again, I'll bump up my goal.

How did you do with your fitness challenge goal for March?

What activities are you doing to keep moving?

I hope you all join me again next month! :)

Thank you all for participating. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know. :)

Fitness Challenge Mid Month Progress Report: March 2011

Sorry I'm posting this a few days past our mid-month check point. I had plans of posting more this week and now, poof! It's Friday afternoon already! Anyway, I've been working out really hard in the last few weeks having already accumulated 69.5 fitness challenge miles as of today, just a few days past mid month. Let's hope the rest of the month goes just as well.

As I mentioned last month, I started swimming lessons one night a week, which has already helped me tremendously with my freestyle technique. However, I still find swimming nonstop really hard. It's the breathing. I find a do a lap and a half of freestyle and have to switch to backstroke to catch my breath. I understand that it's more difficult to breath while swimming because the water applies additional pressure to your lungs while you're in the water and well, you can't breath when your face is in the water (!), so hopefully I'll see improvement if I just practice, practice, practice. Which I'm doing one other day of the week now in addition to the lesson. We learned breaststroke in this week's lesson, which is just what I need because from what I understand from other triathletes, many swimmers alternate between freestyle and breast stroke during the race. I'm guessing freestyle is best for speed and efficiency and breast stroke is best for sighting the course and other swimmers.

How are you doing so far this month?

Do you use any home exercise DVDs?
"Move-type" video games such as Wii or Playstation Move?
On demand exercise shows?

I've been using the Get Fit with Mel B workout game for the Playstation Move lately on days when I'm unable to exercise outdoors or get to the gym for cardio. I'm still exploring all of the options in the game, but it's okay so far. Not as good a workout as what I can do at the gym or running or biking, but it's a good back-up workout.

Wishing you all a great weekend! Got any fun plans?

It's a gorgeous 79 F (26 C) right now here in NJ--a real treat for this time of year. I'm off to pick up sticks in the yard and rake out my flower bed while it's so nice outside. We'll be back into normal March temperatures in the low 50s F (11 C) for the next few days.

200 Days to Race Day!

Some of you may remember back in October when I announced that I registered to participate in my first triathlon. The race is a sprint triathlon {1/2 mile swim [0.8 km], 12 mile bike [19.3 km] and 5 K run [3.1 mile]} that takes place in September 2011, exactly 200 days from today. I only figured this out an hour or so ago and am excited to start counting down the training days to race day.

I registered for the Tri with several of my regular workout buddies, but a couple of weeks after signing up for the Tri last fall, I learned that another friend of mine (not a workout friend) also signed up for the same race! We were both excited to discover this and have talked about training, what to expect, what we're worried about, etc. often over the last few months, both of us expressing a lot of anxiety over the swimming. Today she emails me to say that she signed us up for semi-private swim lessons at our community indoor pool and it starts tonight!

Say what? At first I wanted to laugh, but I knew she wasn't kidding and that this was probably a great idea to get me in the pool and start training--starting with learning how to swim freestyle properly. So I consented and was at the pool a few hours later for our first lesson. I'm also counting today as my first official day of training for the Tri. Out of curiosity, I later looked up how many days there are until race day and discovered that it is exactly 200 days away from today! Let the countdown begin!

I'm so glad we took the plunge tonight.  {ha ha! pun intended}

Are you a swimmer? 


What's your favorite stroke?


I can't do butterfly at all and freestyle is probably my weakest stroke, but only because I never learned proper breathing technique. Hopefully I'll get that straightened out over the next several weeks of lessons. :)

Triathlon Training Begins

It's official. I'll be competing in my first triathlon next September! Registration opened this morning for a popular woman's triathlon that is held every year in New Jersey and I'm in!


The triathlon is a sprint event, so the distances for each part of the tri are short with a 1/2 mile swim [0.8 km], 12 mile bike [19.3 km] and 5 K run [3.1 mile].

I'm really excited about this, but also a little nervous. I'm doing the triathlon solely to challenge myself, do my best and feel great, but I still get a little nervous if I think about race day. A little fear of the unknown, a little fear of being disappointed in my performance, and I admit it, a little fear of all those other women trying to pass me! I guess that's all normal. I'll have to work on those mental issues so that I can be calm on race day. 

Of the three components to the tri, the swimming is currently my biggest weakness. I'm definitely going to have to work on this component from the bottom up, starting with my stroke technique and building up to swimming a full 1/2 mile without stopping. A half mile is 16 laps or 32 lengths in an Olympic sized pool. Oh shit.


The biking is definitely going to be my strongest event since I already regularly ride 12-20 miles with hills at a decent pace and the race is only 12 miles on a flat course. I'll work on my speed and endurance so that I can maintain an average speed of 17-19 mph for 12 miles.


The running doesn't worry me too much either since I started running last fall. I now run at a 10 minute mile pace and my typical runs are between 2 and 4 miles, so running the 3.1 miles for the tri should be a comfortable distance for me. The fact that the running is the last event of the tri, however, means I'll need to work on maintaining a good pace when fatigued from the other events.


I already have a great support network set up for training and race day. My husband and daughters, as always, are great at listening to my near daily reports of my workouts, set backs and accomplishments constantly giving me encouragement. They're going to be so proud of me for doing this, I just know it. Then I have a small group of four friends from the gym with whom I already work out and who also signed up this morning for the triathlon. I'm sure we'll compare training strategies and even do some training workouts together as the race gets closer.


The triathlon is a long 11 months away, so for now my training will be to simply continue my regular cross training workouts, start doing laps in the pool one day a week and maybe bribe my friend Sharon to give me some free swim lessons so I can learn proper freestyle stroke technique.


Wish me luck!


Have you ever participated in a triathlon? 


Do you have any tips or strategies  to share?