JULY 24, 2016
One month from today I will be doing my first Triathlon
(SWIM-BIKE-RUN), the nerves and excitement are building up. The race will start with the swim portion,
1500m in the Hudson River then will 40k bike up the west side to the Bronx and
back, the run portion will be a 10k finishing off in Central Park. This journey has been a mix of emotions for me
training for this race. Adding on 2 new sports to your training is a task on its
own. I know I can run that’s my strongest link from the 3 events in a
triathlon. I have 23 half marathons, 4 marathons and 1 ultramarathon under my
belt.
Swim
I started hitting the pool and I would just swim work on my
technique which I had none from the start and my breathing which up until 2 months ago I was still using my nose plug.
All my life I swam but never with proper form but I used to get from one wall
to the other wall without even putting my head in the water and if I swam under
I used a nose plug or held my nose haha, yes I always feared of getting water
in my nose, cause well it sucks you get that burning feeling and I didn’t love
it. Thanks to one of the lifeguards where I train at gave me some tips and well
I graduated and stopped using my nose plugs, for a while I still carried it with
me like a safety blanket haha. With a month away I still haven’t done my open
water swim because every time I had it scheduled something came up. Hopefully
this weekend I get to break in my wetsuit and get in open water and test out
the waters. Hoping to do 2 more open water swims sessions before race day.
Bike
The biking part has been a big step for me also; I learned
how to ride a bike a couple of years ago with a mountain bike from Toys R Us. My
best friend Enrique showed me, boy does he have patience lol and he is now training
with me also for his first Triathlon. I remember when he asked me to meet him
one day for a ride; I walked 15 minutes to meet him instead of getting on the bike
by myself haha. I bought my first road bike in May, figured I needed an upgrade
from my mountain bike. I bought one of the basic Trek road bikes, I didn’t want
to spend a ton of money and she was perfect for me. The first day I took the
bike home I road it half way home on the west side, was still a little fearful,
definitely faster then what I’m used to. The first day I took her out for a real ride I
hit some hills going up was fine but going down on the street with cars and
potholes well I caught a panic attack between the speed and fear of not stopping
and getting hit by a car. I even met up with some friends for a long ride and
she is also one of my sole sisters in Latina in motion and gave me some tips
and helped me with my confidence on the bike.
I can say now 2 months later I am more comfortable, went on my own last
weekend for a 32 mile bike ride.
Run
Training for this race, I haven’t run as much as I like
because I am focusing on the parts that I need the most help with. I also didn’t
have any big races scheduled to train for. For my run I have been doing twice a
week and an added run in some of the bike rides which are called Brick
workouts, bike then run immediately after.
I have been doing hill training more which I wasn’t doing before but
thanks to my awesome coach and an
awesome athletes at TriHuracan I have
become a stronger runner when I’m hitting those hills.
Let the countdown begin 30 days til race day!!
