ROAD TO MY FIRST TRIATHLON- NYC TRIATHLON 7-24-16

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!!