Well I completed my first triathlon which officially makes me a triathlete and a whole new flavor of crazy. I did the Clark Lake Triathlon in Jackson MI on July 17 2011. The distances were .5 Swim, 13.5 Bike and 4.25 Run. It was tons of fun and I discovered that I am actually a pretty good swimmer in comparison to others in my age group. My biking skills (or lack thereof) however, need great improvement.
Next tri on my list is the Bangs Lake Triathlon in Northern Illinois on August 14 which my dad will do as well. This tri is an Olympic distance which is a 1500 meter swim, 40K bike 10K run. All of this is in preparation for next racing season where my dad and I are going to tackle a Half Ironman, most likely in Benton Harbor, MI or Muncie, IN.
But wait Elisa, aren't you signed up for the Chicago Marathon again this year?
Oh yeah...that...I'm still training for the Marathon as well, it's actually a lot more enjoyable because I'm not just running all the time, I'm also biking and swimming. I threw together a mish-mash of about 4 different training programs to accommodate all of the races I have planned for this year. I basically took a beginning sprint tri, intermediate olympic tri, half marathon and marathon training program and created the madness that has become my summer.
For the first tri I took the swims and bikes from the sprint tri program and mashed them with the runs of the half marathon program, then after Clark Lake I switched over to the swims and bikes from the Olympic program and the runs from the marathon training. So far it's been working great. I haven't gotten injured and I haven't felt under-trained for my long runs (knock on wood) So after the Olympic I will take out the swimming and add more runs in prep for the marathon. If all goes according to plan I will still be in great shape for the marathon on October 9th.
