Let’s try that again! Training for Tri #2

Since May, I’ve been training for my second-ever triathlon 😅

My first triathlon was back in October 2019. I loved it! A month or so later, I signed up for two more in the upcoming year to give it another try: the Philadelphia Women’s Tri & the Jersey Girl Tri. The only thing I love more than a challenge is a second chance at improving at that challenge. As you can imagine, both races in 2020 were postponed and then ultimately cancelled. My registrations carried over to 2021 and in March 2021, I got emails about both of the races.

Was I in race shape? HA! Absolutely not. My exercise included riding my bicycle gingerly inside my home and going on long, anxious (oh no! a human! cross the street! keep on the mask! don’t catch covid!) walks in my neighborhood. By March 2021, I was starting to worry that in my efforts (and privilege) to not catch covid, if I didn’t do something different, I may start to develop issues due to that decrease in exercise and mobility. Yikes.

Anyways, the email reminders were a great reason to start up a new training plan. Better get ready! If there’s an end goal, it’s much easier to backwards plan.

Tired, but proud of completed a 30-min run back in May. 30 minutes was the longest continuous time to date.

The Philadelphia Triathlon was changed to a duathlon, so I postponed my registration to their 2022 race. Up until July, I was training for the Jersey Girl Sprint Triathlon. I set a milestone to complete a 5k in June and did it!

Ice Cream Social 5k at Flushing Meadows Corona Park

In June, the Jersey Girl Tri started to have issues putting on the race. The July 31st date was cancelled. The organizers were searching for a new beach town to host the triathlon. With the date and the location pending and not looking good, I started to feel a little aimless in my training. Yes, I had a workout for each day, but it no longer seemed to be building up into anything.

While the Jersey Girl organizers figured out their race and eventually postponed it to 2022, I signed up for another race, an Olympic triathlon in October.

It’s been incredible and humbling to see the steady improvements that come from putting in a workout every day. What were my hardest distances back in May are now my easy days. Some days I put in the time and I feel “off,” but then three days later I’ll outdo anything I’ve done in the past few months.

When I’m not at work, you’ll very likely find me swimming, cycling, or running! On a recent vacation to Vermont, the bike came too! I don’t know what will happen on race day, heck, this October race could be cancelled at the last minute too. I do know that training 6 days a week has been a huge part of crawling out of my own pandemic slump. My life might not be back to normal, but I do get to feel more like myself each day and that’s a win I’ll take.