Trying a TRI for fun

Background:

My friend Nishant and I had the idea to try our own triathlon. The so called “Rice Triathlon” would be done on a saturday morning for fun, and would consist of:

• 1.5 km of swimming (0.9 miles)
• 40 km of cycling (~25 miles)
• 10 km of running (~6 miles)

Although our training program beforehand was not very serious, we were still determined to complete this triathlon.

The Morning of: 

I woke up around 8am and immediately made myself a smoothie. I had eaten slightly below the average amount I would normally eat the evening before, so I tried to down as many calories as possible before it was too late.

 

After I finished my smoothie I got my “transition area” ready (which would be my room), as well as packed all the necessary things for the swim and the bike.

I met Nishant and had breakfast with him. While I was eating a banana I noticed that he also looked like a banana this particular day.

I laid out the food that I would have with me throughout the triathlon:

Two bananas, 2 fig bars, a Cliff bar.

Swim:

We headed to the pool and began our swim. It turns out that there was a Rice swim meet and little kids swimming practice when we got there! But we weren’t discouraged. We were able to bring both bikes inside with us, and get an entire lane for ourselves to use.

The swim itself was not terrible. It felt long but it was doable for Nishant and I. Against my advice, Nishant decided to do breaststroke for the entire swim, which slowed him down considerably. Soo showed up and also swam with us!

Bike:

After the swim we rinsed off, changed into our cycling kits, and hopped on our bikes for the bike track. Only it turns out there was a big Rice football game going on and the bike track was closed, littered with parked cars, and a man patrolling on his truck telling people to get off the bike track. We did a couple of laps before we were caught.

Unsure what to do, we decided to check out the inner loop.

We decided the inner loop was empty enough to be able to bike around for a good bit. It was a ton of fun taking the tight corners when we could and for the first time I saw campus through a different perspective – at every lap, everything would change about a particular point on campus. Everyone was always moving around, and the inner loop was constantly evolving.

This was such a fun ride. By this point, Soo had to get going (we had a late start anyway), and left us to it.

The bike ride was truly fantastic. We were in the shade of the campus trees for the majority of it, and we had fun biking around the streets of Rice.

Run: Putting the Tri in TRIathlon 

After the bike we went back to our respective dorm rooms and changed clothes and shoes. The map of the run was intended to be two laps around the outer loop, followed by an entry through the main entrance and a finish line at the Sallyportal. We started late – around 12:30. We also had Tianyi volunteer to run with us.

The first lap was fine, but the second began to get pretty warm. I started to feel hungry, thirsty, tired, etc. I wish I had eaten that second banana after the bike transition, but I had forgotten.

After a certain point, I stopped thinking about my running and let my mind detach from my body. I’ve had this happen before, where you let your body move but don’t exercise too much control over it. I kept on going. And we finished the triathlon!

  This day was also Families Weekend, and some say it was a disturbing sight to see us stretching right in front of the Sally Portal.

Conclusion: 

This TRI was harder than I thought it would be. I was in pain for a couple of hours afterwards. I ate a lot of food. I took a heavy nap. My entire body felt heavy and lethargic. But after a couple of hours of eating well and resting I recovered and felt fantastic. Better than I normally feel after most workouts.

I felt great and I want to do more.

Let’s see how the next one goes.