How To Prepare For A Beginner Triathlon

Good morning!

Yesterday evening, I got all packed up for the try-a-tri. There is so much to remember for a triathlon!

Underneath my wetsuit, I decided to wear a yellow sports bra underneath my training swimsuit.

When I get out of the water and remove the wetsuit, I will be putting on my bike shorts and tank overtop the swimsuit/sports bra. Initially, I was going to wear my bike shorts directly under my wet suit, but I found that my shorts were too wet when I came out of the water and I was concerned about slipping on my bike seat.

Pearl Izumi saw that I was doing a triathlon and they messaged me on Twitter and offered to send me some biking apparel to try out. In today’s race, I will be rocking this lovely red P.R.O. Leader Tank. It is super comfortable, high quality, and comes complete with 3 pockets on the back of the tank. A great place for stashing a Glo Bar.

They gave us a number to stick to our helmet. This helps them match the race photos to each person a bit faster.

I debated buying a race belt, but I decided to wait and see if I will be signing up for a future triathlon before purchasing. For now, I will be pinning the bib onto the front of my tank.

I was very excited when I saw that the swim cap was baby blue– it’s my power colour! :smile:

The run is a trail run and with the rain it might get SLOPPY! These sneakers might go from white –> MUD!

After packing, we had a delicious and fueling dinner + dessert.

Amy’s Texas veggie burger, along with salsa, hummus, and tomato slices…

I think I am all wrapped out at the moment. I have been on a huge Food 4 Life Ezekiel tortilla kick and I think the spree has come to an end. Does anyone else ever go through phases on foods for weeks or months on end and then switch to something else? I do it all the time!

I also had a bowl of leftover spinach, mushrooms, and quinoa from Friday night’s dinner:

an energizing,  BEET-tastic juice composed of beets, lemon, and carrots.

For dessert, I told Eric he could pick anything he wanted and I would make it as a special treat.

He picked PANCAKES! :lol:

At 10pm, I threw together some vegan pancakes, poured some maple syrup on them, and we had a carbo-rific dessert.

We also prepped ourselves on the rules of the race, watched a movie, and hit the hay for a super-charging 5 hours of sleep! The sleep of CHAMPIONS I tell you!

The Morning Of The Race:

We were up and at ‘em at 5:00am this morning. I woke up and stumbled into the bathroom and all I could hear was wind and rain. High winds. Bad, bad winds. Rain smashing on the windows. It is also really dark, which somehow makes the open-water that much more scary. Gulp. I tried to stay calm, but I was freaking out in my head. My second thought was, ‘Eric is never going to do another tri again after racing in this weather!’

But, Mother Nature, is Mother Nature. Steph, who is participating in the Tri Sprint today, reassured me by saying that we are going to be so hardcore. That was all my ego needed for a quick pick-me-up. :lol: Hardcore it is.

Breakfast was my Vegan Overnight Oats with a mashed banana marinating in the mix overnight. I topped it with some pure maple syrup, coconut, and glo-nola.

Perfection!

After this bowl, I prepared a banana with cashew butter spread all around it. I wasn’t even really hungry, but the only way I can explain it is that my body was going into survival mode.

The Race:

Yesterday when we picked up our race kit, Eric and I discovered that we are both in WAVE #1 together! Which means that our group is the first group to swim and we will get to head into the water together. Since we are starting at the same time, Eric joked that we should RACE EACH OTHER- a friendly husband-wife competition if you will. All day long he was talkin’ SMACK and saying that he was going to kick my bootay.

Oh, no he didn’t.

Of course, I said: IT’S ON like Donkey Kong.

However, given the extreme weather this morning, we have both decided to focus on getting out alive and that will be that! :ninja:

We came up with the fun idea that we can pretend we are on a covert operation…on a secret mission of epic proportions. I’m not sure how covert hundreds of people on bikes down the road will be, but I’m going to run with it.