Notes and adventures from the life of a freelance journalist.

When we last left me, I was hurting after a 2,000-yard swim followed by a full sprint brick workout. Which basically means I went through my Tuesday morning swim workout then, in the spirit of ambition, partook in an 11-mile bike ride followed by a 5K run, the distances we’ll be biking and running in my first triathlon next Sunday.

Right. Next Sunday. Four months of grueling training, of getting up at 5:30 a.m., of dressing by flashlight so as not to wake the wife …. It all comes down to this.

Wait. Maybe I should have saved that sentence for next weekend.

Anyway, I skipped running Wednesday morning. Of course I did. I’d just finished a friggin’ triathlon. (I feel like I’ve typed that before.) Then Thursday we did the same thing all over again. To make things even better, we swam 300 yards last during the pool workout (the distance we’ll swim next Sunday). I was fairly pleased with my time of 5:23, although I wasn’t happy with how tense I was all workout. Not sure why. Oh well. Things happen. I think I’d just put a bit too high of expectations on myself and was starting to stress because I wasn’t sure I could actually meet said expectations, so I’m now shedding them.

On Tuesday I wrote that my goal was to bike the 11.5 miles in 30 minutes or so then run the 5K in 22-23 minutes. I think that’s what I wrote. If it’s not, then I lied, and that’s really what I wanted to do. Combined with a 5:00 to 5:30 swim, that puts me finishing in just under an hour, long as I am quick through the transitions.

I’m not so sure about that now. It took us 29 minutes to run the 5K yesterday, which is because we were just taking it easy and getting it done. I was fine with that. Plus my foot starting hurting again, which is bad. I really should stretch more. That’s all it is. I stretch, no pain. I don’t stretch, pain. What’s my deal? Just stretch, right?

That was after riding the 11 miles in 35 minutes.

I feel like my strongest leg will be the bike. As of right now, my plan – and this is a very flexible plan because what plan can a first-time triathlete really have aside from finishing the friggin’ race? – is to swim hard but focus on using that as a good warmup, then ride as hard as I can and hopefully gain as much time and ground on others as possible. Then I’ll just have to gut my way through the 5K. I already expected it being the worst part since I hate running, but if I’m going all-out for the bike, then yeah, my legs might not be in 7:30-pace mile shape like I originally planned.

I should try to get a good run in this weekend, too, then bust my tail throughout the week if I want to finish on Sunday in under an hour. It’ll be tough. I really don’t know how that’s going to work out. But goals are good, and my goal is to finish my first sprint triathlon in an hour. I’ll be happy with an hour and five minutes. I’m honestly expecting an hour and 10 minutes or so. But my goal is one hour.