HOLY MOLY! Triathlon is tomorrow! EEEK!

Yowza!!!!!!

My first triathlon is frigging tomorrow! How'd it creep up on me like that?

Tomorrow at 7:15 am, I will enter the frigid waters and pop my triathlon cherry at the Long Beach Sprint Triathlon!

Am I prepared? hmmm good question.

Body is feeling good. I'm faster and stronger than ever. My non 40 hours/week in-front-of-a-desk lifestyle certainly eliminated a lot aches and pains. I am actually working more hours than I ever have; 12 hour days are now typical for me. However, not being glued to my chair has been tremendously good for my sanity and body. God how I hated sitting 40 hours a week on a chair! Goodness gracious.

I swam for an hour and a half straight yesterday, and felt tremendously awesome. The loooong swims in the Hawaiian oceans have been extremely helpful in making me a better swimmer. Dare I say it now; I LOVE swimming! Something about the water on my face is so.... relaxing and natural feeling. Of course, I probably will end up hating the 60 degree dirty ocean water tomorrow morning, but that's besides the point.

I've done one brick workout; a ten mile bike followed by a 5k run on the track. The run turned out to be one of my fastest!

So my body is feeling good. But um.... transitions? What's that? California ocean? Um.... never been in it. Wet suit? Gonna try it for the first time tomorrow. Ear plugs? Ditto. Tri-shorts. First time tomorrow. What to wear tomorrow? Still deciding.

I know I know. I am woefully unprepared in terms of all the technical stuff. So sue me :) I'm just gonna kind of.... wing it. Hahaha. I dunno.... For some reason, I am planning on just riding my bike there with a backpack full of gear, and just seeing what happens. Dive right into it. Not think too deeply about it. Enjoy it as it happens. Learn. Discover. Experience. It's uncharacteristic of me to just wing it like this.... but with my support system gone (James) and with my life being as hectic as it is, and it being a sprint distance, (1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run on a flat course), I figured I'll just let this one happen and see where it leads me. :) AHHHHH! Can't believe its friggin tomorrow!

So this morning was the Triathlon Expo. I arrived as soon as it opened at ten, and stayed for three full hours!!!!??? That's gotta be some sort of record for me! Look at the above photo for the free shwag I scored. I actually got another box of those FUEL Wheaties, but promptly inhaled it :) It was surprisingly good. I've never had Wheaties before, so I have no idea what makes this a special "FUEL" version, but it sure was tasty! I plan on drinking that Gatorade during the race tomorrow, and those things of sunblock sure will come in handy!
Check out the cute pink swim cap! Funny story about the swim cap; we get different colored swim caps depending on what wave we are in. There are waves for the elites, the masters, the age groupers, and so forth. By chance, by randomly overhearing a question about wave starts, I discovered that I had been placed in Wave 1 with the Elites! The Elites!!!! WTF! WTF! WTF! I kind of freaked out. No way in hell I'm starting off my first ever triathlon with the ELITES! I rushed on over to the registration table and got it all figured out, and now am starting with the age groupers. Phew! :) Can you imagine if I hadn't overheard that conversation, showed up tomorrow morning, and all of a sudden had to start with the ELITES! LOL!!!! I can just picture the faces of the people as they scratch their heads in utter confusion as to why this chick is a god-awful and slow swimmer! hahaha!


I also picked up a pair of TYR tri shorts for only 25 bucks! 25 BUCKS! These suckers retail for like, 70! I was debating weather or not it was a worthwhile purchase when two bad-ass, totally triathlete looking ladies (OMG talk about INSPIRATION!) told me it was an awesome deal, and that they are totally worth it, totally comfortable, and that I should definitely invest in a pair. Since it was marked down so low, and since they looked like they knew what they were talking about, I purchased a pair. I know they say don't try new equipment on race day, but I am breaking the rules. Hope they turn out good and don't give me awful chafing! haha
WETSUIT. Initially, I was just gonna go bare. 4o bucks to rent a wetsuit for a half mile swim seemed too expensive. Plus, I was too lazy to deal with thinking about having to rent one or buy one. Denial. Totally.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I got freaked out about the fact that the water temps are gonna be in the low 60s, high 50s. Yowza. That, ladies and gentlemen, is EFFIN COLD. BRRRR! Not only that, but I have to get out and ride my bike with wet hair, skin, and clothes. The air temps are also only gonna be in the 60s before 8am. BRRRRRRRRRR! I would definitely just freeze to death! The more I thought about it, the more awful it started to seem. I don't have to make my first triathlon harder and more unpleasant than it needs to be. So even my stingy broke ass inner self agreed that a wet suit would be a brilliant idea.

This rental suit was 40 bucks, and dude, this stuff is warm. By the time I tried on three different sizes (apparently, my body is extremely wetsuit UN-friendly. My upper half is too skinny compared to my lower body, and they could not find a suit that fit a pear like me!), I was sweating like a pig. Seriously, I was dripping in sweat just getting in and out of those things. Hopefully, this will keep me relatively comfortably warm in the frigid waters tomorrow morning!

I also talked to the local triathlon club at the expo. I am thinking about attending a few of their training sessions before deciding if I want to join or not. But since solo training is getting boring and lonely, it would be lovely to have others to train with! Are any of you members of tri/running clubs? What have your experiences been?

I also got a bomb massage at the expo. Ahhhhh. Then it was study time, grocery shopping time, an easy 4 miler, a date with the foam roller, dinner, more homework, and now I'm packing my bag for tomorrow and gonna go to sleep form my 4am wake up call.

AHHHHHHHHH!!! It's finally happening! I'm gonna be a triathlete!!!!!!!!!!!!