Total Triathlon Training Day

It's fair to say I'm a very inexperienced triathlete.

Having not completed, or even attempted, a triathlon yet, means I have a distinct lack of knowledge and experience that the majority of the other competitors will have on race day. I don't know the ins and outs of the race, or the hints and tips for each section, and I've not experienced any type of swimming race before.

Whilst I have completed one adventure race before, the activity set up for that race was run-ride-kayak-run-ride. This means they had a transition area for the bike (helpful for triathlon), but it went from run to ride, rather than ride to run (as in a triathlon), and during that race I made a massive mistake which meant I had to run the second running leg wearing my cycling shoes, because I forgot to take my trainers with me on the bike 🤦🏻‍♀️ (I still completed it though!) But I definitely don't want to make a silly mistake similar to that again. What with COVID and all, there haven't been too many shorter distance triathlons for me to compete in for me to learn, so I attended a one day triathlon training session, which was put on by the guys at TTT.

The day started with a coached swim in Pickmere, followed by a running session (to warm back up), a nutrition talk, transition training and the day ended with a bike ride and Q&A session. It's fair to say that I wasn't in the right mindset for this day. The weather was bad, I was stressed from work, and the water was so damn cold. Being surrounded by all these triathletes was really intimidating, and I felt very small.

There was absolutely no reason for me to feel like this though. The moment I arrived I was welcomed with smiling and friendly faces, and everyone was chatty and made an effort to include me (because I didn't know anyone else there). This felt nice, but my confidence on that day was at zero. I've not even done a triathlon yet, why do I think I can complete an Ironman?

For the swim they separated us into rough groups of ability. I put myself in the beginners camp - I've been open water swimming before, but only a handful of times. How can I complete an Ironman if I'm a beginner swimmer? Once in the water I had the same issues as described in my blog about open water. I got cold water shock every time I tried to swim properly and put my head under, ZAPP, ZAPP, ZAPP. But the coach was there on an SUP, and helped me to keep at it until it got easier. She really helped me to relax and gave me some great advice on sighting, but it was such hard work. I was so tense and definitely wasting more energy than I should. But I knew that this was another step closer to my goal. Every session that takes me well out of my comfort zone, is pushing my mind and body to further acceptance levels, and this means that at some point things will become easier.

After the swim I was cold. I was miserable. I couldn't feel my ankles, let alone my feet or toes. After we got changed we moved on to the running session, which involved 6 intervals of 2 mins running at race pace, and then 1 min rest. I'm running a marathon, my race pace isn't very fast. I could tell I was one of the slower runners in the group anyway from the mile warm up jog we did. Having people shout encouragement at you to run faster when you're already running too fast for your desired pace, with what felt like stumps for legs with ice blocks for feet, is not a fun experience. I'm pretty sure I scowled at a few people, so I'm very sorry about that, but my feet did eventually warm up by the time we did the ride in the afternoon.

The nutrition talk was interesting, I can always learn something new hearing different people talk about sports nutrition, but on the whole it just confirmed what I already knew. Then we had lunch. Helpfully, I left my lunch in the fridge at home, which as you can imagine really helped my mood. After lunch we did a talk about transition and got loads of tips on what to do when etc, so this, for me, was very useful. Following that we went on a short, group bike ride, which I really enjoyed. I'd finally warmed up and just enjoyed chilling out on the bike.

On the whole, the day was good and I got some triathlon experience that I needed, but it was my confidence that held me back. All day, people would make small talk and ask me what races I was doing, and every time I was asked, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. How could I be racing an Ironman with the zero experience that I have? At one point during the day, one of the coaches leading the sessions came and asked me the dreaded question, "Do you have any races booked this year?" and I panicked. I felt like such an idiot standing there, how could I say I'm doing Ironman when my swimming was shit, and my running was slow, and I've not even done a triathlon before! My answer to him was "I don't want to tell you". I must have seemed like a complete weirdo and really stand offish, but it was my brain screaming at me, telling me that I was an imposter and I shouldn't be there, and if I told this coach of my grand plans then he would throw me out on the spot. Well, maybe not throw me out, but I'd get the look that said "Emily, do you really think you should be here?' Of course, that didn't happen. Everyone that I fessed up to gave me loads of support and encouragement and advice, and I did manage to apologise to that coach at the end of the day for saying what I did.

Thankfully, my brain doesn't do this to me very often, or if it does throw the occasional doubt in, I manage to either ignore it, or prove it wrong by recounting all the training I've been doing. But it's definitely been an additional challenge I've had to face throughout the last year, and part of me doing this blog is for the accountability, so that I have to go through with it, even when I feel like I can't do something. I also want to show people that even when it seems on the outside that someone is super confident, on the inside, they are probably screaming/dying/really uncomfortable too, so put your doubts to one side, and try something challenging.