The Hardest Part of My Triathlon

Since I completed my first triathlon a little over a week ago, a couple of people have asked me, “What was the hardest part?”  It’s been difficult to answer because, in reality, it wasn’t really that hard! 

Thinking about it more, I’ve come up with two reasons for this.  First of all, I’ve been training for several weeks for the event.  The hard part came before the race as I took time to get in the pool or get on my bike or go for a run.  Those early mornings and busy Sunday afternoons paid off.  All the reading up on nutrition information and incorporating that into my diet and pre-race routine benefitted me.

The second reason is that I feel like I could have pushed myself harder.  Being my first tri, I really didn’t know what the actual experience would be like.  My goal was to get out there and finish in a respectable time.  I actually set my goal time at under 1 hour and 30 minutes.  I wasn’t timing myself during the race.  I just watched my heart rate on the bike and did negative splits on the run based on my breathing.

As I approach my next triathlon tomorrow and future events, the hard part now is figuring out how to balance my training to include enough of all three disciplines as well as strength training.  More on than in another post.

jb