{"id":74,"date":"1999-09-13T12:00:28","date_gmt":"1999-09-13T20:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/1999\/09\/13\/triathlon-reflections-on-the-experience\/"},"modified":"2007-05-02T19:12:29","modified_gmt":"2007-05-03T03:12:29","slug":"triathlon-reflections-on-the-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/1999\/09\/13\/triathlon-reflections-on-the-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Triathlon: Reflections on the Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

I gained both skill and endurance from my training, as well as enhanced muscle tone (my weight didn’t change). In the course of training, I swam 7.4 miles (11.8K), ran 40.7 miles (65.5K), and biked 156.5 miles (251.9K). That works out to an average of 15 triathlons (not counting the actual race)! I spent $257.08 on gear and admission (click here<\/strong><\/a> for an itemized list). Click here<\/strong><\/a> to see a list of everything I took to the race.
\n 
\nThe triathlon was exciting, but I feel like it snuck up on me. I spent the months and days beforehand concentrating on the details, which was good because I felt prepared. I think, though, I should have spent some time visualizing and fantasizing about the day of the race. If I had done that, the event would have seemed like a bigger deal instead of catching me by surprise. I don’t think I built it up enough.
\n 
\nI’m proud of myself, though, to have set such an intimidating goal and achieved it. My friends and family have expressed their pride as well, and I appreciate their support from the bottom of my heart. I would also like to thank Michele for encouraging me to enter, and Shaula for all the companionship.
\n 
\nHowever, I’m glad it’s over. The novelty of preparing for a triathlon wore off several weeks before the race, and I’m ready to move on to the next big thing in my life, whatever that is. For the past two months, I felt obliged to run, swim, or bike whenever I had time to workout. Now, I can return to rock climbing and racquetball, and other sports I’ve neglected.
\n 
\nOne thing that has changed is my attitude toward running and biking. While I still wouldn’t enjoy resuming this training program, if someone asked me to go on a jog, I might actually say yes. Before I wouldn’t have considered it. Who knows, I may even go by myself once in a while.
\n 
\nWould I do it again? I think the experience of becoming a first-time triathlete was worth the challenges. It taught me that my body is able to do more than I expect, and that my mind can be an obstacle during physical activity. I can add “did a triathlon” to the list of reasons why I’m cool. But I don’t know if I’m interested in doing any more triathlons; at least not any time soon. Maybe by the time Danskin registration rolls around next year, I’ll have changed my mind, but for now, I’m ready to move on.
\n 
\nUpdate 1~20~02…<\/em> Now, a few years later, jogging has become my exercise of choice. I haven’t done any more triathlons, but my overall level of fitness has stayed high because of my triathlon training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I gained both skill and endurance from my training, as well as enhanced muscle tone (my weight didn’t change). In the course of training, I swam 7.4 miles (11.8K), ran 40.7 miles (65.5K), and biked 156.5 miles (251.9K). That works out to an average of 15 triathlons (not counting the actual race)! I spent $257.08 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-triathlon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynameiskate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}