Just yesterday, I signed up for a series of Aquathon races. There are a few reasons that's kinda funny.
First, just a couple years ago I was in an "I can't run" situation, battling a long recovery from foot surgery, and a subsequent issue with my ankles -- every time I went more than a couple hundred yards I'd get stabbing pains in my ankles that would last for days afterwards. I was volunteering at some of the BuDu Racing events, and had brought up having Aquabike divisions. They entertained the idea, but I kind of passed it off, thinking I'd be about the only one in that division.
Second, I haven't really done ANY swim training. At least not in a long while. In fact, the last real swim training I did was last summer in August, leading up to a 5K open water swim, then spotty training after that to get me through the Bonney Lake Olympic tri on Labor Day weekend. Since then... I've been swimming twice. Okay, three times if you include the play-swimming we did in the salt water pool a few weeks ago. Fortunately, the real swims I've done were both open water, in the wetsuit, and went very well. I know I'll make the distance in spite of not training for it.
Lastly (and though this isn't really a reason that signing up for these races is funny, it's just kind of funny in itself) is that they have a blank on the registration form for an estimated completion time for the course. Okay, that makes a LITTLE sense, as the races start at 7:30 in the evening (Wednesdays), and they tell people right up front that they need to be able to finish by 8:30. There's a swim cut-off time as well (25 minutes for a quarter-mile swim). I put in a time that I figured I could do even if the wheels fell off entirely. I put in 35 minutes. I figured a 25 minute 5K is doable after even an 8 minute 400m swim, with 2 minutes for transition. Most likely solid mid-pack. But it'll be fun.
So with those 4 races, it made sense to buy the annual USAT membership.
Maybe I'll have to do one tri this year just to make it more worthwhile...
And I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Eric, who's doing the Chelan Oly tomorrow. Good luck! And I hope your foot is doing better.
First, just a couple years ago I was in an "I can't run" situation, battling a long recovery from foot surgery, and a subsequent issue with my ankles -- every time I went more than a couple hundred yards I'd get stabbing pains in my ankles that would last for days afterwards. I was volunteering at some of the BuDu Racing events, and had brought up having Aquabike divisions. They entertained the idea, but I kind of passed it off, thinking I'd be about the only one in that division.
Second, I haven't really done ANY swim training. At least not in a long while. In fact, the last real swim training I did was last summer in August, leading up to a 5K open water swim, then spotty training after that to get me through the Bonney Lake Olympic tri on Labor Day weekend. Since then... I've been swimming twice. Okay, three times if you include the play-swimming we did in the salt water pool a few weeks ago. Fortunately, the real swims I've done were both open water, in the wetsuit, and went very well. I know I'll make the distance in spite of not training for it.
Lastly (and though this isn't really a reason that signing up for these races is funny, it's just kind of funny in itself) is that they have a blank on the registration form for an estimated completion time for the course. Okay, that makes a LITTLE sense, as the races start at 7:30 in the evening (Wednesdays), and they tell people right up front that they need to be able to finish by 8:30. There's a swim cut-off time as well (25 minutes for a quarter-mile swim). I put in a time that I figured I could do even if the wheels fell off entirely. I put in 35 minutes. I figured a 25 minute 5K is doable after even an 8 minute 400m swim, with 2 minutes for transition. Most likely solid mid-pack. But it'll be fun.
So with those 4 races, it made sense to buy the annual USAT membership.
Maybe I'll have to do one tri this year just to make it more worthwhile...
And I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Eric, who's doing the Chelan Oly tomorrow. Good luck! And I hope your foot is doing better.
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