The New Road

Palm Springs Triathlon

I'm going to wimp out and go for the sprint version of the triathlon in Palm Springs. Here is my reasoning:

• My goal this year was to do a sprint triathlon, not an olympic triathlon. The olympic was next year. And that was to give myself adequate time to prepare fully to run the race to a good time and do it standing up without hurting myself.
• My swim is strong, my biking is very, very strong, but my running still really sucks. I can do 5K no problem, but 10K hurts a lot and does actual physical damage even when I do it on a treadmill. I'm not ready for a 10K.
• From the email I just got from the race coordinator it doesn't look like the event will be 'well supported'. Meaning there likely won't be water, medical services, and people around to help if I get into trouble.
• I ran the numbers on my current best times for the swim and the bike and it looks like I would be getting into the run around 10AM and running into the noon day sun, in the desert heat, a feat for which I am woefully unprepared. I can't run a 10K indoors with AC, I certainly can't run it without killing myself in the noon day desert heat after already biking and swimming for two hours.
• The last time I ran a 10K that I wasn't prepared for I was out of commission for a week. I'd rather not do that to myself this time. Particularly when I'm down in L.A., far from home and needing to get back for work and life.

So all in all, I think I'm going to take the sprint option if I can, even if it means losing $40 on the registration fee. My health and safety are worth far more to me than that. I'd rather finish a good strong sprint triathlon than stagger over the finish line in an olympic triathlon that I was woefully unprepared for.

As for the running, I'm working on it. I got some new shoes that I'm slowly wearing in. And I've installed orthotics into them which seem to help. Plus I just bought a book on running which has some good suggestions. All of which will really help in the coming months, but likely won't help the situation in the the two weeks that I have before the race.

Anyway, wow, 62 miles (100K) on the bike this weekend, what a blast! I felt really really strong. Certainly strong enough to do another 100K soon and perhaps work my way up to 75 miles on the way to a 100 mile bike. I could certainly do 100 miles if there were long food breaks in it. The 62 mile that I did this weekend I did continuous, which is 3+ hours in the saddle, which hurts pretty much however you do it.