How (Not) to Prepare for Your First Triathlon

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With my first triathlon being in two days I wanted to go over my training for it, including what I did right and what I could have improved upon.

How to Prepare for a Triathlon: Practice open water swimming
I did my first and only open water swim while I was at the beach and absolutely loved it, especially the waves. It really made me fall in love with swimming all over again.

How (Not) to Prepare for a Triathlon: Stop swimming and biking with three weeks left until race day
I am not sure what happened but after I came home from the beach my biking and swimming just stopped. I only wanted to run so that is all I did. At least I am a strong swimmer, biking is the problem here.


How to Prepare for a Triathlon: Develop a consistent running base
Lately I have been running higher mileage and 4 times a week since I am also training for a half marathon. My running has never felt stronger or faster than it does now.

How (Not) to Prepare for a Triathlon: Not have an outfit to race in
This is not the biggest mistake I made but I still have no idea what to wear. I will probably just go with a bathing suit and then throw shorts on over. I am really hoping this won't cause chafing.

How to Prepare for a Triathlon: Do brick workouts
I also did a brick workout while I was at the beach. I only biked 7 miles but I ran 4.5 miles for a wonderful brick workout. My legs didn't feel tired at all.

How (Not) to Prepare for a Triathlon: Only do one brick workout
Despite my awesome brick workout at the beach, that was the only one I did while training. I am not sure why but I just didn't get around to it. There were many days where I would run in the morning and then bike at night so I guess that is better than nothing, right?

How to Prepare for a Triathlon: Get in some quality bike rides
I did almost all of my bike rides with my dad while training for this triathlon. I loved having a training partner in my dad and being able to spend some extra time with him.



How (Not) to Prepare for a Triathlon: Not ride any hills even the course is hilly
My plan was to go to the site of the triathlon and ride the bike course to see how bad these hills really are. Well that never happened. I didn't do any hills for that matter. I guess we will see how this works out tomorrow.

How to Prepare for a Triathlon: Learn what foods to eat before training
Over the past couple of months I have learned that eggs and I don't really get along. I also discovered that eating a whole bagel before a race is too much for me to stomach.



How (Not) to Prepare for a Triathlon: Have no idea what nutrition to eat during the race 
Even though I know what I should eat before I race, I never practiced what I should eat during the race. At this point I am not sure if I should even eat anything or not.