DC Triathlon Club - Haines Point Sprint Triathlon

Training with the DC Triathlon Club by Jay Adams, Part of Team beRecruited.com
August 25, 2005

As part of his training for Team beRecruited.com, Jay Adams ran his first triathlon ever with the DC Triathlon Club this past Sunday at Haines Point in Washington, DC. This is Jay’s overview of his training for the DC Triathlon Club’s Sprint Triathlon in Haines Point DC:

The event was one of their periodic training tri’s—an informal club event, not sanctioned by USAT, allowing competitors at all levels to either gauge their racing prowess or just finish alive. The course was a so-called “sprint” triathlon, which included a 400m swim, 17mi bike, and 5k run. As someone who spent high school and college training for 100yd butterfly’s and 400m dashes, the idea of calling this a “sprint” was akin to calling Thanksgiving a “snack”, but if I was going to do an Olympic distance triathlon in 2 months (the Treasure Island Triathlon in Treasure Island California), I needed to get my feet wet, so to speak.
I started training from scratch from about 5 weeks before the event. By the week of the event, my training included roughly 5000 yds of swimming per week, 90 min of running per week, lifting 3 or 4 times per week, and only enough cycling to get used to riding with clips—literally less than 2 hours total. My most important objectives were 1) to not stop, and 2) to finish. In addition, I was in good enough swimming shape that I figured I could finish the 400m swim in under 6 min, and—knowing my horrible running shape—was hoping beyond hope to finish the 5k in under 30 min. I had no such fortune.



The race was a huge learning experience. I was careful to watch my nutritional intake in the preceding 48 hours. Nonetheless, my pre-race jitters the night before had me up at 2am, eating snacks, trying to get back to sleep (I never did). I slept 3 continuous hours that night, but the adrenaline was flowing so it was never a factor. During the race, I cruised through the swimming, then walked over to T1 and took my time. I was not particularly winded; I was more interested in going slow and steady. Besides, trying to put on shoes while wet and crouched over was no simple task at any pace. The first time around, it was about as easy as trying to tie your shoe while hopping on one foot. In the future, it may be a good idea to bring a bucket or something to sit on. Going into the bike leg of the race, I got a great view of everybody’s backs as they passed me. That 17 mile bike ride was probably the longest I’d ever done, and was certainly the longest I attempted to stay in the aero position. My neck was hurting by the last 20 min. T2 went smoothly, and my legs felt like tree trunks. I started the run with a Warren Sapp-style skipping to loosen up, and was crawling on my way for the next 34 minutes. In retrospect, the biggest factor holding me back in the bike and run was my propensity to err on the side of going slow for fear of getting winded—not that my goal was to go fast. Either way, I did not really attack the race until the last half mile sprint or so—way too late to affect a significant result. An old lady with a walker could have outran me in the 5k. Nonetheless, I’ve run 7 min pace 5k’s before and hope to get close to that shape by November.

After the race, it was 10am and it felt like 6pm. DC Tri members had a cookout in the park. After much Gatorade and burgers, I felt so relaxed I thought I was going to get pulled over for driving too slowly. My metabolism for the rest of the day was more like that of a bear in Yellowstone Park. I ate 3 feet worth of subs, 2 Stouffer’s stir fry meals, 2 bowls of cereal, 3 bananas, a PB&J sandwich, a bunch of grapes, and a partridge in a pear tree. In between all that eating, I was going in and out of sleep until my circadian rhythm was normal again by Monday.

Between now and the Treasure Island Triathlon in November, I will be running another sprint tri in September, as well as one or two 5k’s. Now that I am no longer a tri virgin, I have solid experiences from which to create new goals and have a better sense of what is physically required of me. The beRecruited.com athletes will be finishing strong in November.
 

Jay Adams, representing Team beRecruited.com, begins the bike leg of the DC Triathlon Club's Haines Point Sprint Triathlon