Pilgrimman Half Ironman
Well its official! On Sunday, September 20, 2015, I completed my first half ironman distance triathlon at Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and it was awesome! I loved it all!!! If you told me last year that I’d be racing a half ironman distance triathlon, then I’d say, “That’s crazy. There is no way that I would do a half ironman triathlon.” So who made me change my mind? My personal trainer and friend, Nilton Motta, said that he wanted me to do the Pilgrimman Triathlon as my first half ironman. At first, I thought he was crazy, but he believed in my ability to compete at this level, and I trusted him completely. So after thinking it over for a bit, I believed it myself so I happily signed …show more content…
My apprehension was the swim because I had a hard enough time completing a 1/4 to 1/3 mile swim during the sprint races that I had competed in for the past few years, never mind completing a 1.2 mile swim, but I had about 10 months to prepare for it. So I spent the winter in the pool swimming back and forth, forth and back working on my stroke and endurance. I also spent many hours biking indoors using a bike trainer. In addition to swimming, biking and running, I also performed high intensity interval training twice a week. When the weather started to warm up, I moved my training outdoors swimming in the pond and biking and running in the forest. In addition to all of this training, I also had to figure out the nutrition that would be required in order to complete this distance. On long training days, I ate cookies, gels, bananas and drank Xtend Endurance to keep my energy level up so that I could keep on …show more content…
I sprinted out of the “run out” section, and this is when I could feel the muscle fibers in my quadriceps contract. When I looked down at my legs, it resembled something out of a science fiction movie. There appeared to be something sticking out and moving around at the anterior of both quadriceps. The muscle fibers tightened in the same local area of both legs. It was extremely painful! At this point, I tried to massage them and run again, but that had little effect so I had to stop because it was too painful. I briefly thought to myself, “How am I going to finish this race?” So I squatted all the way down and stretched my quadriceps out. After doing this, I was able to continue the race. My quadriceps were still very tight, but I was able to run and eventually the muscles started to feel better. I had to complete four 3.3-mile run loops, which totaled 13.2 miles. Nilton drove by me on the run and asked if I needed anything so I told him that I needed a massage. He yelled at me, “Don’t stop running! Keep going! You have a good pace.” The run course was also an extremely challenging one with more hills. There were three water stops with water, Gatorade, and different flavored gels and Oreo cookies for nutrition. The volunteers on the run leg were absolutely wonderful! During this portion of the race, I saw lots of smiles on the
Well its official! On Sunday, September 20, 2015, I completed my first half ironman distance triathlon at Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and it was awesome! I loved it all!!! If you told me last year that I’d be racing a half ironman distance triathlon, then I’d say, “That’s crazy. There is no way that I would do a half ironman triathlon.” So who made me change my mind? My personal trainer and friend, Nilton Motta, said that he wanted me to do the Pilgrimman Triathlon as my first half ironman. At first, I thought he was crazy, but he believed in my ability to compete at this level, and I trusted him completely. So after thinking it over for a bit, I believed it myself so I happily signed …show more content…
My apprehension was the swim because I had a hard enough time completing a 1/4 to 1/3 mile swim during the sprint races that I had competed in for the past few years, never mind completing a 1.2 mile swim, but I had about 10 months to prepare for it. So I spent the winter in the pool swimming back and forth, forth and back working on my stroke and endurance. I also spent many hours biking indoors using a bike trainer. In addition to swimming, biking and running, I also performed high intensity interval training twice a week. When the weather started to warm up, I moved my training outdoors swimming in the pond and biking and running in the forest. In addition to all of this training, I also had to figure out the nutrition that would be required in order to complete this distance. On long training days, I ate cookies, gels, bananas and drank Xtend Endurance to keep my energy level up so that I could keep on …show more content…
I sprinted out of the “run out” section, and this is when I could feel the muscle fibers in my quadriceps contract. When I looked down at my legs, it resembled something out of a science fiction movie. There appeared to be something sticking out and moving around at the anterior of both quadriceps. The muscle fibers tightened in the same local area of both legs. It was extremely painful! At this point, I tried to massage them and run again, but that had little effect so I had to stop because it was too painful. I briefly thought to myself, “How am I going to finish this race?” So I squatted all the way down and stretched my quadriceps out. After doing this, I was able to continue the race. My quadriceps were still very tight, but I was able to run and eventually the muscles started to feel better. I had to complete four 3.3-mile run loops, which totaled 13.2 miles. Nilton drove by me on the run and asked if I needed anything so I told him that I needed a massage. He yelled at me, “Don’t stop running! Keep going! You have a good pace.” The run course was also an extremely challenging one with more hills. There were three water stops with water, Gatorade, and different flavored gels and Oreo cookies for nutrition. The volunteers on the run leg were absolutely wonderful! During this portion of the race, I saw lots of smiles on the