I'd be lying if I said the pool on the roof of my building had no impact on my decision to move in here. But until I moved in, I didn't realize just how great it would be.

Some of the reasons are pretty obvious -- like how I can work from up there on my telework days and how I can come home from work and just lounge around and dive into a good book.



But the pool is also pretty great for, well, swimming.

Now granted, it's not a lap pool by any means, and it's actually not even in a straight line. It curves and bends at one section, and there are usually at least a few other people in it.

But, all of that makes for really good triathlon swimming practice.

I mean, you have to sight where you're going, and swim around other people like you would in open water. And there's no lane line in this pool, just like there's not any in a lake/river/ocean.

So why do I care about mirroring tri-swim conditions?

Welllll, all this cross training I've been forced to do because of my foot injury has actually gotten me kind of excited about the possibility of doing another triathlon. (I can hear coach Zach cheering all the way from South Carolina.)



I mean I still can't run, which is obviously an important part of a triathlon, but I figure if I keep working on the swimming and the biking, by the time I can get back to running again, I might be able to tackle a sprint distance tri.



And for whatever reason, I really, really want to try a tri with an ocean swim. I have no idea why. Swimming in the ocean scares the crap out me. Hello...sharks!

But the whole time I was at the beach in July, I kept being envious of all the people out in the ocean doing their swim workouts.


Swimming in the Bay...the closest I ever got to an ocean swim

I overheard more than a few people talk about upcoming beach tris they were training for, and I was like, man, I really, really want to swim, bike, run at the beach.

Now I'm well aware I probably won't be able to work a beach tri into my schedule this year. Most of my fall weekends are booked with Terps football and who knows when I will actually be able to run again.

But come spring and summer, I'm planning to keep my eyes open. I'm eying some of the ones at the Delaware beaches. Until then, I may try to find something small around here and later in the season, even if it only has a pool swim.

Just need my foot to hurry up and heal.

Even though my first triathlon season ended with a DNS at the Philadelphia Triathlon, I still I learned a lot from experimenting with multisport training and racing my first sprint tri in Annapolis.


The most important thing I learned is that I will always love running more than anything else. I am a runner at heart. I'd prefer a road race over a triathlon any day of the week, but there was something a little bit fun and definitely challenging in training for a multisport event.

And all the cross-training just might make me a better runner.


This winter and spring, I felt like I was in some of the best shape of my life because I was mixing things up with my training so much. I know with running there are plenty of times I get lazy about cross-training and just opt to run instead, which leads to muscle imbalance and a very one dimensional kind of fitness.

But with tri training, I was pushing myself on the bike and in the pool and using muscles that I don't normally use in my run training.


Not only was it a great way to mix things up mentally to prevent burnout, but it was awesome physically. All of a sudden, I had these new shoulder and back muscles springing up from swimming and I could feel new muscles in my legs forming that would help prevent running injuries.

And all the cross-training I was doing, was paying off hugely for me in my running. This spring, I set some huge new PRs.

I finally broke two hours in the half marathon, a goal I have been chasing for years.


And then a few weeks later, I shaved an entire minute off my 5K PR.

Running just felt easier.

No matter how much running I would do, I don't think I would have seen such great successes in my racing this spring without all the cross-training I was doing.


Of course, now that tri season is over for me, I've totally fallen off the cross-training band wagon. I haven't ridden my bike in at least a month and I haven't been in the pool in just about that long.

But with training ramping up soon for MCM, I'm making it a goal to work cross-training back into my plan. I saw first hand just how much cross-training improves my running, and I want to kick butt at MCM this year.

So while I don't see myself ever turning into a full-fledged triathlete, I may still sign up for sprint tris here and there to keep myself motivated to cross train. If I learned nothing else from my first triathlon season, it's that mixing things up drastically improves my running.

And that's reason enough for me to stick with it.

Thank you for all your kind and thoughtful comments on my post about bagging the Philadelphia Triathlon.

After thinking about it some more, I officially decided to not do the race, and like a few of you said, I feel so relieved having made the decision.

There will be plenty of other races in the future so from here it's onward and upward.

---

In other workout news, I'm now experimenting with a new strength program from Valerie Waters, one of my fellow FitFluential Ambassadors.

Valerie invented the ValSlides, flat disc-like things you place under your hands and feet while doing certain strength moves, like lunges, planks, etc.


She generously sent me the ValSlides and her workout program, the I Want My Bikini Body Express, to try out, and after a quick workout with the ValSlides on Sunday, my legs are still burning today.

The program is three weeks long and blends three days of strength with three days of cardio. I'm excited to have a more dedicated strength program. I tend to fall off the strength training wagon without a good plan in place.

I also love that Val's program is short. My exercise ADD kicks into overdrive in the summer, but a three week strength program seems manageable before I get distracted by something else.

I'll do another review of the program when I've wrapped it up, but for now I'm enjoying it and the newfound soreness in my legs!

I've gotten a couple of questions from people about how much triathlons cost, so I thought I'd take the time to spell out just how much I've spent on this sport since I got into it last November.

For some background, I was starting basically from scratch. I've run for years, but I've never done much more than that, so I had a lot of very high initial start-up costs in terms of gear and equipment. Most of the things I bought, I will be able to use over and over again in future races, so that made me feel a little bit better about spending the money.


By nature I am an extremely frugal person. There's nothing I hate more than wasting money on unnecessary things, so I promise this list isn't full of splurge items for fun, but rather gear and equipment that I felt was necessary to get me through my training and races successfully.

Ready for the list? With costs? (I'm kind of afraid to see this all totaled up in one place!)

Here we go!

Registrations:

• Sprint Tri Registration: $119
• Oly Tri Registration: $211

Total: $330

Biking:

• Bike: $668
• Helmet: $20
• Bike Pump: $38
• Bike Shorts: $35 (They were on 50% off sale!)
• Bike Tune Up and Pedals Upgrade: $52

Total: $813

Swimming:

• Pool Membership: $191
• Wetsuit: $75
• Open Water Swim Clinic: $43

Total: $309

Other Miscellaneous Costs:

• Tri Shorts: $70
• GU/Fuel: $14
• Hotel for Philly Tri: $80

Total: $164

Grand Total Spent on my First Tri Season: $1,616

Like I said, it's expensive, but many of these costs are one-time investments. I'm not going to need to go out and buy another bike any time soon. Same with the wetsuit. Other than paying entry fees, my next triathlon season, should be significantly cheaper than this one.

If all this seems overwhelming and way, way too expensive, Katy actually wrote a great post about how to do a triathlon for less than $10. While I don't think everything on her list is totally feasible (I live where it's cold, early season tris require wetsuits), it might give you some ideas as to where you could trim costs.

But even with cost savings, triathlons are by nature expensive sports, especially if you're looking to be competitive. If I hadn't gotten a promotion at work last year, there's almost no way I could have afforded to lay down this kind of money on a new sport. If you're looking to get into triathlons, you should be aware that there are some big costs that can go along with them.

For those of you who regularly compete in triathlons, how do you keep your costs down?

Well I did it! I survived my very first triathlon!


Zach and I headed out to Annapolis Friday evening for TriRock Annapolis packet pick-up and to scope out the course. We got a glimpse of where the swim would start and end. We did a quick walk through of the transition area and found the bike out and run out areas before heading to our friend's place for the evening.



Our friend Mike graciously let us crash at his apartment in Annapolis so we wouldn't have to drive all the way from DC on race morning. After grabbing dinner, asking Zach a million questions about race logistics, and putting Garmin on the charger, I promptly passed out on the sofa.

Being the night before a race, I didn't sleep great, but I slept better than I thought I would and when the alarm went off, I dragged myself out of bed to begin race prep.

Pre-Race:

We got to the race start with a decent amount of time to spare.

There was quite a line to get into the transition area, but it moved along as volunteers checked people's bike tags and numbers.


My spot in transition was steps away from the swim finish, on an end row, making it super easy to remember where my stuff was during the race.

After I got my bike racked and laid out all my gear, I was able to spend a few minutes chatting with my Aunt Marybeth and my cousin Laura who came out to watch me in the race. They had made a fantastic sign and I was so thrilled to have them there!


After that, the waiting game began.

I was in wave 12, the second-to-last wave to go and with seven minutes in between waves, I had a long time until my start. Luckily the race let people in waves 9-13 stay in transition until the other waves had gone to help alleviate congestion at the start.


So I hung out and chatted with some of the other girls whose bikes were racked next to mine. I found out most people were as nervous as I was since this was their first race too. That was definitely a comforting fact. Talking with them passed the time and soon enough, our wave was lining up to start the swim. (P.S. Hi ladies if any of you are reading today!!!)

Swim: 11:39:34

The swim was an in-water start, so everyone jumped off the docks and into the water before swimming over to the start buoys.


When I first hit the water I was cold, but I dunked my head in right away to try to get acclimated. I waded over to the start, trying to keep my heart rate low. I wasn't sure where I should start on the swim. I didn't want to start right at the front, but I was trying to get to one of the sides so I'd at least have room to move when we went. Unfortunately, I never made it and ended up in the middle of the pack as the swim started.


Immediately I realized I should have started at the front of the pack. I was definitely one of the stronger swimmers in our group, and I was having a really, really hard time getting around the people in front of me. I eventually found some open water and settled into a really nice groove. My heart rate was surprisingly low compared to my other open water swims and I was just cruising along. The swim was hands down my favorite leg of the course.

As I made the last turn I started catching up to people from the wave in front of me.


Now remember, there were seven minutes between waves, so those people were definitely having a rough go of it in the water. I had to slow up quite a few times to get around people toward the end, which was frustrating. The one other frustrating part is that there were only four ladders to get out of the water and of course all of them were being used when I finished. So I had to wait a few seconds before I could get out of the water.

T1: 3:13.7

I came running out of the water at a pretty good clip. Ripped off my cap and googles and unzipped my wetsuit. I got the wetsuit off pretty quickly, and went to work drying off my feet and getting into my shoes.


I probably wasted too much time fiddling with Garmin, but then with lots of cheers from Laura and Marybeth I was off and running to bike out.

Bike: 55:06.99

The start of the bike was a little rocky. I was trying to go quickly and I had a hard time getting my feet into the toe clips and actually getting going. After a frustrating couple of minutes, I was situated on the bike. I was trying to control my breathing and just relax through the start of the bike.


This was definitely the leg I was most worried about and I wanted to enjoy it while still pushing.

The course was shaped like a lollipop. You rode out, did two loops and then rode back in. Of course, in those two loops there were some monster hills.


I tried to crank hard on the uphills without burning myself out and then fly on the downhills. I was doing an OK job, passing lots of people on the uphills, but then getting passed a decent amount on the downhills.

I tried not to worry about the number of times I was being passed. I know the bike is where I have the most room for improvement, and on a hilly course, I knew I wasn't going to rock it. I wish I hadn't messed up my Garmin multisport function because I would have loved to see the comparison in my times on the climbs versus my times on the downhills. I'm not sure what I did, but all I have is my average speed being 13.1 mph.

As I headed back to bike dismount, I could hear Laura and Marybeth cheering super loudly for me.


I stopped just before the dismount line and sprinted into T2.

T2: 1:26.33

I had a bit of a ways to run through transition to get back to where my spot was and I had to dodge a few people who had already finished the race.

I tossed my bike into the rack, unclipped my helmet, grabbed my water bottle and race number and took off.


Apparently I was so in the zone I didn't even see Zach standing super close to me taking these pictures.

Run: 27:54.8

Oh I was so happy to be on the run because it meant the race was almost over. Yes my legs felt like complete and utter crap, but I knew that feeling would wear off eventually.

I passed my aunt and cousin again and then a little while later saw my friends Tracy and Marianne. It was so nice having so many people out there cheering for me. Each cheer gave me a little boost of energy.


The run course started on an uphill, and though my legs were tired, I was passing people left and right. I spotted Heidi right at the top of the hill. She was out being an awesome spectator! Minutes later I spotted my other friend Brooke. One of the perks of local races is that you randomly see a lot of your friends spectating.

My legs continued to feel like hell for a decent part of the run. Plus at this point I was tired, and it was hot out. There wasn't a ton of shade on the course so I felt like I was baking. I was sipping plenty of Gatorade and was so glad I decided to carry it with me on the run.

But even though I felt crappy I was still passing people, which made me feel good.


When I hit the downhill at the end of the course, I knew I had the race in the bag. I let things go and just flew down the hill. I rode that momentum around the last turn and straight into the finish.

Final Time: 1:39:21

Thoughts:

In the last two days I have had so many mixed emotions about the race that I'm not sure how to process them all.


When I first crossed the finish line, I told Zach that I had a decent time, but I didn't think triathlons were for me. I enjoyed the experience but felt meh about the whole thing. In fact, I said I'd rather run a marathon because it's more fun, and all the logistics surrounding triathlons are super stressful compared to a road race. (I cannot be held accountable for what I say immediately after finishing a race.)

But then I saw my results. I beat my goal time of 1:40 and found out I placed 7th out of all beginner women ages 25-34. That's not too shabby.

And then I started thinking about all the ways I could have improved or done better.


And then I realized that I actually did have a fun time during the whole experience (and for some reason realllly loved the swim), and that I actually wanted to take the time to get better.

And so yes, I do see more triathlons in my future, starting with the Philadelphia Olympic Distance Tri in June.

A huge thank you to my cousin and aunt for coming out, cheering and taking a million pictures. And a big thank you to Tracy, Marianne and all my other friends I saw on the course. Seeing you guys made the race so much more fun.


Probably the biggest thank you of all goes to my training partner/coach Zach, who pretty much taught me everything I know about biking and talked me down from many panic attacks throughout training.

I don't think I could have picked a better tri for my first one. TriRock Annapolis was beginner friendly and just a ton of fun from start to finish.

Yesterday's Meet and Tweet event at Fitness Magazine was amazing and I'll be back with a full recap later.


For right now, the biggest thing on my mind is Saturday's triathlon.

I'm trying to be super organized and make sure I have everything ready to go when it comes to gear and transitions.

To help me with that, my training buddy Zach put together a ridiculously comprehensive list of things I should remember for each part of the race. I thought I'd share because it's actually really well thought out and organized and it is helping me make sense of things.

Bike racking/Transition Setup:

1. Rack your bike with the front wheel facing outward. During T2, rack your bike front-wheel first. Transition areas get crowded, and not having to turn your bike around saves time.
2. Check the air in your tires. Inflate them if needed.
3. Put your [brightly-colored and easy to spot] transition mat on your dominant side. I went to Walmart and bought $3 worth of very obnoxious neon yellow felt. You can see it from space.
4. Rack your bike in the proper gear to pedal when starting at the "bike mount" line.
5. I put some baby powder in my shoes and a little Body Glide on the outer edges of my shoes (since I won't be wearing socks)(Note from Jess: I will be wearing socks).
6. Make sure everything that needs to go with you on the bike is attached to the bike (water bottles in cages, nutrition stored, co2/Vittoria/tire levers/spare tube/patches in bag, helmet and sunglasses on handlebars, race belt looped over seat).
7. Put your gloves/shoes/socks/beloved Garmin at the edge of your mat.
8. Everything you need for the run (shoes, nutrition, water bottle, hat) and anything else you might need should be neatly laid out on your mat.
9. Put an open bottle of water on your mat. You'll use it later on to rinse off your feet.
10. At least once, start at the entrance of T1 and walk/jog to your bike. Make sure you know how many rows you pass before you get to your row, and how far in your bike is. I usually think of it as rows and columns.
11. Grab your goggles, wetsuit, and swim cap. Take everything else out of transition.

Pre-Race:

1. Safety pin your chip strap. This way it can't be ripped off during any swim contact.
2. Put your goggles on before your swim cap. Again, less chance you'll lose them if someone kicks you.
3. If you're putting on sunscreen, do it after you've been body marked.
4. Leave ample time to get into the wetsuit, but don't change so early that you're taking it off again to go to the bathroom.
5. TriSlide spray is a lifesaver when it comes to reducing chafing and making the wetsuit easier to get on and off.

Swim to bike (T-1):

1. Unzip the back of your wetsuit while running into transition.
2. Before pulling your arms out, take off your swim cap and goggles. While you're pulling your arm through, let them go. They'll store themselves nicely in your wetsuit sleeve.
3. First things first: lose the wetsuit (don't worry about folding it, but make sure it's contained in your area).
4. Sunglasses, then helmet. (Having the sunglasses under the helmet straps means you don't have to take them off when removing the helmet off in T-2).
5. Race belt/bib (different races have different rules. Some don't require you to wear your race bib on the bike).
6. Rinse your feet using the open water bottle you stashed while racking. You want to get rid of anything your wet feet picked up during the run into transition.
7. Socks/Shoes/Gloves/Garmin (In a short race, some people don't bother with socks or bike gloves. It can take a while to get dry socks on wet feet. If you're using clipless pedals, you can save time by having the shoes clipped/rubber banded in position on the bike.)
8. Make sure everything is contained within your transition area.
9. Grab your bike and run to "Bike Out."
10. Get on your bike only after having passed the "mount" line.

Bike to run:

1. Make sure you're off your bike before crossing the "dismount" line.
2. Run back to your area, and re-rack your bike.
3. Take off your helmet/gloves (if you wore them), put on your hat/visor (if you wear one).
4. Grab your water bottle or Fuelbelt and any nutrition you're taking during the run.
5. Run to "Run Out."

So what's missing from this list? Anything? Ahhhhh I can't believe my tri is in two days!!!

Yesterday Zach and I headed out to Lorton, VA for an open water swim and transitions clinic. The weather was less than desirable (it was rainy, overcast and cold) and I was cranky because we were awake so early, but I was still hoping I'd learn something valuable for my tri this weekend.


But I won't lie, I was a little bit let down.

I paid $43 to attend the clinic and I was expecting learn some tips for open water swimming, maybe get advice on how to sight, how to deal with swimming in a crowd, etc.

Instead, the people running the clinic inflated some buoys, and just sent everyone into the water to swim. You had an hour to be in the water and in that time you could swim as much as you wanted. The loop they set up was 500 meters and I did it twice.

But I learned nothing about having a good swim, and that was disappointing.


The transitions portion of the clinic wasn't much better.


The organizers talked us through a successful transition and demonstrated how to set everything up so it would be neat and organized.

Then they had us practice a T1 and T2 transition.

The only valuable tip I learned was that if you cuff the legs of your wetsuit before you take it off, it comes off more quickly.

But I could have practiced the transitions on my own anywhere and learned just as much as I did at the clinic.

Overall, I was definitely disappointed that I paid a decent amount of money to learn almost nothing. I kind of wish I would have run the Frederick half with my friends instead.

Holy crap the Chesapeake Bay is cold.

That's what I was thinking as my my training buddy Zach and I waded into the water Sunday afternoon. The air temperature was in the low 60s and the water was somewhere in the 50s.

Brrrrrr.


Open water swimming was extremely humbling.

I'm a strong swimmer in the pool. I don't tire easily and my form has improved tons in the last few months. Swimming is the one sport in triathlon where I have a very clear edge over Zach. At least in the pool.

In choppy bay waves, it's totally different.

Zach destroyed me in the open water.


I've been referring to Sunday's open water adventure as an epic failure. Zach more kindly prefers to call it a learning experience.

It didn't bother me that much to not have a lane line, but I really, really struggled with sighting the buoys in the distance. It took a while for me to get into a rhythm of breathing and sighting. During my first couple of laps I had to alternate between freestyle and breast stroke to sight, but by the end I had gotten used to picking my head up out of the water in the middle of my freestyle stroke.

My form though was all over the place. I was having a hard time getting used to swimming in a wetsuit and I felt a little restricted in my arm movement. I kept swinging my left arm super high out of the water trying to improve my range of motion. Not only did it look ridiculous, but it wasted a lot of energy.


I was also having a hard time figuring out how to breath. With the waves coming in I could only really breath on one side without getting a face full of water. I ended up swallowing a mouthful of bay at one point. It was fairly disgusting.

Toward the end of our swim, Zach decided to swim behind me and swat at my feet so I'd get used to being bumped in the water. That didn't bother me too much. But then I started to veer off course a little bit and all of sudden Zach was swimming over me.

Right onto my back.

My first instinct was to throw an elbow, but I didn't. He correct pretty quickly, and he didn't swim over my head or anything, so it wasn't quite as scary as I expected it would be. But I can totally see how stuff like that would cause someone to panic in the water.


I have no idea how long we swam for. We ended up taking a decent amount of breaks to get out and warm our hands and feet up. We eventually called it quits when neither of us could control the movement in our hands anymore since they had started to curl into claws.

My fingers were useless for the next 20 minutes. I couldn't get out of my wetsuit, nor could I tie my shoelaces after changing. The water was definitely chilly.

I'm really, really glad to have done at least one open water swim before my race. It was a humbling experience. I'm not used to moving that slowly through the water. I seriously felt like I was crawling.

The waves made me miss the nice smooth water in the pool.

If you've been following along with my whole triathlon journey, you may have noticed that I have not been sleeping well throughout this training cycle because I've been having major freak outs and nightmares about the race.

First there was the dream where I parked my bike at my friend's apartment and when I got back all the parts where gone except for the seat and the handle bars. It was like my bike had been to the chop shop.

More recently, I dreamed that I got to the race late and my wave has already started or that the race has decided they aren't going to use timing chips or that I can't find the tent for body marking.

I have woken up from all of these dreams in a horrible cold sweat, and have had a hard time falling back to sleep.

So sleep lately, has not been my friend.

However, when I got the opportunity through FitFluential to partner with Technogel to test out one of their amazing pillows and host a giveaway for my readers, I jumped at the opportunity.


I know that a pillow isn't going to banish my anxiety dreams, but I figured that maybe if I had something comfortable to snuggle into after waking up from one of my dreams, I'd drift back to sleep easier.


Guys, in all seriousness, this is the best pillow I've ever slept on.

Technogel makes several different style pillows and I opted for the Classic, which is their thinnest pillow. I absolutely hate big, fluffy pillows, and tend to snag my pillows super cheap and super flat from the pillow bins at Ikea. Big, fluffy pillows are annoying and hurt my neck, but the Classic was the perfect height.


My favorite part though was the blue gel on the inside that feels slightly cool to the touch when you put your head on the pillow. I like sleeping in the cold and having that chill factor was awesome.

Sleeping on this pillow has been amazing. And lucky for me, this week the triathlon nightmares have stayed away. Sure, I know that is not a direct result of the pillow, but it's sure been a nice coincidence.


The best part of this whole thing is that I get to share the wealth! Technogel has offered to give away one of their amazing pillows to one of you. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment answering this question:

How do you deal with bad dreams, especially anxiety dreams about races?

I'll pick a winner on Friday morning.

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.