Tomorrow is my first triathlon ever and I am straight up scared as hell. But also kind of excited.

TriRock Annapolis posted the waves the other day, and I found out I'm in wave 12. That's the second to last wave, and it's full of women ages 25-34 who are also beginners.


This is both comforting and terrifying.

Comforting in the fact that other people will probably be just as scared and inexperienced as I am.

Terrifying in the fact that there's seven minutes between waves, and all my friends will probably be half way done before I even get in the water. That's a looong time for anyone to be waiting around for me to finish, which makes me feel even more pressure to finish fast.

I kind of feel like I could puke.

I'm more scared to do this triathlon than I was to run my first marathon six years ago. Running is easy, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. That's not really the case in a triathlon.


My stomach is in knots, I'm questioning my training and seriously wondering if there's more I could have done. More swims, more bikes, more bricks. I feel so unprepared.

The race is a 500 meter swim, a 12 mile bike and a 5K run.

Deep down I know I can tackle each of these distances by themselves.

My longest swim was 3,000+ yards in the pool. My longest bike was 25.5 miles. My longest run has been 26.2 miles.


Putting them all together makes me nervous.

My open water swims have been rocky at best. My bikes have been so slow. And what if I get a flat?


I've done everything I could to prepare. I've trained well. I've read the race guide and the rules about 15 times. I've packed my transition bag and checked and triple checked to make sure I have everything I need.

There's not really much more I can do now but wait and do my best tomorrow.

My plan of attack is: Strong on the swim, Survive the bike, Crush the run.


Wish me luck.

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!!!

Good morning friends!

I'm currently on my way to the Big Apple for a blogger event at Fitness Magazine! I'm super excited to catch up with some of my favorite bloggers and spend a day hanging out with some of the magazine's editors.

Traveling always stresses me out, and I never sleep well the night before, so I had absolutely no problem waking up when my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. In fact, I was actually wide awake at 2 a.m. (This means I will crash hard on the way back to DC tonight!)


I've decided that 3:30 in the morning is far too early to wake up unless I'm headed to a race, but I managed to make my way down to Union Station in order to catch my 4:48 a.m. train.

I had an especially chatty cab driver this morning who told me I should call him sometime when I was getting out of the cab. That was only mildly awkward.

Other than that, my travel plans went off without a hitch this morning.

Have I mentioned before that I am obsessed with the train and think it's by far the best way to travel?

• Amtrak trains have a quiet car where people can't talk. This is brilliant. No screaming babies. No obnoxious people on cell phones. Just peace and quiet. In fact that train conductor totally laid the smack down on some guy who was talking on his phone in the car this morning. It was fantastic.
• Free wi-fi, which is currently bringing you this blog post. More airlines need to get on this!
• I don't have to sit in traffic on 95. Rush hour is a B in DC, in Philly and in NYC, all cities I'd have to contend with if I were on the road. Oh and I don't have to pay tunnel tolls when I take the train. Sure, the bus might be a little bit cheaper (and most have free wi-fi these days too) but the train is a million times faster, which makes NYC day trips possible.
• You can roll up to the train gate about five minutes before the train leaves and not have to deal with massive security lines.

On that note, I'm going to unplug, grab a quick nap, and catch you from NYC! If you want to follow along with the day events live, follow me on Twitter (@jessmilcetich). I'll be tweeting updates all day!