I don’t have a training plan for my FIRST sprint triathlon. The extent of my plan is to show up and say, “Hey, I’m here for the big show!”
Also, my gym membership ran out, I don’t have pool access right now, and I haven’t explored my other options. I do live within 3 miles of two different lakes, maybe I could ditch the gym and swim in the nasty, smelly, green waters of Madison?
So instead of solving these two uncertainties, I went out for my first bike then run brick workout. How fun! Right before the first stoplight a guy dolled up in his Trek spandex passed me. Thank goodness for that red light, because right then and there I decided I’d try and keep up with him. He was wearing spandex, he obviously knows what he’s doing. I kept about two pool lengths behind him (50 yards), I was pedaling my butt off determined not to lose him. Then he made an unexpected turn in a direction that I wasn’t planning on going in, but the stalker in me decided a reroute wouldn’t be so bad. We headed into the arboretum. The hilly arboretum. I watched him vanish into the distance at the first hill.
Darn it all. There goes my faux cycling coach. So I continued on, into the arboretum, enjoying the day, cursing the hills. I looped around back into the city and onto the lakeside bike path. My legs were feeling pretty tired by now, but my goal was to experience that sandbag-for-legs feeling that I hear triathletes speak of. I locked my bike up, took off my sweater, and started my run.
The run wasn’t bad at all. No jelly legs. I ran two miles with no problems. My only problem is that this workout didn’t scare me into finding a training plan! (TeeHee!)
Finding my happy pace 
Sounds like you do have a plan – to have fun! Loved my first sprint last summer. Signed up to do it again in July!
I like the Forrest Gump approach.
And that’s all I gotta say about that! 🙂
Awesome! You should figure oout what time that was…I’d bet the dude ries the same time that day. You could stalk him on the regular.
I’m jealous you had no jelly legs though. How long was that bike ride, do you think?
Awesome work! I think I might take your approach to finding my own personal coach 🙂
I can relate to this myself. My plan is really about the same, except I’m just going to continue doing what I do already, swim, bike and run. Many of the sprint training plans I’ve seen having you working out only 30 minutes a day? Seriously? My head can’t wrap around that being enough for even base fitness let alone a Tri….but what do I know? lol
Exactly!! The 30 minutes a day workouts did not excite me. I rarely workout for less than 40 minutes. Maybe a better plan to follow would be an intermediate or advanced plan. Oh well, this is for FUN!!
LOL. 30 min is hardly worth getting sweaty for. 😉
Love your psycho stalker workout. You could design a plan around stalking others.
That sounds like a fun workout. I’m loving Tri training, its keeping me really focused. There’s a free sprint plan on Hal Higdon’s website and I got an Olympic distance plan for free from beginnertriathlete.com (they also have free sprint plans).
Keep having fun!
Beginner Triathlete has a program where you can drag and drop workouts to specific days. If you want 2 a days you can do that as well. Its worth checking out if you start feeling like you need some structure, but my husband did his 1st with NO PLAN and 2 weeks out of knee surgery. He was fine, but I beat him (have I mentioned that?? 🙂 ha!) He just used it as a measuring tool to know where/what to do from that point forward…Although, he still has NO PLAN as we train for our next one, he did dial down his daily 2 mile swims ;)! Good Luck, have fun..there will plenty of time for formal training.
“He was wearing spandex, he obviously knows what he’s doing.”
I love that comment.
I don’t have much of a plan for training for my first sprint tri either….tonight I got on the bike for the first time in FIFTEEN years (I was 8) and it was terrifying. Balance is not my forte… i much prefer the stationary bikes that dont require me to wear a helmet
If you want to start logging some miles and meeting some cycling friends, you should check out the Luna Chix Madison. They offer weekly rides for all abilities. http://teamlunachix.com/madison_cycling