My struggles as an amateur triathlete and a novice tennis player… and most of all, how I’m trying to stay in shape.
My struggles as an amateur triathlete and a novice tennis player… and most of all, how I’m trying to stay in shape.
When back in 2014 I tried a sprint-distance triathlon I didn’t suspect I’d stick with this kind of race for so long. Later that year I tried my first olympic-distance triathlon which is 1.5km swimming 🏊♂️, 40km cycling 🚴♂️ and 10km running 🏃♂️ - all sports one after another - and I loved it and started doing such races regularly! Three years ago I completed 11th race and yesterday - 8 years from starting my triathlon adventure - I finished my 15th olympic-distance race and 17th triathlon overall. I’ve shared many of my thoughts on triathlons in my last post and described tracking it with Apple Watch but I have new conclusions that, if you’re into sports and gear, you might find interesting:
I started cycling seriously when I got my road bike back in 2014 after I completed my first triathlon. Since then I’ve participated in many races and I’ve done over 15,000 km on the bike (both road bike and MTB) while also having only few accidents. Luckily, most were minor, but there were two that stood out and taught me valuable lessons - one that happened back in 2014 and the other last Saturday. Here’s what I learned from them:
A few years back, I started training tennis and I slowly became a fan of the sport. And now I’m so happy and proud of the first female athlete from my country who became a number 1 in tennis - Iga Świątek!
I’m a huge fan of basketball and especially the Golden State Warriors team. And in particular I admire Stephen Curry. Today he broke the NBA all-time record of 3-point shots ever made. Here’s how it happened:
Just yesterday I crossed the 400-move mark on the Apple Watch which basically means that for 400 days straight I managed to move enough that the Apple Watch classified it as “fitness day”. So I’ve been on the move for more than a year now, despite the pandemic, to hopefully stay in shape and lose some weight. It worked. And here’s how I did it:
Yesterday I mentioned that this last Sunday I competed in an olympic-distance triathlon with an Apple Watch. Thanks to the advice by Ian of “Apple Watch Triathlete” blog blog I downloaded the app Tri Tracker for my watch and it worked perfectly. Here’s the full story:
Last Sunday I ran my 11th Olympic distance triathlon. Can’t believe it’s been so many. It all started after my first sprint-distance race - back in October 2014 and in 5 years I’ve done 11 events! Here’s what I learned so far and why I keep doing triathlons:
After this last Sunday’s Ironman fiasco I got many reassuring messages from friends and this helped me deal with my utter failure and embarrassment… thanks everyone for kind words! It really means a lot! Apart from messages reassuring me that “this stuff happens to everyone”, I also got some constructive feedback. One of my buddies from my triathlon group who knows me pretty well and has been following my training sessions, wrote to me that probably this was for the best, because he feels I wasn’t prepared enough. He believed I was “undertrained”.
Yesterday evening at 9:30pm I was rushing in my car loaded with an amazing triathlon bike and all the gear ready to put everything in the transition area before my first ever Ironman race… It was my dream come true - I was about to become an Ironman in my home town of Gdynia, right when I turned 40. It was going to be great!… I was driving fast as they’d close the area at 10 pm. “I’ll make it! I always do!” I thought. Yet again I was doing stuff at the last minute, but as a person who always gets away with this, I was fine. There was still time, right? Wrong. When I got there I realized I was too late. Yes, they were closing the transition area at 10pm and I arrived just before that… but I failed to pick up my starting number and this had to be done before 8pm. And there was nothing to be done. Without a starting number I couldn’t participate in the race. I couldn’t leave my bike in the transition area…
This time I didn’t make it. This time I was really late. This time I really blew it.
I was standing there with the bike and the gear, completely ashamed and disappointed… and was replaying the events of this day over and over in my head trying to realize what just happened. I couldn’t understand how I got to this point where the race will take place and I won’t be in it. And it all looked so promising…
As you know I’ve been competing in triathlon races for the last 4 years. I’ve done 2 sprint-distance races and 10 olympic-distance ones. And this year I’ve signed up for a half-Ironman. I’m all about swimming, biking and running… but last year I started practicing a fourth sport - tennis. Here’s how I got to it and why:
