Repeat Dreams of Olympic Triathlon

REPEAT DREAMS OF OLYMPIC TRIATHLON

What’s the point of climbing the mountain if you already have before? If you swam the English Channel, why risk becoming fish bait again? Is doing something “over” like repeating Freshman English? This morning I was out on my two wheeler spinning up and down Lake Drive off the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. A stunning sunrise. Not too many automobile drivers to face down at 5:30 a.m. Even the local coffee shop near the yacht club was closed as it was just too early for any human activity. But the air was quite humid, as storm clouds were brewing above, so I wanted to get in three long loops up and down the Drive to get in about 40K of cycling, the distance for the upcoming New York Nautica “Olympic” Triathlon on July 20.

I’m not exactly sprinting up the hills with my low gear, but I am making some tiny improvements. The old swimming hole for open water practice has some dangerous blue green algae, which in one report, is even dangerous to touch, as many of the local lakes and rivers have been infused with all sorts of dangerous runoff by-products due to the abundance of Biblical rains last month. So I continue to go back and forth in the indoor pool, pretending I am swimming down current in the Hudson in a few weeks. Actually I can visualize the meter markers: 1500, 1200, 900, something like that. Last night I just had to get into my wetsuit to see if I could remember the technique for getting it on, and of course, getting it off in less than a minute. The “off” exercise of getting the wetsuit off is quite demanding, especially if you try doing it standing up. That’s the sign of a “seasoned” triathlete. New triathletes often fall down trying to get all that rubber off in order to get to the next stage.

I do miss Pewaukee Lake, as creepy as the weeds were last year. There’s something euphoric about swimming, or attempting to swim, in open water. No buoys, no pushoff at either end, no concrete bottom; no, instead, weeds sucking you down, the markers for a turn are too far to see without binoculars, and the real problem is drifting away from the turn buoys, as there are no “lane” buoys to help you go straight down and back. But I do appreciate the level of fear when I am far out, way out, and the faster swimmers passed by 10 minutes ago. So perhaps in not risking death to the blue green algae, and e-coli, I may be in for a bigger shock than last year when I dipped into the Hudson for the first time in my life. I knew Cosmo Kramer in one episode of “Seinfeld” had attempted a swim, but I am having trouble finding the particular episode to draw upon any of his swim stroke tips.

The fast jogging has been slowly improving. What’s helped is to make the gym treadmill my friend, as well as a track field in west Milwaukee where I find encouragement from younger, speedier, thinner triathletes who think nothing of 8 800s. So it’s all coming together, whether or not I am ready for the Nautica Redux. The run through Central Park last year was quite exhilarating, but to have to swim .9 mile in questionable waters, and bike up the West End Highway in low gear, only to turn around and race down it in terrifying speeds, is really too much for older people. Who knows, it could be the hottest day in New York City. Most of all I hope I have the good sense to “PICK UP THE CHIP” (timing device) before I join my age group holding onto the rope that keeps us all from drifting.

I must have fallen during one of the training sessions, for now I am starting to wonder about an even longer distance, the so called 70.3 or “half Iron.” That would be 70.3 miles to travel, with a longer swim, more hours on a bike seat, and then a twice as long jog/run as now. Hey, I’m even thinking about trying a half Marathon this August. I probably will need to be certified soon, but for now, I’m either “in training” or resting from training. I am hoping, but not expecting, to break last year’s time by at least a second, maybe two. We’ll see. I need a nap now.