It's Beginning to Look Achievable

I finished my timed trials for my try-a-tri.  I swam 300 metres (12 laps) in the pool the way I normally would with a time of 9 minutes.  That puts me at the bottom of the pack for the swim section, but it is a time that reflects my inability to control my breathing while swimming with my face in the water. 

I did 2 laps in the pool with goggles and a nose plug on.  I have never been the type of person who can swim underwater without plugging her nose or constantly blowing air out of it so the nose plug is a new item for me, but it is a necessity for competition.  These two laps I did in 30 seconds each instead of 45 seconds which makes sense as I was able to swim with much better form.  However, I didn't breathe for most of those two laps and as a result was too winded to do any more continuous laps without taking a breather.

I will need to go back to the pool on a less busy day so I can have a whole lane to myself to practice breathing in time with my strokes.  Once I accomplish this I am confident my swim time will fall around the 7 minutes mark (top race time is 6 minutes).  I have also discovered that I will likely need a wetsuit (or a trisuit - which I just found out existed) for the race.  It is not listed as a requirement, but no one in the photos is wearing just a bathing suit.  Plus, it would be uncomfortable to cycle and run with a wet swimsuit under my clothes.  Such as shame as I just bought a really cute purple swimsuit.  Come summer I will have to try to hunt me down a plus sized trisuit, which from reading online is next to impossible.

As for my finishing time for all three events, it was 1 hour 4 minutes.  The average time for females in my age group was 57 and a half minutes.  I think I will get there even taking into account the fact that I did not time all three events back to back, nor did I do them out on the race course.  My goal for August is to complete the try-a-tri in 55 minutes.

Also exciting on the fitness front... after gaining 5lbs over Christmas week I restarted my fitness routine and lost 4 of those 5lbs in one week.  I don't expect the same results this upcoming week, but I am hopeful that I will lose 10lbs in the next 9 weeks before I depart on my Caribbean cruise.  And, yes, I already have plans to hit the gym with Chris daily this year.