#mmmm and self styled Triathlon.

I did my first triathlon last Sunday and it was a lot of fun. Since it was self style and personalised one, there was only one participant! India does not have any Triathalons (not even 70.3 ones), so you have do your own thing to train for one.

I got up at 3.30am in the morning and took a 4.15am start for my bike ride. It was a 27/28km bike ride from home to NCPA, Nariman point. It took me about 1hr 20mins, which is not bad given the road conditions. I parked my bike at a secure place in Churchgate, just in time for the 6am start from NCPA for the Mumbai monsoon mini marathon (#mmmm). This #mmmm was organised by local congress party politicians & workers, to protest against terrorism & to support peace. To my horror the planned (not publicised) start time turned out to be 7am and the final start time was close to 7.30am.

But the spirit was very good and the turnout was lot higher than what I had expected it to be, so things improved as soon as the run started (since it was a very short run of 5k, the delay did not really make much of a difference). I finished the distance in about 25minutes and then headed by to Churchgate for my swim. So I ended up doing about 8k or so that day (3k on my return to Churchgate)

I had originally planned a 1k swim as I was hoping that the mini marathon would be somewhere around 12km or so (which turned out to be just 5k). So I decided to make up for the distance by doubling my swim, to 2kms.

After that I had some yummy breakfast and then the bike ride back home (another 28km). With that I completed a 55km bike ride, 8km run and 2km swim. The only thing I need to really improve upon is the run for my next triathlon, need to take that to atleast 20km, and that will take be very close to the 70.3 Triathlon or half Ironman or Olympic Triathlon.

This triathlon has given my confidence a big boost and Ironman no longer looks so difficult. I was also inspired by a friend who recently completed his first Ironman (he did it in a little over 13hrs, a super effort indeed). Do catch his blog www.bedders.blogspot.com for more ...

Active week....

Since my last post on Saturday, I have done four runs. The Sunday one was a 10.5km done in 1hr 7mins, followed by another 11k run on Thursday (which was a holiday) in 1hr 11mins, a 3km run on Friday night and a 7.5km run today in about 47mins.

All of this has strained my legs (no injuries!), just need some rest. So plan to skip my Sunday morning run. Hope to make up for it by going for a swim on Sunday morning, which will not only be a break from running but also help me rebuild my endurance levels.

Since the time I have started running with the backpack plus pouch, I have had complete strangers giving me a good cheer, each time (atleast 2-3 per run), which is so welcome. Today was the best one, I for the first time met a serious runner in Bombay (outside of people I have meet at Mumbai marathon) who runs all year around (trust me in a city like Bombay with an almost zero running culture, its easier to find a UFO), most others are either casual runners or the Mumbai marathon prep runners.

I have still not got my rhythm back, guess it will take a few weeks and I will need to be patient. Plus the weather is a lot hotter now (atleast 30-32degree Celsius) during mornings, I have put on a couple of kilos, the weight I carry has increased (the waist pouch was 500gms and now its gone up to 2-2.5kgs, with 1.5l of water, 500ml gatorate, extra clothes & reading material for my coffee break), plus its more humid. I will get it right pretty quickly...