my blog Oscar Peralta

Note: I haven't kept up with my promise and this post has been on the draft section of my blog for quite some time now. The guilt was growing bigger so finally here it is.



After quite some time (years) of playing around with the idea of doing a triathlon I have finally done it! To date I've done an Olympic and a Sprint. In 7 weeks I'll be doing another Olympic.

Last February 2010 I finally decided to sign up for a local triathlon (OSIM international triathlon Singapore 2010) along with a few friends from work. I haven't been as active as I wanted to be so this was a great opportunity to force myself into it. I've read many times that the best way to force you into training is to sign up for an event. Then fear will help you with the motivation to train. My friends were inspiring all the way and made it a fun process.

I had 10 weeks to be ready for it. I needed to be able to:

1. Swim 1.5km in less than 50 minutes (before the cut-off time)
2. Cycle 40kms - which I knew I could do although I didn't own a bike and,
3. Run 10km - hopefully pain free

The only bit I was a afraid of was swimming that distance. I haven't been swimming long distances. Jumping once in a while and swimming 5 or 6 laps in a 25m pool didn't feel like a big starting point. Nonetheless it was a start. My technique was somewhat good and it would be just a matter of time to increase the distance... or so I thought.

I started hitting the pool 3 times a week. I bought a city/path Trek FX 7.2 bike and I did not train for running that much. Most Sundays I play fútbol anyways. My only concern was to run injury free for all the distance.

I was most worried about the swim. I was getting tired way fast and 1.5k was looking hard to achieve within the time I had before the race. So I did some more serious research and talked with a few friends about training and skills. Not that I was thinking to go very serious about the sport but I needed to be prepared enough to at least complete it.

A friend of mine once told me about Total Immersion when he was trying to improve his swimming. This time I dug into it and it was gold! I learned to swim at age two but thirty one years later I started to unlearn a few things and learn how to glide through the water! I saw progress quite fast and my biggest fear was vanishing the more I trained.

I cycled 21km to work twice a week. It was not easy on certain days but I enjoyed it so much. I felt it will go slow but steady and I was not worried.

Finally, running was less of a worry except for a common running injury called Iliotibial band syndrome that I was suffering every time I hit the 7k or 8k. I went to the doctor, practiced yoga, did strength training, bought a strap that went around my knee, but noting worked. Then I found about bare feet running. This saved my life. No more pain and I love to run more than ever before.

So after 10 weeks race day came. It was tough! The cycling was the toughest for me but I partly - a very small part - attribute that to the 35ºC and 98% humidity!

Overall it was fun and a good challenge. I did pretty good for my first event.  The next week I signed up for the Tribob Triathlon which was held in April. The one coming up is October 3rd. I think I'm a bit hooked now!