On being a beginner
By Alison Colavecchia
1.2.01 (www.slowtwitch.com)

To be sure starting sucks. It hurts too much for too long and requires a disproportionate degree of discipline and willpower. Every single trip out the door requires overcoming the laws of inertia. Worse, you have to confront all those delectable, slovenly habits that took decades of careful nurturance and discipline to develop.

Initially, the rewards for the effort seem minute. Your pace doesn't change, your physique doesn't change, your inability to recover after even the most trivial of workouts remains stalwart. Every early morning workout requires several alarm clocks. What you aim to accomplish far exceeds what you are able to wake up for, fit in or endure.

I cannot count the number of times I started and stopped a program because I felt I was too busy. I would argue with myself that I just didn't have the time. Finally, I grabbed on to the notion that sticking with the training would eventually buy me some time. So I pressed on. I found small fragments of time and accepted as success just getting to the pool before it closed. My first pool workouts were less than 800 meters because I would invariably roll in just before closing time. I swam anyway. Gradually, I began arriving earlier and earlier (most of the time).

Starting as a beginner also means all those `newbie' questions. There is the daunting task of figuring out...

• What stuff' I really need?
• How much workout clothing do I need to have?
• Do I need or want company? If so, in which sports or workouts?
• Do I need or want a club, team or coach?
• How many gym bags do I load up (e.g. separate bags for the gym and for swimming as that pullbuoy is a pain when you're going to do weights)?
• Do I get a gym membership or set up at home?
• How many layers are needed for running (after first finding out what they are of course)?
• What do I need in the way of a bike and how much stuff do I need to be able to provide basic maintenance?
• What bathing suit can I purchase that won't rot in a month (because it sits in my bag for biologically unsafe periods of time)?
• How hi-tech do I want to go measuring, gauging and quantifying my training?
• Where do I have to go to get all this stuff?
• Does all this stuff work in minus 20 degree weather?

Then the racing questions…. How much racing is a good idea at this stage? Which races will I be the least humbled in? Which races have the biggest back of the pack? Can I combine running races and triathlons without getting injured? What are my own nutritional and hydration needs? What if I have to go alone?

Improvements as a beginner thankfully come in chunks. All of sudden you find that you don't feel dead between workouts, you are waking up before the alarm clock. Whereas every pull in the pool or step on the run felt ungainly at the start, there are now glimpses of "feel" in the water and flow on the "run." Where stretch marks and beer belly held court previously, now there are budding abdominal muscles! You begin to outclimb co-workers when heading up the stairs to a meeting and notice you're the only one NOT out of breath at the top. You catch all your children playing shark attack. You begin to prefer, even crave, healthier foods and longer nights of sleep. In racing, you find you can run without walking this year where you couldn't last year.

Beginning also means lots of firsts. Many of your races and race distances are firsts and so the opportunities to celebrate going further abound. Simple and unsophisticated performance expectations rule…wake up, get to the race and finish. Your race times are all personal bests. There is the feel of getting body marked for the first time, racking you bike for the first time and starting in your very first open water race wave. How cool to be a part of all this??? Best of all there is that feeling of quiet satisfaction after the race as you walk around your neighbourhood with your race numbers still on (OK maybe that's not so quiet).

To date, I have tried a variety of distances, all local races. My score card is still pretty short. I am far from being a senior or seasoned athlete on the circuit, nor am I mid-career as I am only in my 4th year and have less than two handfuls of tri's behind me. I have much to learn about my own endurance racing style, strengths and weaknesses, I am still too busy with the business of surviving and finishing to be aware of much else. I can see progress, however, as witnessed by my eldest daughter who remarked last year after a race, "you did better this year Mom, you can talk!"

I have learned that the first step to becoming a triathlete is enduring the start-up period. I have also learned that when it comes to all the stuff out there, I do not have to have it all at once, nor do I need the latest and greatest to participate. In fact, I see now that it has been a good thing to build slowly, as I have ended up with proper equipment by taking the time to become better informed through books, magazines, websites and through the expertise found in my local shops. I have also taken the time to understand my support and resource needs which make it easier to persist. Although some weeks it is difficult, OK impossible, to get everything in, I am slowly, grudgingly learning to be patient and consistent. These are perhaps the big lessons of the next stage. I will also tackle the tri bike purchase.

Will I keep going even though I am a Beginner, a Back of the Packer? You bet. I like the feel of my muscles taut. I like the feel of pushing myself to do the things I have long been afraid to do. I like the feelings of accomplishment I get when I finish a ride, sprint workout or race that I thought I was not capable of doing. Most of all however I feel I am now more of myself because of my physical efforts.

The following quote taken from Dr. George Sheehan's Running to Win (Rodale Press Inc., 1992) sums up my main reason for forging on even though I'm likely to do so in tortoise like fashion:

"Self -esteem results from the progressive development of the self into the heroic self we were meant to be. Wealth, ability, talent, and possessions count for little; of those, we already possess all we need. It's effort that brings us to greatness. My mind and imagination may have limitation, my industry need not.

The self-esteem earned through running has liberated me from the ruling opinions. It has freed me from comparison with others. I no longer think of myself as inferior or superior to anyone else, just different. My goal is the perfection of my unique and original self".

Tri-on