Slowly But Surely: The Real Life Training Diary of a New Tri Mom

Aviva Singapore 70.3 was my very first half ironman triathlon in September 2007. So I think it is quite special that I had the perfect opportunity to do it again as my first triathlon race post-pregnancy.  I came and went to the race venue like a blur, just like my life has been the past couple of months. That is what happens when you are taking care of a newborn.

Dan was racing too and we had meant to take Dash with us but since his passport could not be processed in time I decided to fly in just before the check-in and leave right after the race. I am very thankful to my sister Sinag for helping take care of Dash overnight. I carried my breast pump with me and used it every 4 hours, and on race day I pumped in the changing tent before transition closed and soon after I crossed the finish line!

We were very lucky to have been hosted by lovely couple Ebbie and Sheri Baghaie, who are fellow triathletes.  They had another guest triathlete, Jogger Joel, who is a real character ( http://joggerjoel.blogspot.com/ ) ! Check out how he sets up his nutrition on the go…

I am very happy to have finished my first triathlon back… I just checked my logbook and my average number of training sessions per week was 4x…sometimes less! I barely swam but since I knew I would finish the swim either way I was not too worried. When I had time I would prioritize biking and running. Sometimes I was only able to run once a week. Not ideal but I am just telling you what is in my logbook. The one thing I got going for me is the fact that I had some stocked knowledge from years of racing and bags of confidence, haha!

So just to have an idea of how I got to do a 70.3 in 3.5months post-delivery, here is a timetable:

TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS FROM Zero to Seventy-Point-Three…

Day 1: Walk 15minutes with Baby Dash.

Day 8:  Run 4minutes.

Day 10: Run 14minutes.

Day14: Swim 1k.

Day 15: Run 23 minutes.

Week 3: Bike 35min

Week 5: Bike 1hour

Week 7: Run 1hour

JAN 22: TIMEX RUN 10k (54minutes)

Week 12: 100km Bike Ride

Week 13: 16km Run

MAR 3: 92KM FONDO MANILA BIKE RIDE

MAR 4: 21KM RUN UNITED1 (2:10hours)

MAR 18: AVIVA SINGAPORE IM 70.3 (6:09hours)

Well that about sums up my road back to fitness so far. I am still progressing day by day but the main priority for me now is for my baby to be healthy and have a good loving environment. Luckily his Dad is very supportive of my work and training and is very hands-on with Dash as well.

Up next this year is a full Ironman and the NYC Marathon. Looking forward already!

P.S. Special thanks to Icon de Jesus and James Tagara for the race day shots!