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Triathlon is and continues to be a large portion of my life. Thank you, Dr. Mason, for teaching me to see it in a new light!

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I was now in the last portion of my race: the run. This was my favorite portion of the race because I had been a cross country runner in high school and still enjoyed running the most out of the three sports. The one dilemma of this part of the race was the Gatorade. I knew that my carbohydrate and possibly sodium levels were low at this point in the race, and in order to prevent myself from crashing I knew I needed to stop at an aid station. The only problem was I didn’t want to stop and waste time! I had watched many races before and seen runners drink out of paper cups while running, but personally had not had much luck in the past with this task. I spent the entire first half of my run rehearsing over and over again using internal imagery what I would do in order to prevent spilling the entire cup all over myself. I imagined myself pinching the cup at the sides, mentally practicing the movement in order improve it’s acquisition. I ended up successfully pouring the gatorade down my throat with only a few drops spilled onto my triathlon suit. Though physical practice of this task before my race would have been helpful, the mental practice I used prior to the aid station helped me to accomplish my goal. The video below shows me working at an aid station with fellow triathletes, all excited to hand out Gatorade to incoming runners. They, like myself, hopefully used either mental or physical practice in order to learn how to drink from paper cups while running.

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Interestingly enough, the transition portion of my first triathlon was the most stressful. Even though a slow transition time can’t really affect your end time that significantly, people often practice this portion over and over again to avoid adding excess time onto their final time. I remember flying into the transition area after the bike portion shaking from nerves. I did not want to look like a fool in front of all the spectators. One of my teammates, Marshall, had his belongings set up next to mine in the transition area and was already placing his bike back on the rack. As I began placing my bike on the rack as well, I noticed I had not untied my running shoes prior to the race! I quickly untied my laces and switched out of my bike shoes into my running shoes. Soon enough I had my race belt, sunglasses, and hat on and was ready to go. When I looked over at Marshall, I saw he was still fiddling with his shoe laces. This exemplifies the idea that females tend to outperform males in rapid manipulation and fine motor tasks such as tying a shoe lace. Though this idea may be due to my small hand size or other genetic factors, it shows the individual-difference variables outlined by gender. The picture in the upper left corner illustrates another women like myself flying through the transition stage of her own triathlon.

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I was not worried about the bike portion of my first triathlon. I had many triathlete friends who told me the horrors of dropping your water bottle or GU energy gel on the course, but I was not concerned. I had spent the previous summer riding through the roads of my hometown Rosemount, MN with my best friend. My dad had taught me everything I knew about riding a road bike before my first sprint triathlon. He showed me how to use clip-in shoes, how to repair a flat tire, and most importantly how to drink out of a water bottle without swerving my bike. When it came time for me to rehydrate during my first triathlon, it was thoughtless for me to reach down and grab my water bottle. This example shows that no interference to my attention occurred being that I was able to ride my bike and drink out of my water bottle simultaneously as well as I could have individually. This means that one of these tasks was automatic, and did not require my attention. The automatic task was likely biking, due to the fact that I have known how to ride a bike since I was seven years old. As for my friends who struggled with drinking water and biking at the same time, both tasks required some of their limited attention capacity. I chose to incorporate the picture of me to the right in order to show my trusty bike Wisco and my excitement with knowing how to ride her while drinking water!

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When finally competing at my first outdoor sprint triathlon, I was surprised at how easy the swim portion came to me. It was like second nature. One major issue, however, was that I began the swim in the back of the pack thinking that I would be one of the slowest swimmers. In fact, I was one of the fastest! I used various attentional focuses to steer my way around many triathletes, all kicking and pounding their way through the murky water. I used my broad external attentional focus to assess my surroundings and determine where the gaps in the pack lay. I used my broad internal attentional focus to decide whether I had enough energy to pass certain swimmers or whether they looked faster than me. I also used narrow internal attentional focus to mentally rehearse the planned advance on one of the swimmers next to me, and finally I used narrow external focus as I began my pass and executed it until I had finally surpassed my opponent(s). The picture of me to the left illustrates how tiring swimming, and switching between attentional focuses can be!

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The sport of triathlon has been a huge part of my life for the past four years. Ever since I began training for my first race in January of my senior year of high school, I knew this was a sport that I would do for the rest of my life. Little did I know what the sport would give me in return; wonderful friends, a remarkable boyfriend, and a new found confidence that I did not know I had inside me. Though I now feel as if I have mastered the sport, there are still more accomplishments to be made and battles to fight. Starting out in the sport I found these battles to be about the scariest things I had ever dealt with. Swimming was a sport that I had very little knowledge in, apart from the fact that I could keep myself afloat. I began going to swim clinics in January of 2014 in order to make up for my knowledge gap so that I could at least survive the swim portion of my upcoming triathlon. Little did I know that before speed gains, I needed to improve my swim technique. This models the idea of Fitts’ Law in that there is an inverse relationship between the difficulty of the movement and the speed at which it can be performed. Though it took me over 2 months to finally correct my swim technique and notice slight gains in speed, the hard work was worth the ease with which the swim portion of my first triathlon came to me! The picture of me in the pool to the right illustrates my excitement with swimming 3 years after my first triathlon.