I forgot how expensive triathlons are...

It didn't cost much when I did my first half-Ironman triathlon in 1986. You just needed a bike, a helmet, and running shoes. Aero bars had yet to be invented, or they hadn't hit the mass market. Some had cycling shoes, but most just had shoes kept on the pedals with "rat traps" that kept your running shoes on the pedals so you could pull up and push down. 

My first bike cost me $100. It was a Nishki, which was too small for me, but the price was right. I think PowerBars just came out, and before Gatorade, the drink was Exceed. Only a few people had wetsuits. Most didn't. We didn't have bike racks for many races, but instead, we put our bikes on the ground or in a homemade bike rack made out of lumber, and friends and family were allowed to stand beside us and help us in the transition. It was very grassroots and inexpensive. No fanfare. Even at the finish, there was no one but your family and a timing clock. Although I did buy one of the early one-piece triathlon suits, one of the few. 

It's been 10 years since my last Ironman, and all I want to do is train for 19 weeks and finish a half Ironman in December. I'm six weeks into it, and I've already had to buy two new helmets, supplements, gels, Gatorade mix, a new pair of triathlon shorts, cycling shorts, cycling shirts, running shoes, running shorts, and running shirts. I've probably spent $1100, and now I may need a new bike, and that will be another $8,900, not to mention the $200 I pay per month for coaching and the $450 US race entry fee.

If I buy the bike, I'll have spent $12,000, and that doesn't count travel expenses, which include flight, hotel, and food, which I estimate to be another $3000 - $4000. So it looks like doing a half Ironman to get in shape could cost me as much as $16,000—or, to better translate, $842 per week for 19 weeks. 

I remember the year I qualified for Kona, and it cost me over $20,000. That didn't include a bike, but it did include travel. It worked out to $1.66 for every kilometer I trained that year, which was around 12,000 km of swim, biking, and running. Triathlons have definitely become a rich man's sport.

Today's training was a 55-minute run. It was going to be a real test. My last run was yesterday, 35 minutes, and the one before that was August 11th, when I decided not to run to let my calf injury heal. Doing two runs back to back was a little concerning, but I was also looking forward to running, as I do like running. 

The run surprised me a bit. It was a low-heart-rate run, keeping it under 133 bpm, which meant I'd be doing a lot of running and walking. The run ended up being 8 km, and when I looked at my splits, I was surprised to see my 3rd km was a 6:17 per km pace. Then it got slower as I had to walk to keep the heart rate down. I ended up at a total 7:20 per km pace. 

The good news is that the calf was 100% fine, but around the halfway point of the run, my right hip flexor started to bother me. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was only a 2, not yet a big deal but a bummer. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised as I went from zero to two runs back to back. The strange thing is that I've never had a hip flexor injury in the past. 

I did avoid a potential injury before I left on my run. I ordered a new pair of triathlon shorts off Amazon for only $35 and with great reviews. The minute I put them on, I realized there was going to be a problem. The inside pad is sewn in, and the stitching is very rough and bad enough that I knew it would cause a lot of chafing. Knowing this, I wore underwear under the shorts. 

The first run and a good washing will soften the seams. If not, I'll have to buy another pair, and this time, I'll buy the 2XUs or DeSotos, which were always my go-to triathlon shorts. Cha-Ching and more costs will be added to my half-ironman training plan. 

Even though I started my run before work, it was warm already, with humidex 25C. By the time I finished, I was soaked in sweat, and it took me about 20 minutes to cool down, which is an improvement from the first weeks of training when it would take 50 - 60 minutes to cool down and stop sweating. 

Part of my run was through Bronte Park, as I wanted to avoid traffic and not have people see me walking. Which is very vain. I'm working on not caring about things like that, but I have a ways to go. I did notice as I run that my stomach is still so big, it's a smaller big, but big. I used to have a 20 lb turkey in there. Now it's down to about a 13 lb turkey. I'll be so pumped when I look down and don't see turkey.

Run - 59:23 / 8.09 km / Averge 7:20 per km