Cycling/Racing and, well, your cycle..

I'm competing in my first triathlon tomorrow (a very short indoor sprint), and guess who came to town today? Aunt Flo!

Needless to say, I'm not exactly thrilled about experiencing my first triathlon while in the midst of cramping and a general feeling of "bleh," but I AM glad that it's a very short one.

Do any of you have interesting period/race stories? Do you try to plan your competition schedule around your cycle? My boyfriend has been surprisingly supportive/understanding of my trying to plan ahead to avoid racing during or immediately before my period, because he understands that I am absolutely NOT at the top of my game while my hormones are out of whack and my body isn't agreeing with me.

I'll be sure to post a little report of my tri tomorrow. :)

No interesting >.< stories here, but good luck! You will probably be distracted enough by everything else going on that it won't register much.


Editing because...indoor sprint?? All of it? I've never heard of such a thing! Sounds great for the wintertime. But where will you ride - a singletrack course? Neato!

I know that the first two days kill me, and there would be no way I could race. That being said, if I take Motrin, it slows the "flow" and the cramps go away. Good luck and have fun!

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Originally Posted by tangentgirl

No interesting >.< stories here, but good luck! You will probably be distracted enough by everything else going on that it won't register much.


Editing because...indoor sprint?? All of it? I've never heard of such a thing! Sounds great for the wintertime. But where will you ride - a singletrack course? Neato!

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Not the OP, but...I do believe the bike segment of indoor triathlons are generally done on either spin bikes or some kind of stationary bike for an allotted time frame (usually like 20 minutes or so). It's the distance you ride in that time frame, that you are "scored" on.

I finished it!

In the case of this indoor tri, we had to report our times for 2 miles on a treadmill and 6 miles on a stationary bike, which we were only allowed to set between 5 and 8 on resistance (out of 20). The swim was 250 yds and timed for us.

I finished my run at 17:32, bike at 18:54, and swim was 5:46, I think. I really need to work on the whole swimming part, but since it was run-bike-swim and my legs were exhausted, I don't think I did too badly. I met my 45 minutes or less goal. :)

Well I guess it's not for everyone, but I've been on the contraceptive pill for almost as long as I've been doing triathlons and more recently endurance mountain bike racing (about 25years on and off). While I won't say that it's not a bit annoying still, being on the pill certainly takes the edge off the pain and the heavy flow for me (as well as being super-regular). I've never really been one for any major PMS either, so either I'm not too susceptible to the ravages of my hormones or the pill has been doing a good job of smoothing the moods over too.

So I have done quite a few triathlons during periods and for me it's just a matter of using a tampon and making sure you have one in your gear bag for a change straight after. (I leave the string tucked btw, or it sucks up a lot of water during the swim and could then leak... probably too much info I realise!)

And it's funny, but despite the fact that I sometimes haven't actually felt quite at the top of my game at the start of the race, there is something about the triathlon and starting in a small amount of "adversity" that seems to bring out the best in me and I frequently found that making the effort to get past feeling "not quite so good" ended up with me getting better results than I would normally. And there was the nice bonus that all those lovely endorphins made me a very happy camper after the race!:D

Do it. Enjoy it!:)

Edit: Oops - in the time it took to post, you've come back and said you did it! Well done!!!! Great that you achieved your goal time!

I'm sure I read a scientific study somewhere that a woman's period doesn't diminish their athletic output. So, if you can control the discomfort, it shouldn't affect your overall performance.