Sports Science Institute's Tri-fit part 1 with Ralph Kujawa

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Friday, 18 February 2011 15:22

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Tri-Fit… try fit!

Canada was cold, really cold. And to make matters worse I strained the Achilles tendons in both legs.

When I got back, after spending a cold Christmas with family, to the warm sunny climes of the Cape I decided that this year I was going to try my hand at triathlons. I had got sick of the rat race mania at bicycle races and although cycling is my first love, I was not interested in entering more bicycle races. However, I couldn’t contemplate not taking part in competition and had to find a replacement. Taking part in triathlons was going to be the solution, I thought. But where to start – I had never done a triathlon and my swimming is usually done 18-30m below with scuba gear on.

And so providence intervened and one sweltering Friday afternoon, as I got home from work, I found a pamphlet in my letterbox. It was from the Sports Science Institute of SA (SSISA) and it advertised a course called TRI-Fit, which was to commence the very next morning. I lost no time in contacting Kim Woolrich and asking her to put my name down as a definite.

Saturday dawned. This was going to be exciting. We had to do an assessment comprising of a cycle and a swim. I chuckled, I knew I would ace the cycling and then I could bluff on the swim. SSISA had the last laugh. They stuck me on a bike with a power metre, added a watt of resistance every 5 – 10 seconds and 11 minutes later I was done! I couldn’t believe it. Ou Kaapse Weg was nothing compared to that! And I didn’t even hit 300 watts of output. I was broken. This was going to be harder than I thought.

The swim was not much better and I splashed and spluttered through 200m wondering how on earth I was ever to complete even a sprint distance triathlon.

We were given a pat on the shoulder and reminded that there was an introductory session on the Monday evening at Cycle Lab, Westlake. On Monday we, for the first time, met our fellow participants on this journey. It is quite a mix of people, each one of us seeking to improve ourselves in some way or other. With the help of Kim and her husband, Richard, we are being guided through this journey to triathlon fitness.