Cycling is next obstacle to overcome for Daily Sun Rookies

LACONIA — The Daily Sun Rookies — two local residents who have never participated in a triathlon before, and signed up to do just that at the end of July — are starting to see the time left to prepare in terms of weeks instead of months. They’ve been training since February and, while they’ve both made great progress so far, they both still have some work to do.

Jeremy Hart and Lauren Howard, residents of Gilford and Laconia, respectively, have committed to competing in the Wolf Tri Festival’s Olympic-distance triathlon, held July 29 in Wolfeboro. That event starts with a 0.9-mile swim, a 19.5-mile bike ride, and then a 6.2-mile run.

Heading into this event, both rookies felt most comfortable with the final leg of the three-sport challenge. Swimming and cycling, though, were something that neither had done competitively before.

Thanks to The Daily Sun’s Rookie Academy, though, they don’t have to get there on their own. To help them meet the challenge, the rookies have been offered access to the pool at The Wellness Complex and strength training and cardio equipment at Fit Focus. MC Cycle has made sure they’ll have bikes for training and competition, Bootlegger’s is providing shoes, Colin Cook of Peak Triathlon Coaching has created a training plan for them, and the Fuelin app has guided their nutrition.

All that’s left for them to do is follow their training plan, which means working out, in one manner or another, pretty much every day.

“Each week, I’m definitely amazed with myself and stuck with it and improved, for sure,” said Howard, 50, who works as a nurse.

Howard was inspired to take up the challenge after watching the 2022 Timberman 70.3 triathlon, which IRONMAN discontinued after that year. She was starting at a place in her life where she hadn’t focused on her own fitness for a while — motherhood, career pursuits and injuries had pushed her out of habitual exercise.

Swimming was a major concern for her starting out, as she had enough of a challenge making it from one end of the pool to the other, let alone swimming for nearly a mile.

After months of work, she is feeling more confident in the water.

“Swimming’s OK, I’m definitely increasing my distance. The other day I did 1,000 yards in 35 minutes, and that’s the fastest I’ve done it,” Howard said. “I think I’ll be OK in the swim, which is different from when we started.”

Howard’s confidence is a bit shakier when it comes to the run. “I’m running and I’m feeling OK,” she said, then she looks at other runners and notices their forms look different from hers. “I look like I’m very stiff,” she said, and noted she’d like her pace to have improved.

Shakier still are Howard’s feelings about the bike ride.

“Not good,” she responded when asked about cycling. Howard has been training for months on a stationary bike — starting even before accepting the Rookie Challenge. But when offered a loaner bike from MC Cycle & Sport last month, she said she was unable to get it rolling in the real world.

“I’m having trouble with the bike. I can’t ride it, I can’t get on it,” Howard said. “I just keep tipping over. It’s not pretty at all ... I’ve put it in the garage and I’ve forgotten about it for a little while.”

“Everyone thinks I’m absolutely ridiculous, but I can’t get started,” she said, laughing.

Hart, 43 and an information technology engineer, is also reluctant to leave the comfort of his stationary cycling set-up. He has a vintage steel road bike, which MC Cycle tuned up for him, but said he hasn’t yet trained with it except for mounted on an indoor trainer.

“I just haven’t found the time to do it yet,” Hart said. He has shifted his training schedule to the evenings, which means that by the time he is ready to ride, it’s after dark.

But he knows he’ll have to make time to ride in daylight soon — and the Monday evening beginner group rides, organized by MC Cycle, are the perfect opportunity.

“I need to start doing that so I can start practicing riding in a group,” Hart said.

Otherwise, Hart said he’s seeing good results. Running was his strongest discipline coming into the training, and he’s seen that skill get stronger still, particularly once he started following Cook’s instructions to run slower than his usual pace sometimes, instead of always trying to run fast.

His swimming has also made marked improvements, Hart said. The warm-ups that Cook prescribes are now easy, when they used to be a challenge, and he said the sometimes odd-sounding exercises the training plan includes are now paying dividends.

“I feel like I’m moving through the water better. I don’t feel like I’m sinking, now I feel like I’m gliding through the water,” Hart said.

Better yet, the swim training seems to carry over into the run.

“I do think it’s helped with increasing my core strength and everything else. I can feel my upper body and core is definitely tighter and stronger. I don’t have that jiggle any more when I run,” Hart said.

Both rookies said training, which might have seemed intimidating at the start of the process, is now a normal, almost necessary, part of their daily lives.

“It’s just become a habit now, it has become weird,” Hart said. “I have gotten so used to it, it starts to feel weird if I think I’m going to miss my exercise. It has become a part of my life that I do everyday.”

Howard has found a similar shift in her own life. “I can definitely see a difference in my body. I haven’t lost many pounds, but things fit differently,” she said, and parts of her body feel more muscular than they did before.

She has also felt the training become an important part of her daily life. The only significant time she’s missed was a weekend trip to watch her son graduate from college. It has come at a cost, though. She can no longer keep up with her training and accept 12-hour shifts — that just doesn’t leave enough in the day for a gym session.

“I think I’m surprised that I’m still sticking with it,” Howard said. “It’s always hard to stick with a program, but I’m doing it. I’m fitting it into my life. No matter what, I’m doing this workout ... most of the time.”