Can you believe how nice the weather is here in Southern California in this time of the year? I just love the sunny outdoors and can’t imagine living in the east coast because of the freezing weather. So I am staring outside at work and wishing how I could get in the car, go to the beach and ride a bike next to the pacific ocean.

I finally made the decision to physically train hard this year to participate in the 10th Anniversary Los Angeles Triathlon taking place in Venice Beach down to Los Angeles Downtown Nokia Theatre LA Live. I have high anticipation for this event as it is my first triathlon competition and the last time I participated in a high endurance sports was the 20th Los Angeles Marathon.

The Los Angeles Triathlon offers various categories (self-explanatory) for its competitions:

Individual-Olympic Distance
Individual-Sprint Distance
Relays (sprint and olympic)
Professional
Elite Amateur-Olympic Distance
Collegiate
High School Student
Bike Event Only

I am signing up for the Individual-Sprint Distance. The difference between Olympic and the Sprint Distance is the distances. Sprint triathlon consists of 0.47 mile swim, 12.4 miles bicycling, and 3.1 miles running. The Olympic is twice the distance of the Sprint triathlon (0.93 mile, 24.8 miles bicycling, 6.2 miles running).

Since this will be my first attempt to complete this high endurance physical sports, I been perusing the internet for every useful information: beginner’s training, nutrition, training schedule, and the right equipments. Speaking of equipments, this is not a cheap sports to partake as I will lay down the estimated costs to completing the Sprint triathlon.

Registration fee = $150
Wetsuit = $100-200
Bicycle = $300-500
Bicycle Helmet = $50
Running Shoes = $100
Sun Glasses/Cap = $100
GPS/Heart Monitor/Watch = $200
Training Book = $20
Food and Supplement Nutrients = N/A

I don’t know if I want to invest in all the above items because I may not continue this sports after 2009 but who knows, they say you get hooked on it after your first triathlon. This is a rough estimate and who knows how much the food alone would costs. Triathletes must have proper nutrition and we eat a lot throughout the training days. A wetsuit is optional but the majority do use one to trim down their time. The temperature in the month of October may be a bit too chilly though to swim shirtless so there is a slight chance that I need to pick one up and if I do, I can happily use it for surfing and other ocean activities in the future.

Being a neophyte, the swimming aspect is most frightening because I have not experienced ocean swimming for half a mile straight. Better start on those calf and hamstring stretches because I sure don’t want leg cramps in the middle of the ocean swimming.