So turns out that is pretty difficult.
Granted, I only got about 15 pedals from my parents' house before I fell off my bike. It's all my fault — I had my tote bag dangling from the handlebar. Right as I noted it as a hazard, it got sucked into my front tire and acted as an emergency brake, launching me forward onto the road.
Thankfully, I wasn't going that fast and it didn't hit my head. I landed on my wrist, which completely halted my first triathlon.
about 30 seconds after walking out of the door.
So about five minutes after telling my parents "I'll be back in about eight hours," I came limping back home with the bike strewn across the lawn, all messed up and bent, asking if someone could drive me to the ER to X-ray my wrist.
I'd never broken my wrist before. I don't really know what it felt like or feels like to break my wrist. So as a precaution, I wanted to get it checked out at the ER. They determined my wrist is fine — just a sprain.
I thought this was all quite comical. Doing an Ironman doesn't really shine light on fundamentals, and even below fundamentals — just plain riding your bike to the pool. This happened. It was foolish of me to get on a bike after not riding for months and think I could do an Ironman without paying the price of basic biking.
This doesn't mean I'm not going to do it again. I will try again — in a month or six weeks, once my wrist fully heals.
But to be honest, having this injury really made me rethink my priorities. I don't think an Ironman is a priority right now in my life. Yes, it's really cool in my head and physically demanding objectively, but I'd rather spend my time playing beach volleyball.
It's a more creative sport. It takes a lot of physical fitness to keep up in back-to-back 2v2 matches under the blazing sun on the beach and sand.
So I may be toning this down a little bit — just casual swimming, casual running, and casual biking. I don't feel the need to push myself to compete in and complete an Ironman, because my priorities have shifted. Even though I know I could, just given the time.