Triathlon... who me?

Earlier this year my mom and I were talking about exercise and how both of us wanted to make it more important in our lives, an actual priority not just an "if it fits in my schedule activity". We want to break our bad habits of excusing ourselves from exercise and really get it into our daily lives- permanently! She then told me about her friend Janice (who's around my mom's age) participated with her mom (a senior citizen who's now a fanatic about triathlons) and sister in a Danskin Triathlon that takes place in Orlando, FL. It's a team effort each person does one leg of the triathlon. Perfect, I thought, my mom, my sis, and me. Us three would fill the spots and we are a bit younger, we can do this.. right?? This WILL get us to exercise I thought. After more questions I also learned that this is not a true triathlon but a shorter version. And it wasn't until the other day when someone asked me if it was a "Sprint" triathlon and I told him no it's put on by Danskin, then he corrected me and told me that sprint was the name of a shorter triathlon, not the sponsor cell phone company Sprint that I thought he meant. Whoops oh well I'm learning about all this that's for sure.





My mom first decided to do the half mile swim, I would do the 12 mile bike, and Emily would run 3 miles (Em is in another country right now and won't be back until the end of March- she doesn't have access to a bike or a pool so she gets to run- don't worry I know she can do this- just run in place right? ;). I thought the event choices was a good fit.... that is until I came back to Vermont's more than a foot of snow and realized I'm most likely not going to have any chance of riding on a bike outside until after the actual May 8th event. There's too much snow, ice, and slush (did I mention I live in the Green Mountains?? who wants to bike up the mountains when FLORIDA is FLAT!) for me to think about biking outdoors. I could only participate in cycling classes and the stationary bike at the gym. Wow, so then I thought well maybe I'll just train a little on each and see if it's still plausible... mainly because I fear swimming a half mile.



Jan 13th, 2010 Matthew and I headed to the gym to join. Hurray! We've never joined a gym before (he used the one on base in NC and I used the one in our apt complex, then in VT we both used the school gym- no heated pool, lots of students, a 12 mile drive for me), but we decided that we both wanted to go to the gym together and encourage each other to exercise daily. Our first evening was just a quick jump in the pool and then we dashed off to our weekly Trivia Nite. The next day I went to a Kickboxing class that I absolutely loved, but it was sadly the last class due to poor participation. The next two days, yes TWO, I recovered from the class. My muscles are definitely out of shape and sore.



Then comes Sunday, dun dun dunnnnn, the first actual swim practice for Matthew and I (or is it Matthew and me? couldn't figure that out). The pool was a warm 83 degrees and with a splash I start swimming just a bit. Then comes one swimming drill after another from one of the best swim coach (in my experience). Matthew has been swimming since the womb and has literally never stopped; he was a competitive swimmer since he was 4 or 5, has loads of medals, taught as a swim coach for little ones, and has swam on his college team (here and there). Boy, I sure didn't know what I was in for! After finishing the drills, the final 4 laps (100 meters), and cool down I was about to pass out and my legs felt like spaghetti noodles. I thought three things- 1) I'm not doing this again without goggles (I despise chlorine in my eyes). 2) This is going to be much harder than I thought. I can barely finish 4 laps... to complete a .5 mile I need to do 32 laps. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Plus there's the fact that it's in a Lake- no wall to hold onto, no shallow end to stand up in, who am I kidding- can I really do this??? Plus kudos to everyone that has- here's to you Janice- please supply me with anything helpful) 3) I'm so thankful to have Matthew as my coach. He's knows what I'm up against. He knows how hard I need to train and how I can't give up. He takes my back lashes when I tell him "I'm done", "I'm threw", "I've got no more", "I stink at swimming", "I can't go any farther or I'll drown (with his big grin and reply- I'll save you, had to do it more than once). He will push me to do this since he knows it's important to me and I'm really glad for that. He won't give up on me even when I am willing to give up on me, for this I'm grateful, blessed by our Lord, and love Matthew even more.



So there it is folks- this never before on a swim team, nothing more than swimming in my best friend's pool from 5th grade to 9th grade, not even a hint of liking towards swimming as a sport, will now train and swim up to half of a mile in open water, (Lord willing!). I'll hopefully be updating you on a training schedule and update you on how my other two team mates are doing. Oh and if anyone has any training tips please feel free to share- I'm in need of tips and accountability!