Try a tri!

Waaay back when, we went to a fancy schmancy gym. Once an LA Fitness opened up near our house we switched, mostly because it was closer but also to save a little money each month. Anyway, the old gym would occasionally have an indoor triathlon event and there would always be things up all over the gym to "try a tri." I'd been hemming and hawing about doing a triathlon as a fitness goal. I needed something after my last half marathon but wasn't sure if I was ready for the tri route. I was intrigued by them (a sprint distance anyway...I'm not completely crazy and contemplating an ironman or anything like that...yet...), but I'm not a strong swimmer, and the only biking I've done in the past 10 years has been at spin classes at the gym. I found a couple sprint distance tris I was eyeing, and my friend Dani was on board to do one with me. Actually the ones I was looking at weren't even sprint distance--they were more mini tris. While I was trying to decide if I wanted to sign up or not, my husband registered for an Olympic distance tri on Mother's Day. I'll admit I was a little miffed at first that he got to go off and do something on Mother's Day which would leave me home with the kids alone on my special day. Actually I take that back...I think he registered before I even considered trying one.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up from a nap on a recent Friday afternoon and discovered an email in my inbox from active.com confirming my registration for the sprint distance race of the tri he is doing. Yup...my husband (whom I love very much) signed me up for a triathlon while I napped. That'll learn me to never nap again, at least while he's home! So I'm going to be swimming 400 meters (roughly 8 laps in a normal, gym-size pool), biking 20k (12-ish miles), and running a 5k the morning of Mother's Day. I go back and forth between being excited and really REALLY freaked out. Dani signed up to do the same one, and another friend of mine is considering it. I'm not worried about the running--I can run a 5k no problem. Swimming and biking on the other hand I'm not so sure about.

In preparation for this swim, the husband suggested I do the program he used when he first started swimming, to go from not swimming (well, not necessarily NOT swimming, but not being an avid swimmer I guess) to swimming a mile in six weeks. I was telling my BFF Jen that I was going to start going to the gym early in the morning on Tuesday and Thursday to swim. I can't go at my normal time those days because of some weekly commitments I have. She decided to join me. We tacked on a Saturday morning workout, too, so we could get in the three days of training for this program. The first day was AWFUL. I really thought I was going to have a heart attack after the first set of two laps. My heart rate was through the roof. It did get easier with each swim that week, but we decided last Saturday that we'd redo week one and really follow the plan. It calls for taking a certain number of breaths between sets, and we weren't adhering to that at all. So we decided to dub last week our inaugural swim week and then start the program this week. I have to say, my swims this week all went a lot smoother. Today's was a bit of a struggle, but I have a cold, so I found myself having to stop and cough pretty often. Thursday's swim was fantastic. I really focused on form (from some tips the husband gave me) and found the swim was much easier and I was able to go faster, too. Or at least it seemed I was going faster.

The biking aspect I still haven't really started, except for attending a spin class once a week now and using the spin bikes for cardio at the gym. The husband just got himself a new tri bike, so I'm going to inherit his cheap Walmart road bike until I decide if this is something I want to stick with or not. If I like it, I'll probably get a nicer bike down the line. Oh yeah, and I don't have a helmet so that makes it difficult to go on a real ride. I just ordered one yesterday, and it should be here by Wednesday, so that's good news. I am excited to get out and bike. I do remember biking some when I was unemployed in 2001, but it wasn't very often or for very long.

So that's where I stand as of now. I'm enjoying swimming the more I do it, and I'm wondering if it might even make running a bit easier. I've always struggled with my breathing when I run and have to take an inhaler before I run, so I'm kind of hoping that swimming and increasing my lung capacity will help with my run breathing. We'll see. I still haven't decided on a tri training plan, and I really need to get that done. There are basically two I'm trying to decide between--an 8 week and a 12 week. The race is 12 weeks from tomorrow, so I need to decide soon which one I'm going to use. As nervous as I am about it, it will be pretty awesome to be able to say that I've done a triathlon.