Triathlon Training

So I'm on my way to Sprint-Triathlon greatness....oh kay, maybe not greatness, but at least mediocrity.

OK, ok...I'd settle for surviving the thing!

Anyways, this week was my first class. I've signed up for PED101TT at Glendale Community College -- Triathlon Training. First, Glendale is way the freak far away from where I live. It takes me between 45min-1 hour to get over there, depending on the traffic. Anyways, the teacher Mark is a Triathlon pro and has been teaching the class for 13 years. There were 30 people there on the first night. For every one person like me (absolute, complete, and utter novice) there were 4 people who said during their introduction things like, "I just completed my 3rd Ironman this year," or "I did the Alcatraz Triathlon last year and loved it so much I've signed up for 3 more triathlons this year." Aggghhhh!!!

This leads to my new mantras..."Enjoy the journey" and "I'm only competing against myself".

So the schedule for the class is killer and the piece de resistance...I'm participating in my first sprint-triathlon in 4 weeks. That's right, ya remember that 6 month goal I had, where I was going to do my first sprint-triathlon on Thanksgiving day. Well the timelines been moved up some. Aggghhh!!!

We have to compete in a sprint-triathlon to complete the class, so I'm training my guts out right now so that I'll at least be able to get myself across the finish line (upright -- that's not too much to ask, right?!?).

So here's where I'm at right now...Yesterday at the gym I rode the stationary bike for 10 miles in 27 minutes. Then I immediately jumped on the treadmill ("oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh" -- that was me for the first minute while the blood rushed down from my quads and my butt came unsquished). Then I "ran" for 1 mile in a record 14:19minutes. I will always put quotes around "ran", because I'm sure that for most people a mile in 14:19minutes is not running, but for me IT TOTALLY WAS. But I must remember "I'm only competing against myself!"

This morning, the temperature outside was PERFECT!! It was cool and beautiful, so I jumped on my bike (actually I'm borrowing it from Justin and Rachel) and went on a bike ride -- you can only imagine how cute I look with my bike helmet on and my camelback :). Anyways I think I rode about 12 miles this morning, out and round the area where I lived, and I loved it! I biked over to my mom and dad's and stopped for a quick visit. It was great. Now as long as the sprint-triathlon course doesn't have any hills, I think the 13 mile bike ride portion of it should go OK.

This week I'm going to start training in the pool. This means that first I'll have to find somewhere to swim -- I'm reticent about swimming at the pool at my gym because it's like a freakin' fish bowl, and I would be the whale in the tank (or at least a large porpoise). However, I won't have a choice come Wednesday's training class. We're meeting at some club pool and a guest olympic swimmer/trainer person is going to be working with us.

I hope I don't drown.