My Triathlon Adventure

Since I really have no base, I’m just going to work on building endurance.  I plan to continue my weekly spin session.  It is a killer workout and I think it can only help me in biking.  As it stands, in the hour or so of spinning (there is a warmup and cool down period that last about 15 minutes all together) I put enough distance on the bike to do the biking portion of a sprint triathlon.  I will try to balance this with some running where I can.  I’m also not too worried about the running portion of the sprint triathlon.  I think I will be ready to do a 5K.   My biggest concern is the swimming portion.

I can’t swim at all.  Not even a little bit.  I mean, I can float and I can make a little forward progress, but I have never swum in water that is deep enough to go over my head.  This will be my biggest challenge, and I plan to dedicate most of my time to learning how to swim and then building endurance.  So to sum up:

Biking: I will continue my weekly spin class

Running: I will fit it in when I can

Swimming: I will give it my total focus until I become proficient.

I have been spinning now for a few weeks.  I was doing it for fitness before planning to do a triathlon.  Now there is an even bigger reason to keep up the spinning.  I have to say, I really enjoy the spin class.  It has pushed me to the limit more than any workout I have ever done.  When I train on my own I typically give up when I get tired.  Spinning in a class with all these other people, the loud music, and the great spin instructors, I feel like I can’t quit, so I press right through it.   Lots of hard work, but lots of fun.  Ultimately if I get to the point where I do an Ironman triathlon this spinning stuff will be easy in comparison.

That is the question that my wife asked me today.  A simple enough question.  It turns out that her spin instructor runs a triathlon training group at the Plainville YMCA.

I have always wanted to do an Ironman, in theory, but I have absolutely no background in any of the sports.  I have never really run before other than a few miles here and there.  I am very uncomfortable on a bike.  In fact, I don’t even know how to swim!  So what did I answer?  Hell yeah, lets do it!  So, the adventure begins, guess I need to learn to swim!

I recently started training for my first triathlon. I have always been interested in getting fit, but have mostly been a casual observer. I don’t consider myself fit, but I’m also not overweight. In doing internet research I found a blog by someone that, like me, started out with a very limited exercise background and decided to train for a triathlon. Her blog is here.

What I liked the most about her blog is that she started it right from the beginning of her training. Working from her earliest posts forward I could follow her progress and struggles. I really like the idea of having a diary of my training, and thought I would try to do the same thing.

I have a lot to learn before my first real triathlon. I don’t even know how to swim at this point. But I’ll save all of that for a future post.