They aren't exactly jumping off a bridge but close enough. They are all signed up for a local triathlon and when the opportunity presented itself to register for a fraction of the current price, I figured, why not?! I mean, I'm already training to swim the 1/2 Ironman relay and I'm training for a September 1/2 marathon, so why not add in some cycling and do a triathlon this summer. Sounds logical.
About as logical as me being the Ironman relay swimmer. I can't exactly swim and ride my bike with Megatron. Which means I have to 1) get creative with my training and 2) be very flexible with when and where I train. There are the 5:30 am swim practices. I still randomly run on the treadmill at 9 pm. My mom has watched the rugrat while I went for a 25 mile bike ride. Whatever it takes. The downside to the cheap registration fee (it was transferred from another athlete who can't compete now), is that it's for an Olympic distance tri. I've only done that distance once before and it was SIX years ago. Yowza. The sprint distance might have been a little more realistic but go big or go home, right?
My goal is to finish. I'm not even going to attempt to try to finish faster than I did 6 years ago. It's not unrealistic to do that just based on my weight loss and current fitness level but I know full well that I'm not training exactly how I ideally would to do my very best. My life is nothing like what it was for that first one (I wasn't even married yet!) and now Megatron comes first 95% of the time. I have to squeeze my training into that 5% of time. :)
I've been having fun though. I've been knocking out the 1/2 Ironman swim distance (1.2 miles) roughly every week or so, so I know I can finish. I recently did a 25 mile bike ride. It was slow and steady but it wasn't awful (especially since its only my second ride in FOUR years). While I was still slow, I noticed that I was able to stay in a harder for nearly the entire ride. I have 3 gears in the front and four years ago I was always hanging out in the middle ring. This last ride, I stayed in the big ring except for a big hill. My legs are certainly stronger than they were back then! Hopefully I can get in some more decent rides to work on increasing my pace just a little.
Obviously I can now run the 6.2 mile run at the end. It will feel like running on Jello for the first 1/2 mile but I know what to expect now. As long as I leave some gas left in the tank after the ride, I should be able to run the bulk of the the 10k. Six years ago, I was only just starting to run at all so it was still very difficult just to run, let alone after swimming and cycling, so there was a lot of walking going on. So I would hope to have a stronger run this time around. Honestly, my biggest concern is the weather. The race is in 6 weeks. You know, mid-July. Heat and humidity have always been my nemesis so we shall see. That is out of my control so I'll just do what I can!
I'm really looking forward to the race though. It's far enough away that I'm not nervous yet but it's soon enough to be excited. I'm also enjoying the break from nothing but running. I also like that the swim trainings are on week mornings. It's much more likely that The Pilot is off on a week day than a weekend so I've enjoyed working out during the week without having to push Megatron or have the baby monitor turned all the way up. My training perspective sure has changed over the years!
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