I’m one of those crazy people that decided it was a good idea to sign up for a triathlon in August in Maryland – guess I wasn’t thinking about the heat and humidity when I registered in January!
Truth be told, I’m actually really excited. I got a new bike a couple of years ago that hasn’t gotten nearly enough use, so this will force me to put more miles on it. And I love any excuse to get outside.
I’ve never done a triathlon or even competed in any running races. I’m an athlete and mostly do strength training and team or social sports.
So the whole training for a triathlon thing is completely foreign to me. I decided to register for the Iron Girl Sprint Tri in Columbia. It’s about five months away, so I started my cardio training this week.
I swam earlier this week for the first time in quite a while. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m a swim instructor, so I really should be swimming more frequently. Let me just say there is nothing fun about being out of shape, so I can’t wait to get over that hump and feel comfortable in the water.
Since I was a little rusty, I wanted to take things slow. My goal was to just swim for 20 minutes – whatever that meant. I set my watch and just tried to relax. I was able to do six laps of freestyle without succumbing to my mental weakness. I did a recovery lap of breaststroke and then continued. All said and done, I was able to do 800 yards in just over 20 minutes. Not bad at all.
I have to get that up to 0.62 miles by August, but I think I’m off to a good start.
One of the most important things when training for anything is to set attainable goals. You want to celebrate milestones in your training, not beat yourself up over failures.
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Feel free to give me a shout kate.mills@wmar.com or on Twitter @KateMills_ABC2
