A Beginner's Journey to a Triathlon
So, it’s been a month … and I haven’t exercised … once. Lots of excuses, none of them matter. I’ll be swimming tomorrow morning. No more excuses. Just do it.
In good news, my workplace is sponsoring Weight Watchers meetings at the office, and after our first week, I’ve lost 9 pounds! That’s awesome! Imagine if I added in my exercising! Wahoo!
Here I go again – don’t let me stop for this long again!
I swam today, finally. I met my next goal, though – a 1 mile swim! I did two half miles, with a 3-4 minute rest in between. I feel pretty good. My arms are a little sore. The first half mile I did in 21:19, and the second I did in 22:48. Pretty good for the second one, I think. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go ahead and do it, so I just did an easy quarter mile first. I felt pretty good, so I thought I’d go ahead and try for the last quarter mile. It was tough around halfway through, but I got pretty excited about doing a full mile, and that got me through it. Perhaps a tad bit too excited. With 2 1/2 laps to go, I had to consciously slow myself down because I knew I wouldn’t make it at the pace I was going!
All in all, a pretty good swim this morning! Tomorrow: Bike, and an early rise so I can do more miles. Goal: 2 laps, ~8 miles. We’ll see.
So, last friday I had a short bike ride. Only about 4 miles, but I did it in 20 minutes – that’s a 5 minute mile. Including the monster hill at about the halfway point. It was okay, but I got up late and didn’t have time to go further.
Well, today was my first workout since last Tuesday – a week and two days. I don’t feel like I was slacking – there were storms, then we moved a bunch of stuff all weekend and on Monday and Tuesday. The moving stuff counted as exercise, I think. It definitely worked me. Yesterday I didn’t do anything because … well, because I needed a rest. And it was good. But today was the first structured workout in over a week. I’m happy with it. It was a little short, but I worked hard, and the sprint triathlons’ swim distances are usually between a quarter and a half mile. So now I’m back to it. Tomorrow: Bike.
I swam today, my first workout in over a week. Good one, too. I swam a half mile all at once, no breaks. took me 20 minutes and 20 seconds, which is my fastest half mile so far. Unfortunately, I pushed myself a tad too far. I was going to try to go a full mile today, but after pushing hard for the first half mile I couldn’t go on. I tried doing a warm-down 1/4 mile with extra pushes off the side of the pool, but after doing 100 yards I just couldn’t continue. So I did a float-on-my-back lap as a final cool down and left.
So i haven’t worked out since Tuesday. Feel pretty crappy about it, too.
Yesterday should have been a bike or run, but I went to bed too late Tuesday night. Not enough sleep. This morning I was going to bike, but it thunderstormed all night and morning. Also, my wife woke me up and asked me to hold our daughter at right about the time that I would have gotten up to exercise. Apparently she’d been up all night. 
I think I’m going to swim tomorrow morning. I’ve got to renew my membership, and I might as well get in another swim. Next bike? Monday, probably.
I only had time for a short swim Tuesday, and it was hard. I only did 1/2 mile, but I just couldn’t get comfortable in my stroke until about halfway through. It was rough. Otherwise, it was fine. 1/2 miles at a time are doable now, so I imagine I’ll do those. My next goal: 1 full mile, in 1/2 mile increments. We’ll see how that goes!
More workouts, less posting!
The 8/18 swim was good – I swam 3/4 of a mile again, only this time I went 1/4 mile, rested, then went 1/2 mile without rest! That was pretty cool. The 1/2 mile took me about 23 minutes. Ugh. That’s a long time, but that’s okay. Endurance first, then speed!
This morning’s bike ride was great. I went about 6 miles, with a big push for the last mile. I really pushed hard for the last mile. I got off the bike, and started walking to cool off and both of my legs buckled at the same time. I caught myself before falling, but I know now what to expect for the 2nd transition! Ha.
I was slated to run this morning, but I rolled my ankle (again) last week, and it’s been hurting more recently. So I decided to swim this morning. Last night, though, we were remodeling the basement (tearing out wood), and I punctured m y arm with a nail. It didn’t hurt that much, but this morning it had not healed all the way. Still oozing, so I couldn’t swim. So I biked. 
Apparently there are a few items I still need to get. I’m trying to start saving for a bike, but these things will help now.
So, more money to be spent. :( Ah well. Then it’s on to Bike saving!
Biking went well this morning. I strayed from my usual mile+ loop. I rode about 5.5 miles, and went on a different, larger loop. It was nice. I paced myself, and did it in about 30 minutes. That’s roughly 6 minute miles, which is fine. I didn’t over work myself aerobically, but my leg muscles got a good workout! At one point in the loop there was a nice hill. I kept going on it, but it was tough. It popped up right as I turned a corner. Nice surprise! All in all a good workout.