Triathlon Training!

So yeah, I miss this blog! Spending the entire day yesterday putting together my crazy long submission reminded me how much I missed writing! I really want to get back on that bandwagon. Both for the blog AND for all the book ideas I have swirling around in my head!

So I think I mentioned yesterday that I am a part of a triathlon relay team for a triathlon taking place this August. It is the Turtleman Triathlon—a pretty well known one in the Minnesota world of triathlons! Anyway, I am doing the running portion. The three of us—Jessica (my old co-worker), Emily (Jessica’s friend—I have yet to meet her) and I decided to choose sections of the race that we felt would be a good challenge for us. Since pretty much any section of the race would be challenging for me, I decided to let the other girls pick first. Jessica, a former marathon runner, decided to forego the run--which would be easy for her--in favor of the 1.5 mile swim. That girl is going to have some guns by the time she’s done training for this race! Emily, for her own personal reason that I have yet to discover, chose the 25 mile bike ride. Hope she invests in a padded seat! So that left the run for me. Which I’m just fine with. In fact, that is probably what I would have chosen. I’m not a runner, by any stretch of the imagination! I’m awkward and slow and get out of breath pretty quickly. Though my hope is that some of that will change as I continue to progress in my training. I’ve already been seeing steady growth! But running seems to be the exercise that gives me the most results in the quickest amount of time when it comes to fitness, weight loss and toning up. Since I’ve only really been training for three weeks now, there hasn’t been a ton of visible results yet…but they are coming!

Right now my training consists of waking up and working out every weekday morning, and usually Saturday too. My morning workout is usually a little over 30 minutes on the treadmill (right now I’m accomplishing about 2.5 miles in that time frame—doing a run/walk pattern) and stretching. A couple days a week I change up the routine, and instead of running I choose a different activity, like biking or the elliptical. Supposedly the variation is supposed to help boost the training for the run. So this morning I busted out 8 miles on the bike instead. Felt good! Also, three days a week I hit the weights over my lunch break. We have a pretty decent gym at work, so the first half hour of my lunch break I don workout clothes and do strength building reps for my arms, legs, hips, back and abs. I’ve only been incorporating that weight workout routine for the last week, but so far so good! I’m already feeling stronger!

So all that to say, I’m excited about my upcoming triathlon, and the training I’m doing now. The training is tri-fold…to help me prepare for the race, to aid me in my quest to lose weight, and to get my body healthier altogether. Each day I take another step towards that!

Be thinking of me on August 12th as I pound out a 10K in our triathlon!