Triathlon

Okay, so I said earlier that I was needing a health related goal to help continue loosing weight. Last year, it was running a 5k and getting up on a wake board. I had never had the arm strength to drag my fat butt out of the water, but last year I did all of these things. Then I promptly stopped loosing weight. This year I've decided that I'm going to participate in the Bountiful Triathlon .

This tri is a "Sprint", which means that it is possible for normal people to do. I say that, as I have a few friends and coworkers who compete. One of my management team is currently training for his first Iron Man, and he is nervous.

I've spoken with a few people who have done this, and they said it is a nice start, although they have mixed feelings about Bountiful's. The deal is that this triathlon runs in reverse. You do the running first, then biking, and then the swim. Usually this is the other way around. I will be competing as a Clydesdale, which means a really big guy (+200 pounds). The one guy that I spoke to who has only run two sprint triathlons told me that he really preferred the Bountiful format.

So, last week I started my preparation, and I have until August to be completely ready. I'm starting by getting to the point I can run for a half hour straight. When I say run, I mean shamble along while moving my arms in a running motion. I haven't done much running over the winter because it was cold, and I was in the gym (which is kind of cross-fitish.) Now, we are running more as a gym, and I've started running three days a week using the Couch to 5k program from coolrunnings.com. This week, I alternate between running for 90 seconds and walking for 90 seconds. By the end of the program, which is eight weeks, you are just running for 30 minutes straight.

On the other days of the week, I'm going to the gym, and I just got my bike out and in working condition. I plan on just using my mountain bike for this race, and seeing as I used it for transportation for more than a year of my life, I think this will be fine. I might end up buying some narrower tires for it, but I don't have really beefy off-road tires anyway.

In the summer I'll work on swimming at my parents' house, and the local pool. I've already told my brother, who swam in high school (and did really well), and his son who has swam in high school that I'll need pointers. I've also spoken with my step-dad about it as well. He taught swimming for a long time, that's why they have the pool.

I really think I could complete this tri right now, but it would take me a long time. So you start with a 5k run, then move onto a 10 mile bike ride, and finish with a 350 meter swim, in the indoor pool.

Now I've got to get serious about my diet. I know that I changed my diet when we went on vacation last year, and haven't really gotten serious about it since. I haven't been horrible, but I haven't stayed focused on eating right either.

I'll be giving updates on the training as I go along, so wish me luck.