Drinking the Kool-Aid

Someone asked me recently why I was launching into 7 months of training and pushing myself to its physical and mental limits.  Frankly, I am still trying to figure out why I am doing this.  But the Kool-Aid was strong and tasted good and so far I can’t complain.  We are four weeks into our training program with the goal being May 1, 2010- the Avia Wildflower Long Course.

We have been in the pool as a group three times, and all times I have gotten my rear end kicked by being the slowest swimmer in the lane.  I am the turtle right now… at least I am not the walrus?  I am using muscles that I have never used, but I find that this girl who hated to get her hair wet actually enjoys the challenge of the water.  My fear of drowning is diminishing each time I conquer a work out which is encouraging.

Biking is another story.  Having not ridden a bike for about 13 years, I found myself a great road bike online and have actually started to enjoy it.  That is until I fell twice last week because I leaned the wrong way when coming to a stop.  Honestly my pride was bruised more than my body, but it is still not fun.  Our first coached ride was this morning and we went over some great basics- shifting, clipping in, rules of the road.  Yes, I managed to fall again.  I am so over the falling thing…

Running- well there is something I know.  I have competed in 4 half marathons and one full, with a smattering of 10k’s and 5k’s thrown in for good measure.  Even though I am totally comfortable with running, I still worry that my pace won’t be fast enough and what will people think about my strategy of taking walk breaks?  I get twitchy that I am not running three times a week right now, but I am sure we will be adding more running in sooner than later.

Clearly I have a long road ahead of me and if I ever had any ego about any sport, it needs to be checked at the door.  Toto, we are DEFINITELY not in Kansas anymore.

That pretty much sums up the first four weeks- getting used to training, getting a sense for each individual sport and building slowly.