Triathlon... training

History:
A few years ago I decided I will do a triathlon. I have been in training ever since. At times, it's fairly intense training, and other times, much more focused on things like recovering from a C-section taking care of our little one, and doing what I can for my clients as a medical social worker. You know, I even won several Toastmaster competitions with my triathlon speech 4 or so years ago. If I can find that old speech, I'll post it on here.

Past:
So, here's the latest. I decided April was the month to do another month long iron man. The YMCA here calls it the Lazy Man Ironman. That's how I first got going with this training version of a real triathlon. My goal in April was to stationary bike 112 miles, walk 26.2 miles and swim 2.4 miles. Well, that's not completely accurate with the swimming. Swimming is my favorite and my best of the three events. Swimming 2.4 miles is 85 laps. I can do that in a half a month, so my goal was to swim 170 laps in April. In actuality I swam 250 laps (yea, I really rock with the swimming), biked 121.5 miles, and walked 26.2, meeting or exceeding each one, and completing my April triathlon goal.

Current:
It is very difficult for me to keep active like this without a challenging goal. And, I decided to continue it. I have from the beginning of April to the end of July to do the following: walk 100 miles, Swim 26.2 miles, and bike 500 miles. My April totals count, and I am on track to for what I need to get done in May. It pretty much means doing my swim twice a week (just under a mile of front crawl swimming each time), biking 10 miles on the stationary most days of the week. And walking 1.5 miles a day 5 days a week (every day I don't swim). I also plan to do more and more biking on the road vs. stationary. It's actually much more difficult, and I do about half the miles in the same amount of time. The other trick is that I saw a podiatrist a few weeks ago for foot pain. He wants me to not do as much walking, and substitute more biking, swimming, and other aerobic activities. Well, triathlons are not more biking, swimming, and other aerobic activity, so I am trying to compromise with that. For now, I have decided not to increase my walking distances, and to just keep at the 1.5 per day. When I get new shoes and new orthodic inserts and my foot pain goes down, I'll steadily increase the distances up to 3-3.5 miles.

Future Plans this Season:
These four months are accumulating into a real triathlon. My birthday is on a Friday this year. I will be doing an unsponsored and unofficial triathlon. The event distances are the same as the Sprint Distances in the annual Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis. I will start at the Blaisdell YMCA at 7AM and swim 15 laps, then transition as quick as I reasonably as I can and bike 15 miles. The route primarily includes the Midtown Greenway and Lake Calhoun so I can avoid road biking as much as possible. I will then lock my bike up at the Y or put it in the van, probably take a bathroom break, and walk 3.2 miles. It's 1.6 miles from the Blaisdell Y to the Lake of the Isles. I'll take 31st all the way to the lake, turn around and head back.

Does this sound interesting to you? It is unofficial and unsponsored. However, if you want to join me for any or all of the events, I am sure I would enjoy the company. The walking is my weakest event, and I imagine I'll be tired by then, so company on the walk would be especially nice. Note, it will be a s-l-o-w pace if you want to actually walk with me. If you want to bring a book and some tunes and do timings for me - each event, transition times, and grand total - that would be awesome. If you want to be part of my birthday dinner out somewhere later that day and hear how it went, all right then, see you there. I am fine with doing this by myself, except for the dinner afterward part, but would enjoy company if anyone thinks it would be fun.

Future Ideas: I have some trepidation to say much more about future triathlon plans because my ideas past this are not as set in stone. And, a friend told me that sometimes talking about plans too much diminishes the likelihood that they will become reality. I'm still not sure I believe that, but I'll be a bit careful here just in case. Let's leave it that I still plan to do a "real" sponsored and official triathlon before I end my 41st year, and I am thinking of other ideas to keep my training interesting. More to come....