I don't athlete.
Let me preface this post by saying I have zero athletic ability. None. Zip. Nyet. Sure, I visit the local 9Round gym a few days a week, and run every now and then, but athletic is not a word anybody who would use to describe me. Pale and lanky? Yes. Athletic? No.
So how the hell did I end up signing up for a triathlon??
The back story
I was chatting with my friend Rance Bryan in early January who told me Santa had signed him (and his wife) up for a triathlon. WTF? How bad do you have to be that Santa just skips the coal and goes straight for a Triathlon signup?
I started asking questions about it and before long, he was trying to get me to sign up, too. I laughed. And then I laughed some more. But the weird thing is, I couldn't stop thinking about it for a few days afterwards. Could I — non athletic, hasn't-swam-a-lap-in-probably-twelve-years, only-runs-occassionally Pherplexed — do a triathlon?
Then the weirdest thing happened...a few days later, I signed up.
The event
So there it is. I'm officially signed up for the Clemson Triathlon in May. It's a Sprint Triathlon – the 5k of Triathlons – so the course goes something like this:
- 750m swim (just under .5 mile)
- 11.5 mile bike
- 5k run
One or two of those on their own don't bother me too much. But doing them back-to-back? Um...yeah. Then throw in the little part about the swim being an open-water swim in Lake Hartwell, yeah...I'm freaking out.
The training plan
Since we've already discussed my non-athleticism, I've got a lot of work to do. 16 weeks of work, to be precise. Swimming is going to be the death of me, so with the help of the interwebs, I have a training plan in place that will focus on swimming. Here's what I'll be doing for torture. I mean training...
- Monday: 5:30am Swim, 6pm circuit training
- Tuesday: rest
- Wednesday: 5:30am Swim, 6pm circuit training
- Thursday: rest
- Friday: 5:30am swim, 18+ mile bike in the afternoon
- Saturday: rest
- Sunday: 5+ mile run
Nutrition is going to be key in all this and I've got some plans in place for that, too. I'll post more on that along the way.
So why the hell am I doing this to myself?
Because I want to prove that I can. Most of the goals I've set in my adult life have been associated with work in some form or another. I decided it was time to make a different goal – I'm tired of focusing so much on work. Plus, it was a good excuse to get some new gadgets and gear (more posts on that to come).
And let's be honest here, it's going to be way cool to be able to casually mention: "Yeah, I'm a triathlete" during the course of a conversation. (of course, this assumes that I survive).
(You can follow all my training-specific posts here.)