Triathlon training update: week 3 of 18

First, let me thank all of you who are leaving me encouraging notes! Seriously, the pressure of knowing so many people know about this and are expecting me to do it keeps me going. For those who think they're "too cool for school" and don't post..either do it this week or I'll call you out publicly. Seriously...I NEED everyone reading to post encouraging words...PLEASE!! Ok, I'm done with my shameless plug...

So, here we are at the end of week 3 and i'm starting to see what everyone says about this being addictive! In addition to spin class and jogging, I added SWIMMING to the workout program this week. Here, I need to depart and take you on a journey real quick.....

Go back to the days of your childhood...are you with me? remember running around the pool in the summer...swimming, splashing, jumping off the diving board, playing "sharks and minnows", seeing who could make the biggest splash with a cannonball or can opener or watermelon or whatever massive splash making position you could put your body into and withstand the smack of the water on your skin...remember those days? we could and would swim for HOURS...we could swim for hours, rest for lunch and swim for hours again.....

Yeah...so...."swimming" is not that fun thing anymore! Swimming as an adult, for exercise, doing laps is NOT the 'swimming' of our childhoods. It is more like water boarding torture. Ok, it's not that bad...but it's not the hours of fun we all remember.

For my triathlon registration, they asked for my 100m swim time. WHAT?!?!?! I had no clue..I have never swam 100m for any particular reason nor in any particular straight line. So, I headed off the Y Saturday morning, family in tow, to get my 100m swim time. After getting over my fear of being a very out of shape, very very WHITE/PALE human.....I jumped in. I warmed up with 2 laps (down and back 25m = 1 lap of 50m). Then, assuming I'd reached that point between "I'm warmed up plenty" and "if I warm up any longer I may be spent for the day" (you all know that point I'm talking about)...I asked Jenn to time me...2 laps..100 meters...neat. So, I swam...and ingested ridiculously highly chlorinated water...and 1:53 later, I was done. WOW...my 100m time is 1:53! I was pumped. That's just 1:10 over the world record! Not too shabby! I then resumed swimming...I will be swimming 700m for my Triathlon, so that equals 14 laps...finished around 20 minutes. So, at least I know I "can" swim the 700m...now I'll try to improve that time over the next 2.5 months.

Lastly, I went to a triathlon store called TrySports. They gave me a run-down of everything I will need for my triathlon. Good news? It'll cost me less than I expected (about $300 to outfit myself decently--need wetsuit for swim, shorts, helmet, possibly road tires for my bike, sunglasses, and a few knick-knacks). The bad news? I have a mountain bike..and that doesn't work so well for road races. So, I'll be on the lookout for a road bike, probably on craigslist, and hoping to find one for kinda cheap. If not, I'll get road tires for my MTB...

That's my weekly update. A bit lengthy but the swimming experience deserves it, don't you think? Oh, this week I lost another pound...so that's down to 255...25 more to go! Thanks for POSTING! ;-)