Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Tri Tri Tri

A little over a year ago, I ran a half marathon. Now it is close to impossible for me to put two miles in without having to stop to walk. My heart rate shoots up. I get winded before I reach the quarter mile mark. I'm out of shape. It has been depressing.

I've grown to dislike running as a sport. I've always loved what it does for my body, and how I feel when I finish a run.  But the physical act of running took a huge toll on my body the past couple years. It's mostly because I didn't make keeping my body healthy a priority. When you're training for a long run, you have to be constantly running. I had only a couple "off days" a week, and it never seemed like quite enough time to recover.

I started training for a triathlon recently. On July 25th I will swim 500 meters, bike 10 miles, and run a 5k. The biggest victory I've had so far is discovering that swimming is naturally protecting my body. I've incorporated swimming into my workouts at least three days a week. I.Love.it. Quite honestly, nothing feels better than swimming after my harder bike rides and longer runs. Given, my longer runs are closer to two miles now than eight or nine, but I've still seen a major difference in how quickly my body bounces back after a workout.

I've discovered something else. I may always suck at running. I think I'll always run on some level because it provides me the greatest bang for my buck. But it is definitely still the most difficult for me out of the three. I'm pretty much at ground zero, struggling to find motivation on my running days to fit in a mile. I can do this though!

Biking is way harder than I anticipated. Slowly but surely I am making strides in that department. I guess I never learned anything about changing gears on my bike growing up. It took several grueling Smithville Lake bike rides for Eric to teach me the ins and outs of shifting gears. I think I've finally grasped that though. All I have to do is survive the hard rides.

The good news? Swimming hasn't sucked. I've found something that I want to become better at. I think if I continue working on my swimming after this triathlon is over, I might even become good at it. That's a really motivating feeling and it has inspired me when I've felt like throwing in the towel on this whole triathlon thing.

A couple weeks ago, we biked seven miles and then I told Eric I was going to go for a quick run. I lasted .10 miles. Why? Do you remember  moon shoes?
It felt like I was running in those. I almost fell on my face. A week later I did a four mile bike ride and then jogged a half mile. We will call that progress...I guess.

It has felt good to have a goal again. The weight is finally starting to come off again, but this time it's very slowly. I'm focusing on my training and looking forward to more mini-successes on my journey to my first tri!