Avoiding the inevitable …

I know at some point I’m supposed to be talking about my training program on here. Up until now I think I’ve done an excellent job of pretty much avoiding the subject altogether, and with good reason. Well actually, I’ve got a few good reasons. The first being that I’m very much a novice and consider myself to be sort of an ‘accidental triathlete’ and I’m not really sure what I can offer to anyone reading this blog. I mean chances are you’re either a friend, train with me or are related to me (and therefore either already know or don't really care about my training sessions! :-) or you're already a subscriber to Triathlete Magazine and I certainly have little to offer in the way of technical advice since I’m just reading and learning right along with you all.

As recently as yesterday, my sister asked me why I felt the need to do triathlons, rather than maybe just stick with cycling (since it wasn’t like I don’t have a lot of room for improvement in that sport alone!). All I could do to respond was kind of shake my head and meekly reply ‘good question.’ I’m still working on my answer and I’ll get back to you all when I figure that one out myself.

So I’m thinking I may just have to stick to singing the praises of Cadence, and Ryan, my coach, along with providing moral support for anyone who thinks they wouldn’t be able to do this, because I'm proof that you can. If you don't set limits on your goals, and, not unlike trying to lose weight, if you can just take it one day at time and not get overwhelmed by the big picture, well then you just never know where it'll take you! And believe me it's not 'talent' that got me here, and more than a tricked out bike and cool gear, this is gonna take some hard work and a lot of dedication, and those are things I’m starting to know a little bit about!

Which brings me to another reason: I'm not gonna sugar coat it, for the average person this training stuff is a lot of hard work! Not to mention it can be a bit tedious at times. I’m not saying that’s always the case, but having to pick this up in the traditional ‘off season’ has had it’s challenges, logistic and otherwise. And certainly the stress of the holidays adds another wrinkle on top of what’s already physically and sometimes an emotionally exhausting regime…and I’m not looking to be some kind of killjoy for all the opportunities I’ve been handed with this, but no one ever said it was going to be easy, I can attest to the fact that, indeed, it is not!

But it certainly is challenging and exciting and satisfying and, while I really hate to admit this, at times it can be pretty rewarding and a whole of fun ... so I leave at it that and wait till next time to talk about my 3 hour spin classes 4000 yard swim sessions!