To Tri or Not To Tri...That Is The Question!

There is a triathlon at the end of October that I am seriously thinking of entering. It has been 4 years I believe since my last triathlon and that one was really hard. If I decide to sign up for the one in October I will have 15 weeks of training. Not sure that is enough. Right now I would consider myself slightly above couch potato but not by much. I have been trying to get more active. I have swam a few times lately and although it isn't pretty with atleast 1-2 sessions per week I am sure that I can knock out the 400 meter swim no problem. On the bike front I have gone on a couple of short rides with my son and it feels good to be on the bike. I just recently got my hybrid bike serviced so it is in shape to train. I plan to do a lot of my riding on it and build up to riding my road bike on the trainer for a while. It has been forever since I used my clips I want to get comfortable on them. My biggest fear is falling with the clips. Running was going really well the first part of the year and then life happened and it got hot here and I have had zero desire to run in the heat but I need to start up again. The running is by far my weakest part of the triathlon. Anyone got any good running tips for a non runner? Questions to ponder - If you were me would you do it? Anyone have any clip tips? What is a good running program for a non-runner? Anyone want to train with me virtually?

Get the Family Involved

I find that I am more likely to get my exercise done if my family is involved. My son is in karate and this coming December he has to be able to do 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups so we have started working on this now so by then it will be easy for him. To help keep him motivated I started doing them along with him. I need the workout and he needs the reminder to get them done. It has been fun doing this over the last two weeks. We are both getting better. I realized how far I have to go and he likes competing against me. It has been a win win for both of us. He has really enjoyed keeping a log of his progress as well. I need to start doing that too. MOTIVATION by watching the progress. Last night we tried something a little different. I have seen a lot of great lists of body weight exercises on Pinterest. We tried one out last night. This is what we did: 30 Jumping Jacks 5 push ups 25 High Knees 7 Burpees 10 Crunches 7 Squats 5 Push ups 10 Crunches 5 Push ups 7 Squats 30 Jumping Jacks 1 min Wall Sit 5 Push ups 25 High Knees We both made it through without too much huffing and puffing. The best part was watching my 2 year old daughter try to do it all along with us. After we finished my son asked what exercises we were going to do the next day. I think it was a hit! Make working out a family event. It is good for everyone. What types of things do you do to stay active? Any good family activity ideas?

Back On the Wagon...I think

This past year I have been running on and off. I have completed a 5K and a mud run. I am toying with the idea of training for a triathlon. It has been years. Love how it feels to compete and finish. Not a big fan of getting started on a plan though especially in the Texas Summer heat. My first step is to put it out there to the world to keep me moving forward.

My First Mud Run

Each year my husband volunteers with his local Lions club and they put on a music festival. Last year for the first time they had a mud run at the event. It looked like so much fun but I was in no shape to run it. My son who was 6 at the time wanted to do it with me this year. So we talked about it and I started running. I did a couch to 5K last Fall so I could run a 5K for my birthday. I started another couch to 5K in the Spring to prepare for the mud run. As the run got closer I got more nervous. When it was time to sign up we realized that my son was too young to participate which was a big bummer however I didn't want to give up on doing the run for me or for him. So even though my Spring was crazy I signed up any way and found an AWESOME friend who would run it with me instead of my son. She hadn't done one before either. We were both nervous and neither knew what to expect. We had a great time running the race. I found I should have trained a little more for the off road type running. That was really hard when you are used to running on concrete and tracks. It was a very uneven course and a lot of it was on the side of a ditch so my legs were killing me. The part I was most worried about was climbing the hay bale. I made it! We didn't do half bad for our amount of training. It was fun and we even talked about doing it again next year and dressing up for it.
Questions:
Have you done a mud run?
How did you train?
Did you wear a costume?
If so what did you wear?

How Long Has It Been?

I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post(YEARS!). Since then I have had another little one to run after and things have been crazy busy. Lets just say I haven't been much for Triathlons in those missing years. In September I signed up for a 5K in memory of a very precious little boy who lost his fight with cancer (Angels For Aidan). Although I walked almost all of the Run. We jogged the last bit and it felt pretty good. I got the itch to do more. I liked the feeling of finishing. I had forgotten what that felt like. I was so busy tending to everyone else I put me on the back burner. I decided that I would try out a Couch to 5K program. Running/Jogging has never been my strong suit. I am a much better Swimmer and Biker but I thought if I wanted to do another Tri at some point I need to work on the RUN first. So in October I started a 10 week plan. Just so happens that the plan ends the week of my birthday. There aren't any races that would be easy for me to do during that week so I decided do my own race. My goal for the training and for my race day birthday is to start my 37th year hopefully being able to jog the whole 3.7 miles. I know a 5K is 3.1 but I am doing 3.7 for my 37th! So far I have only missed two days on the plan and that was due to a death in the family. I wont lie I am super excited that I have made it this far and that I can jog as far as I have been. By the standards of most it isn't impressive at all but it is so much farther than where I was. I look forward to finishing the program. I just finished week 6 so I only have 4 weeks remaining. My plan is to keep going with the training and find a nice Sprint Tri to complete in 2013. If you are still out there and following let me know what you are up to or training for.

Evidence Found

The evidence of my past races has been uncovered by my son. He found pictures of my races. For a whole week he has picked them up and looked at them. He asked when I will do a race with him. He also told me he wants to be my coach. I think that sounds like a great idea. I am going to get my schedule together soon and come up with a race plan for the year. Last year was a little bit of a dud in the race department and I am looking to change that. Now that the time is about to change and the days will start to be more light in the afternoon I am looking forward to afternoon runs and bike riding. I can't wait to shake off the dust bunnies on my bike, find my gym card where I put it so I would find it but can't and get back in the pool for some laps.

Where has it gone?

Where has this year vanished to?
On that note where have I been?
Just not sure how to answer either of those questions.
I am planning to get back to my previously scheduled programming real soon.

Hang in there if you haven't already given up on me!

Hope this vanishing year has been as productive for you as mine has been.

Take care and leave a comment to let me know you are still out there.

And yes I am talking to you... the one who is reading this on her phone.
You who only reads the posts on Google Reader.
Stop take a minute click on the link...
Say "Hello!" leave a comment... anything...
Could be in the form of a word, sentence, short phrase, long paragraph.

I will take what I can get.
Have a great weekend.
Mel