November 4, 2019 is the date I started my training for the Bear Lake Brawl – a full distance triathlon event. That event is scheduled for September 17, 2020.
Yep! Almost a full year of training. Am I crazy? Probably. Mostly I’m just focused.
You see, I attempted a full Ironman event several years ago and I wasn’t very dedicated to my training. I could make lots of excuses and give reasons why I didn’t finish, but that is not important at this point. What is important is that I attempted it and I did pretty good on the swim, struggled with nutrition throughout, and made it through the bike portion of the event, just 20 minutes too late to start the run. And I’m not going to let that happen to me again. This time will be a very different outcome.
The first thing to overcome in this is the mental aspect. Failing at something like that definitely affected my confidence and my attitude. But, in 2018, after getting increasingly overweight again, I decided to turn things around and I took the Orange Theory Fitness weight loss (technically it was body fat loss) challenge very seriously.
And my hard work paid off! In fact, that win is what also propelled me to want to become a fitness professional and to help others achieve what I had experienced – confidence, weight loss, healthiness, more energy, and more!
Orange Theory is also where I found out that I could push myself farther than I thought possible. And the camaraderie is amazing at my studio.
So, all these things helped get me to a mental place where I could work to be able to race another triathlon. And not just participate, but to do well.
I don’t have any illusions of finishing better than the middle of my age group, but I have goals for myself. Which is really why I do this sport anyway. I love pushing my body and seeing what I can do.
What are my goals?
Well, I’ve been impressed with Joe Friel’s Triathlete Training Bible, and so I’ll be using that as my training guide and regimen.
I am aiming for a swim time of 1:30:00 or better, a bike time below 7:00:00, and a run time under 6:00:00.
Maybe I’ll change those as I do more training and see what I can really do over long distances, but those are all PRs for me at this point.
November 2019 started my journey. I’m excited to see what happens!