I blame Erin.

I blame Erin.  She is a spin instructor at my gym.  I started taking some of her classes and we started talking about running one day after class.  I admitted that I had limped through two 5k races in my life and hope to do more, but that its not really my thing because I'm not a runner.  "I'm a swimmer" I stupidly commented.  Her ears perked up and she uttered the amazing phrase "you should do a triathlon!"

Why on earth did this appeal to me?  Perhaps it was amazing to me that someone would look at me and think that there was some possible way that I could complete a triathlon.  More likely its because when faced with a crazy challenge that most people think I can't do I generally become stubborn enough to complete it.  Also, there was the book.  While searching for bike shorts Amazon alerted me that I may also be interested in 

Slow Fat Triathlete: Live Your Athletic Dreams in the Body You Have Now.  That smart Amazon, it really does know me.  So Bill reserved it from the library for me and off I went reading about another overweight thirty something woman that started doing triathlons and all of her smart advice.

So here I am.  Training for a triathlon.  Its hard even to type as it seems so implausible.  To be fair to anyone who stumbles across this I actually started several weeks ago but took some time off over the holidays.  Today I experience what may have been my first "runner's high" as I lasted an entire hour on the treadmill and ran close to 5 miles.  I am a really slow runner.  Its really not running but more of jogging interspersed with periods of walking.  

What's worse than running is my lack of cycling experience.  Triathlons are full of buff people in fancy matching spandex outfits with really expensive bikes.  Right now I do not own a bike, but I do own fancy clipless cycling shoes.  I have started spinning at the gym in the hopes of getting some cycling muscles, but these will do me no good if I don't buy a bike.  Things to do this week?  Seriously look in to buying a bike.  What holds me back?  Then I am committed....