I guess to start this blog off, there has to be a beginning, so here it is. My wife says that it's crazy how much I remember from my childhood as she can remember so little. I can remember when I broke my arm when I was 5 1/2, I can remember parts of my 5th birthday party, and I can remember a ton from elementary school. Things I did, friends I had, the trouble I got into. The normal, growing up experiences. One of the things that I remember when I was in elementary school was a coach who did triathlons. This was the mid to late 1980's and triathlon at the time was just a blossoming sport. But I remember hearing him talk to the other coaches about his experiences and he made it sound amazing. I've always wanted to get into triathlons and give it a shot.
So here I am now, all grown up with kids of my own; but the dream has never faded from my memory. The problem was, triathlon is a super expensive sport. Not just to get into, but just to compete. I never thought that I'd be able to compete with the cost being so expensive and having a family to raise. But, as luck would have it, I have a great wife. I had been trying to talk my mom into buying me a triathlon bike for a while with some inheritance money she had received. But every time I mentioned wanting to get a bike, she thought I was talking about a motorcycle and not a triathlon bike. My wife confronted my mom about what it was that I was talking about, and my mom was more than happy to help get me a triathlon bike and not a motorcycle. So with my new bike under me, it's time to train! But what events should I train for?
The ultimate goal for me is to compete and finish the World Championships in Kona for the full Ironman. 140.6 miles. So to reach that ultimate goal, there has to be a starting point. For those who are not aware, there are many different triathlon distances and circuits and stuff like that. The shortest events are the sprints, then there are the olympic, and then the 1/2 Ironman (70.3) and then the full Ironman. There are even ultra distance triathlons that seem to go on forever and last, seriously, 2-3 days.
With such an assortment of distances and events to choose from, things can get interesting and confusing all at once. The logical choice for someone just starting out in a new sport would be to take it easy and start with the sprints and maybe an olympic distance. The problem for me, is that we have the Boise half Ironman coming to town before any of the sprint or olympic races start. This year is going to be the last year of the contract between the city of Boise and Ironman. It has yet to be announced if they will return. Meaning that if I want to start playing with the big boys, I'm going to have to just jump right in. This really is no different than most things that I've done in my life. I see something that I want to do, and I just go full steam ahead and get after it.
So the training has been progressing. I'm hoping to figure out how to work this blog better and get tabs on the top so I can talk about a few specifics that people might want to know. Mostly a nutrition and training tab, and maybe a work tab just to talk about any craziness that has happened at work, and what my work really consists of. But for now, I think that this might be a good place to stop. I'm trying really hard to get to bed at a decent time so I get some good recovery; but it's a challenge between work and the kids on getting uninterrupted sleep.
So I leave you, for now, with just this last fact. I have 158 days until my first triathlon, the Boise 70.3 Ironman.
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