So Sam (partner in crime for this crazy adventure) and I ventured forth to Island lake this past Monday to do a test run of the actual course.  It’s still a good 40+ days away but wanted to get a kind of feel for what we are getting ourselves into.  Sam has actually done it a couple times already. So he’d had a leg up on me w/ that.

So we gear up for the swim(.5 mile swim).  Get there and get ready to go. I was pleasantly surprised at the temperature of the water.  I am NOT a cold water fan and I really was dreading this swim but, it was pretty nice.  Now am I a fan of lake water? No. that is a whole different story.  Anyways, we worked out the swim, since we don’t know the exact course, we came up with our own points to swim.  we used the buoy’s that were in the water. We later measured (nothing exact) but to our best what that distance was and so forth so we’d know how far we’d have to go to match the distance for the actual swim.   It was fun for sure.  Felt great actually. Still need to work the overall endurance so I can handle it with much greater ease. I have to work hard here since this is my only advantage currently over Sam.

We moved on to the Bike (55 minutes, 12.9 miles) portion. This is a crazy hilly course.  Pretty much you are going up or down hill through out the entire thing.  A short amount of straight stretches.  Hill’s are my enemy.  They are the nemesis of my life when it comes to riding. Now it could also be that I’m using a mountain bike.  If things go well, I continue to enjoy doing Triathlon I will get a standard street bike going forward.  Right now though Mountain it is.  Not sure if it was just us or if the swimming had an effect, but we were 10 minutes (which is huge amount) slower than what we’ve done in the past on just doing the ride.  This is showing me, the training will need to be kicked up a bit on both sides.

Finally the run (5K).  After consecutive swim/bike I was definitely feeling some heavy legs.  But, after the first portion, it got better. It was starting to get hot out as well, so it was definitely challenging. We’ll worth the effort.   Gave me a good indicator of my current progress and what I’ll need to do over the coming weeks to push things further.

I don’t’ have any real ‘expectations’ for the finish other than finishing.  Being the first one ever, I’m hoping to just be successful.

What have you decided to do to take yourself to a new level of fitness?   Doesn’t matter what you are doing, the key is doing something. We have one life to live, live it to the fullest and don’t squander this time.  Find your niche and get in there and make it your own. You can do it. Don’t ever think you can’t.  Is it going to be tough? I certainly hope so.  That means it is working!  Whatever you find that works, have fun!

Decide Commit. Succeed!