Getting started

I've decided that I need to document the trials of training for this triathlon I signed up for. What the heck was I thinking? Somewhere near the beginning of May a few women from our ward/church decided that they were going to be doing a triathlon at the end of August. So we have all summer to train. I said, "Sure, I'd love to try that!" I've never tried anything that crazy before. For the past couple of years there has been a group from our ward that does the triathlon at the YMCA. It's not too strenuous and it's usually pretty fun, from what I've heard. It's always been on a weekend when we have had plans and I haven't been able to go. So I feel at a distinct disadvantage since I have no idea what I am getting myself into. We'll see how things progress. The race is a 330 yd swim, 11 Mile bike, and a 5K run. The running and biking are not going to be a problem. i already run at least 6 miles a week already. Granted, they are usually in 2 mile intervals, but pushing it up to 3.5 isn't going to be too difficult. The bike riding is harder than I thought it was going to be, I must admit. But, it's not going to be as hard as the swimming. I'm up to 5 miles on the bike. A few of the reasons that I have only gotten this far are; 1) I'm not as familiar with the bike as I'd like to be, it doesn't shift when I want it to, to the gear I want it to. It can be a real pain. 2) While I am athletic, I haven't ridden a bike for any length of distance consistantly, um, lets say never, shall we?! Bike riding WAS just a fun thing to do with the hubby, yeah, not anymore. And reason 3) My butt can't handle the sudden increase in bike sitting time. Can I just say OUCH?! But I'm getting used to it, so I'm hoping that by next week I can be up to 10 miles at a time. As for the swimming, well, I live in a cold place and it just now got up to 75 for 5 days in row. Yeah, not cool. I don't have a membership to the YMCA, so that won't work. So I must wait for the neighberhood pool to open. It will open in 2 weeks. We are getting a family pass, which my step daughters think is great. We'll see, when we go to the pool for the 4th week in a row. They tend to spend a lot of their pool time playing in the grass under the trees, which I really don't understand. But, eh, whatever makes them happy. The swimming part really is going to be the death of me. I used to coach D1 basketball and everywhere we went, well there was a pool in the hotel. So I would swim laps. Yeah, that was 3 years ago. I haven't done any laps in that amount of time. We've taken the kids to the pool, but that really doesn't count, since we don't actually swim! So I can honestly say it's been 3 years since I have been in any kind of swimming shape. oh, this is going to be fun.