Laura: Fat to Fit: bike

Journey To Triathlete!

9/15/2016

Next Year, I will be a Triathlete!

If you'd asked me 5 years ago whether I would ever think of doing a Triathlon, I'd have said Hell No.. but then here I am 5 years later, telling you that I'm going to be taking on a scary, new challenge!

Now, nothing is official yet, purely because the dates and entry for the Triathlon I want to do next year aren't up/opened but when they do, I will be signing up straight away!

The idea of doing a Triathlon only really came about quite recently. Partly because of the Olympics, watching the events and getting inspired and partly because Phillip was in training and just completed his first Triathlon last month and watching them all at the race spurred me on that much more.

So, where am I at right now?

Well, I've been running for 3 years now, so I'm not entirely starting from scratch! Though swimming and cycling before running is a whole different ball game. That combined with the fact that I can have some tough run days and I've a known habit of not sticking to my training.. this is going to be one hell of a challenge!

Then swimming, the next best thing I'm OK at ;). I've been doing swimming lessons for two years now(TWO YEARS!). It's been very slow progress for me with the lessons. Breast Stroke? Perfect, no issues and actually quite strong apparently, even compared to some peoples front crawl, but when it comes to a Triathlon, ideally I need to be doing Front Crawl for the most part.

I can do Front Crawl, don't get me wrong, I can do Bilateral breathing(though I find it easier on just the one side) but my stamina is just not there. In a pool, I can swim a couple of lengths and then I'm struggling to catch my breath, so this needs some work!

Open Water - As many of you will know, two months ago, I hired a wetsuit to try open water swimming. My first swim, I managed 4 x 400m laps and was so incredibly proud of myself for doing that on my first swim. I've since purchased my own wetsuit and have been swimming every Saturday since then.

And then there's cycling! I actually had no intention of buying a bike until I'd sorted the Cycle To Work Scheme(which was delayed so was out of the question for a while) and was then going to wait until after Christmas to get a bike in the sales. In the end, I just bit the bullet and bought a bike anyway! Atleast I can get in a bit of practice before next season.

I occasionally rode a mountain bike last summer, but a road bike is a lot different and it's taking some getting used to! I've been for a couple of 8 mile cycles on some quieter roads to get used to the handling of the bike and the gears and all seems well so far. Hopefully, I will be able to get in a few more rides before it gets too dark in the morning and evenings and the weather takes a turn for the worse.

I've not done any brick sessions as of yet, to be honest, when I ride my bike, the last thing I want to do is go for a run straight after, my legs feel like jello! Though I'm sure that will come with time and proper training!

And I'm going to have to really get my butt into gear where home workouts is concerned and gain some strength. Phillip and I have already spoken about the possibility of re-joining our local gym during the winter - so we will see with that one.

So, that's where I'm at currently, it's a start at least! And I have a year to train for the Triathlon I want to do so it's plenty of time!

It's going to be tough as hell, there's no point in sugar coating it.. but I'm gonna give it my best shot and hope I don't regret my decision! And of course, I will be updating on how things are going here on the blog too for those interested!

EEK! :D

If you've got any tips for Triathlete's in Training, feel free to leave me a comment, I'd appreciate any help! :)

Question: Have you ever completed a Triathlon? OR Ever thought about competing in one?

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bike

#Janathon! // Day 1 & 2

1/02/2015

I've seen the #Janathon/#Juneathon hashtag floating around on social media before but never really knew what it was or what it entailed. Then I saw Katie and Steph discussing it on twitter before Christmas and had a look to see what it was all about.

Janathon is/was primarily a running challenge, however, if you don't run or can't, you can join in by cycling, walking, rowing, weights, swimming, building snowmen.. whatever takes your fancy and gets you up and active everyday for the month of January.

Original Image Sourced from Janathon.com Website

The part that intrigued me most about this challenge is the fact that it entices people that are doing the challenge to be social about it. Once you've completed an activity of your choice, you are to blog/tweet or tell the Janathon FB page and the rest of the participants about it within 24 hours.

Everyone uses the #Janathon hashtag and you can leave comments and encourage other participants to interact with each other. I love to find new bloggers and health and fitness addicts like me so I thought it was a great opportunity.

DAY ONE
So I completed Day 1 Yesterday, which was actually building up a desk in the living room for my new blogging/work space area. Prior to making the desk, I just had my hospital bed desk and a small living room chair to sit on. I had no room, no space for storage.

Since I really want to focus on my blog this year, I thought it would be a good idea to have my own little space to have all my blogging stuff and since I spend most of my time on a computer anyway, I thought why not.

Here's some pictures of my little corner. I love it, personally and it will enable me to be more organised throughout the year:

DAY TWO
I went for a 3 mile run this morning for day 2 of Janathon. I still wasn't feeling 100% with my cough and cold but I really couldn't stand just sitting around feeling sorry for myself so I went out.

It wasn't the best run ever. I had to stop a few times during my run because of coughing and a really tight chest but I still felt better when I got home than before I started.

I'm definitely glad that I decided not to do the NYE run on Weds, I think I would have really struggled. I still have other races that I can enter and have the Winter Run coming up on the 1st of February so I'm going to focus on them instead.

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So that's it so far, I haven't decided if I will do a quick blog post everyday or whether I combine a couple of days worth on my blog. I guess we'll find out sooner or later, I'll have made the decision by tomorrow. Bring on Day 3!