IronGirl Triathlon training: The beginning day 1

So last week I decided to make a bold move. I decided to leave my very affordable gym and join the fancy 24 Hr. Fitness Sport up the block. The 24 Hr. Fitness is more than twice my old gym membership and a little fight ensued in the household with hubby about it.

I argued I needed a gym with a pool now that I'm training for a tri. His comeback was, "Who told you to sign up for a triathlon?" Uh. Well. Who tells me to sign up for anything?

Plus, I argued, that this gym has step, boot camp class, spin, Zumba, yoga, strength training and all these classes that I would love to take. My no-frills gym offered none of it so I was often grouponing classes on the side anyway!

Hubby grumbled.

After swearing to give up my weekly Chipolte habit to cover the extra cost per month he finally gave me the blessing and I signed up on Friday. :)

Wow. I LOVE this gym. It's spectacular. It was like going from a ghetto-flea infested motel 6 to The Ritz Carlton in Paris.

I actually think that on top of the fact that it has classes and a pool, it's the type of place I'm going to want to work out in. You walk in and they hand you a towel. And the locker room looks like a spa. And there's a bunch of racquetball courts and a full-size basketball court (not that I'll probably ever use either but it sure is pretty to look at. 

So on to the training. 

earned a few activity points today

DAY 1

I arrived to the pool and per my Moms In Motion coach, I decided to swim for 20 minutes. (On my own I decided to follow it up with 10 minutes of bike and run so I could get a sense for the whole 'tri' thing).

SWIM:

The water is nice and I share a lane with a guy who seems as slow as I.

I note the time.

I swim one lap. The time feels like it hasn't changed and I'm already out of breath. Shit. Swimming is hard and this is going to be the longest 20 minutes in history.

But I press on. I begged for this dumb gym with the pool. ;) I try to remember what Clay taught me, I have to stop here and there. I try to cheat with all different types of strokes and swim moves. I wonder how I'm going to do a half mile swim in a bay. I figure I'm wasting all kinds of energy with my flailing. Oh boy. I might need to use a noodle. Finally time is up. I'm tired but I'm proud that I did the whole swim and a little bummed about all the breaks I took here and there - thinking, "there's no place to rest in the ocean."

Transition - at least 10 minutes as I shower the chlorine off, get changed, grab my water bottle - decide to use the ladies room and head out to the cardio stuff.

BIKE:

getting on the bike

I use the bikes that do not have the big comfy bucket seat but the one that most resembles an outdoor bike. I get on. and start pedaling. I turn it up to a 5 which feels resistant but not too hard and do that for 10 minutes. I've gone 2.25 miles. I don't feel too tired or stressed but will admit that my legs still felt a little jelly-like as I get on treadmill. It's like 13.5 mph which I think is slow. I feel like my real tri friends go a million times faster but gotta start someplace.

Transition - a minute to gather my crap and move it from the bike to the treadmill.

RUN: 

As soon as I start to run, my parents call from Europe. I feel obligated to answer so I run at 5.5 for few minutes so I can have a conversation with them and then keep upping the pace so I can finish a mile during my ten minute run. Guy on the treadmill next to me tells me that "be careful, the treadmill is addicting." Find that an odd comment. Half tempted to launch into a conversation about running but decide to listen to iPod instead.

All in all - my neck and shoulders feel a little sore but I'm excited to keep going and getting better. Swim is definitely going to be the biggest challenge for me.

Do you do triathlons? What's the biggest challenge?

Want to sign up for an Iron Girl? Use coupon code IGFINISHLINE and save $10 on registration!

XO

Jen