Since I already put this out on my running club's Facebook page, I'll make it public here as well: I'm officially training for a sprint triathlon. No, it's not earth-shattering news, nor is it an epic event. I was inspired by following several of my clubmates online as they competed in the Lake Stevens 70.3 triathlon.
Aside from that, it just makes sense for me to do this. I'm goal-oriented (almost to a fault), and having something like this to train for will force me to cross-train, rather than succumbing to the temptation to run too much, too often, too soon. I mentioned in a previous post how my heart just wasn't into swimming and cycling as much as the running. Part of that was due to not having a goal that involved those activities. This will take care of that.
I know that most able-bodied people can complete a sprint triathlon with pretty minimal training, but I want to start small, for two reasons. First, I want to see if I actually enjoy triathlons and, second, I have a tendency to overdo things the bigger they are. In other words, a sprint isn't a "grand scale" event in comparison to an Ironman, a 70.3, or even an Olympic distance. I can keep my training short and sweet.
As for what race and when, I haven't decided yet. I'm looking at sometime late June or early July of 2012. That will give me more than enough time to prepare, and to make sure my injury allows me to train for it.
Aside from that, my daughter and I are signed up for a local 5k next month. We'll also be running a little 2-mile race in November (which we did together last year), as well as possibly another 5k in early December.
So...let the fun begin!
You'll love the sprint triathlon! I've done two of them and really enjoyed them both. Your logic is sound in cross training of necessity to adequately prepare. For both it and especially for the 5K race you'll probably need to back-down on the pace well below your cardio capacity - unless your heel has an unlikely miraculous healing ;-)
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