Training is Your Friend

Training starts on Monday for the biggest event I have ever committed to/registered for up to this point. To say I am excited is an understatement. I don't know why I am excited about the training other than it will be a true test of my will. As I have stated on my blog before, I have a history of not training properly for sprint distance triathlons. To relate this to life, not training properly is equivalent to the frustration you may feel when you have a friend who never follows through. Basically your training is your friend.  You are expecting certain results from that friendship but you only get our of it, what you put into it.

Someone once said to me that I am only responsible for the 50% of the 100% of a relationship. I thought about this for some time and started considering the friendships where I simply did not get the results I was expecting. For instance, we have all had that one friend that consistently responds to everything except for when you are trying to get together, or always cancels on you. It makes you wonder why you would even do the work to maintain the relationship.

On the other hand, you may have been the friend who is/was always waiting for better plans. Well I am approaching training as if it is one of my friends. I don't ever want to be considered the person who makes my friends the second choice so I am going to treat training as I treat people. I plan to put into it, exactly what I want to get out of it. If I train and work hard, it will give me the strength to get across the finish line.

Now you should know that participating in triathlons is no easy feat. There is a coordination that, for even a person who thrives on controlled chaos, needs to have to manage the training. There are swimming caps, helmets, goggles, towels, running shoes, cycling shoes, hydration, sunglasses, bikes, fuel, cycling gloves, etc. that all need to be put together and organized to get out the door for your workouts. If you know anything about me, you know there is nothing remotely coordinated about me. For crying out loud, I apparently left my car door open in a parking lot while out for a bike ride this week! As a matter of fact I have been referred to that character in Charlie Brown who is followed around by a dust cloud. I think his name is Pigpen. Not something I am terribly proud of but it is fact!

So, to set myself up for success I have been spending valuable time trying to organize my stuff to get prepared for the training that is about to begin. This has included finding a pool schedule that works for me, organizing all of my sport boxes (each box is for a different sport and holds the essential items for that sport),  preparing my bike, recruiting a swimming buddy (I'll tell you about this in a future post) and the list goes on...

Over the last few years I have seen the finish line of many 5k - 10 mile runs, half marathons, a marathon, some long rides, and a handful of triathlons of varying distances. All of these events were successful because I got over my lack of training slump! I have learned that accomplishing the goal is that much more rewarding when you put into it exactly what you want to get out of it, similar to friendships!

So tomorrow I will wake up at 5:00 with my bags packed and head to the pool!