There's a shoe for that.

One of the million questions I have about my first sprint triathlon is... What kind of shoes do I wear?  Is there a specific type of shoe for the bike/run portion of the race?  Yes, there is.  It should to be a shoe where I won't have to deal with socks, nor laces, and can wear while biking and running.  After some research, I found the company Zoot, a Hawaii based company who specializes in gear for swimming, biking and running.

I ordered these yesterday, and they came today (thank you Zappos for your lightning fast delivery!).  I put them on and gave them a test run on the treadmill.  Quite comfortable after a mile run, even without socks.  It will take some getting used to, but overall I like them.  We'll see how the shin splints like em.  :)

Excuses, excuses...

Boy, did I try to think of every reason in the book to NOT workout today.  I have orders to fill, I have to go to the post office, I have dishes piled high (ya, like that's EVER been a priority), the list went on.  But the little voice in my head kept saying "all you need is 20 minutes"!

So that's all it took.  I ran a mile, a slow 12 minute mile, and walked a little before and after.  Poof, I'm done with my workout for the day.  Not a lot, but just enough to stay on schedule. 

Speaking of schedule, I'm still trying to figure out which training schedule I'm going to stick with.  I'll post once I do.

I'm doing it again...

No, I'm NOT having another baby!!  But just to fill you in since my last post on this blog, I did give birth to a healthy baby boy on August 31, 2010.  Brendan is a bundle of joy ready to play with his big brothers, Nathan and Ryan.

But, what I am going to do is a triathlon.  I know, after the half marathon I did in Las Vegas in December of '09 I swore I had challenged myself enough and I'd never do another one again.  But, like the title of the blog says, I'm HEALTHY, BECAUSE I CAN.  I'm 34, I have my health, I'm physically able, so I'm going to do it.

Yesterday, on the first day of the new decade, I registered for the Omaha Women's Triathlon.  This is a sprint triathlon which means it is shorter than a typical trithlon... the sprint triathlon will consist of a 750 m swim (in a lake, yikes!), about a 12 mile bike, and a 5K run.  Although I am a swimmer, I am a little freaked about swimming in open water (piranhas, ah!!).  I think I'll get over my fear by doing this triathlon.  I ran the 13.1 mile half marathon, so a 5K is a welcome change... although it is the last leg of the race so it very well might FEEL like 13.1 miles.  The part I'm most worried about is a) learning how to use the gears on a bike, and b) the transition from the swim to the bike portion of the race.  The pros already have their shoes attached to the bike!  I don't know if I'm coordinated enough for that.  We'll see.  Oh, and I don't even have a bike yet.  Well, I have my girly beach cruiser but I don't think that will suffice.

I have about 22 weeks to pull it all together.  When I trained for the half marathon I started from scratch.  So that's what I'll be doing this time around, too.  I hope to keep updating the blog, I'd love to have a record of my training.  Maybe someone else who is considering a triathlon for the first time could find some inspiration here.  Maybe.

Here we go...