For every challenge, there's a back story. Here's mine...
Part 1: Slippery Slope
It's all about fun, so I hope to have some laughs along the way, but since I haven't taken on the challenge of the Triathlon lightly, I thought I would share how I came to take it on and what I've been doing to prepare.
First of all, I have to say, competitive personal sports was never my thing. I swam competitively in high school, and I was a lifeguard in college, but that's about it. I was not a runner, or a cyclist, not a football player or anything else. Over the years, I've made a weak to moderate effort to stay in shape by going to the gym and swimming regularly, but I frowned on running as a fast path to knee surgery, and at 6'3" and 220 pounds, I was carrying at least 20 extra belly-roll and jelly-roll pounds.
Last summer, I swam a mile one to three times a week to prepare for a Labor Day open water event: the Arthur Ladrigan Green's Ledge Lighthouse race. It's part of the annual Labor Day celebration in my town, Rowayton Connecticut. The race course is from Green's Ledge Lighthouse in the Long Island Sound back to Bailey Beach. One mile.
My training for this race could only be described as desultory and unsophisticated. I simply swam a mile, 36 laps, (or less, truth be told) every time I went to the pool. People who know how to train for swimming call these "junk laps" because they are typically swum slowly, and so, are best way to learn how to swim a mile really slowly.
On race day, there were 55 swimmers in the water. It was exciting and fun to swim from the lighthouse to shore with so many people and have a big crowd on the beach there to greet us. I had a lot's of friends and neighbors in the event, and that made it even more fun. One of these was my friend Matt.
Little did I realize, but on that day, I had been lightly bitten by the endurance event. It was exciting and fun and something a little crazy you could do with a lot of other people. As many know, this is a slippery slope.
Part 2 in a few days... in the mean time, if you are able, please visit my American Cancer Society fund raising site http://main.acsevents.org/goto/pmeese, click the RED BUTTON and make a small contribution to support my entry in this event. Thanks!
Part 1: Slippery Slope
It's all about fun, so I hope to have some laughs along the way, but since I haven't taken on the challenge of the Triathlon lightly, I thought I would share how I came to take it on and what I've been doing to prepare.
First of all, I have to say, competitive personal sports was never my thing. I swam competitively in high school, and I was a lifeguard in college, but that's about it. I was not a runner, or a cyclist, not a football player or anything else. Over the years, I've made a weak to moderate effort to stay in shape by going to the gym and swimming regularly, but I frowned on running as a fast path to knee surgery, and at 6'3" and 220 pounds, I was carrying at least 20 extra belly-roll and jelly-roll pounds.
Last summer, I swam a mile one to three times a week to prepare for a Labor Day open water event: the Arthur Ladrigan Green's Ledge Lighthouse race. It's part of the annual Labor Day celebration in my town, Rowayton Connecticut. The race course is from Green's Ledge Lighthouse in the Long Island Sound back to Bailey Beach. One mile.
My training for this race could only be described as desultory and unsophisticated. I simply swam a mile, 36 laps, (or less, truth be told) every time I went to the pool. People who know how to train for swimming call these "junk laps" because they are typically swum slowly, and so, are best way to learn how to swim a mile really slowly.
On race day, there were 55 swimmers in the water. It was exciting and fun to swim from the lighthouse to shore with so many people and have a big crowd on the beach there to greet us. I had a lot's of friends and neighbors in the event, and that made it even more fun. One of these was my friend Matt.
Little did I realize, but on that day, I had been lightly bitten by the endurance event. It was exciting and fun and something a little crazy you could do with a lot of other people. As many know, this is a slippery slope.
Part 2 in a few days... in the mean time, if you are able, please visit my American Cancer Society fund raising site http://main.acsevents.org/goto/pmeese, click the RED BUTTON and make a small contribution to support my entry in this event. Thanks!
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