Pre Gladiator Days

Ok. So before I morph into a muscle bound, cycling gladiator I thought it best to document the early days of my evolution.

Currently on an evolutionary scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being a full on gladiator and 1 being a neophyte I would roughly estimate that I am a negative 2.

[side note to those who don't know me very well...no, I'm not really shooting for gladiator status - I'm just terribly unimaginative and watched the gladiator finals on the brain eater tonight]

Status of the pre-Gladiator
Bike - cycling is currently my strongest suit in the tri-sport closet. I am still slow, and need to build endurance for longer rides. But I enjoy it most. At present, I have one ride - a Novara Bonita hard tailed mountain bike. I put on studded tires in January, but have been out only once. Right now it is set up on my new trainer in the middle of my living room and the coffee table is cluttered with the Spinerval dvd's that arrived this weekend. I've become obsessed with getting a road bike this spring.
Status: typically 30 - 40 min rides, bike class with tri-sport coach on Thursdays, able to do Spinerval Ride Strong dvd today with appropriate effort (no cheating). Beginning to use heart rate monitor to train - but I don't quite have it figured out yet.

Short Term Goals: "No Slackers Allowed" dvd at least once a week, able to do 2 hrs on trainer w/o stopping, more biking outdoors

Run - One word: yuck. I have tried to like running at so many different points in my life I think I eventually gave up hope. Yeah...yeah...I know about the runners high thing people get if they just keep going. But I have never, never experienced this. That said, I am willing to really give running another chance. I don't know why. I just have this feeling that something has fundamentally changed for me. Perhaps its just Alzeimers.

Status: uh...not much. Had our first "run" class for the tri-sport course last Tuesday, but we just talked about Chi running. I did jump on the treadmill about 3 weeks ago after biking and did some run 2min walk 2min work. Best lesson I learned was to listen to my dang-nabit body when it tells me something. I stupidly tried to "work through" a....shall I say uncomfortable rubbing between my other set of cheeks and ended up with a nice and tender scab. [TMI warning - got to get the mensus/running thing straightened out.]

Short Term Goal: simply to be able to run a mile without stopping - no matter how slow I go. A nice bonus would be to begin enjoying running, but I'm not holding my breath.

Swim - ah yes, the swim. This is by far my weakest area. I don't detest it like the run, I just have no skill in the area. That said, it could very well be my area of greatest improvement this year. In 2005, it took me over 16 minutes to do the 500 yard swim in the Gold Nugget Tri. If you aren't in the know, let me make it clear... that is not just slow, that is nearly going backwards. The winning time was just over 5 min. The good news in all this is that it sets me up for incredible improvement potential this year. In 2005 I simply went for it and figured if I just flailed my arms a little faster I would eventually get there. This year, I have a swim coach. I met her today. I don't know her name, but I love her. If anyone can bring out my inner gladiator, it is her.

Status: To put it simply, I can't. At least not any measurable speed. Today I learned that your neck should be in line with your spine, looking down a the bottom of the pool. We worked on floating with our neck and spine in a neutral position, then worked on turning our body perpendicular to the bottom of the pool. She had us swim on our sides for 8 sec with the bottom arm straight out and the other at our side, then switch sides and immediately take a breath and continue (breaths in between as needed). Then we did the same thing in 4 second shifts. I actually did seem to feel my breathing relaxing. Still, I am incredibly winded just going to the end of the pool and back. I wonder how much of this has to do with my hyperventilating. I need to remember to keep my head facing down, not lifted out of the water so my hips don't fall and drag.

Short Term Goal: to feel less winded, to consistenly keep my head down, to be able to do a 100 without needing to gasp for air in the middle.

OK... wow...that is more information than I really need to write down. I for one am never coming back to read it. I guess I got carried away.
Damn blabbermouths.