Mo Jo: We Become Olympians (i.e., olympic-distance triathletes)

Distance: Five miles
Pace: Moderate
Confidence level: Way out of whack

You may recall, loyal reader of ROW, that back in June 2014--nine months ago--TST and I confidently told the world we were going to do a triathlon.

Then we didn't.

We tried. We both got in the pool. I got my bike adjusted and got the cool clip-on shoes. We ran, per usual. But we just didn't sign up for anything. In the meantime, TST ran her second marathon and did lots of other cool things, and I got busy and got the flu and got unmotivated and otherwise did NOT do a second marathon.

After I got the flu, I was sick for two weeks and then was convalescing for another three. I tried to go back to running, mostly because Coach is a nag and won't let me quit forever, but I would run a quarter mile and want to DIE. I felt like I was back to square one. I had never run before ever. This sucked. My lungs hurt. My feet were like lead. I was exhausted.

(I was, however, feeling super skinny because frankly, that flu was kind of awesome.)

Last week I did a wretched, complaint-laden three-and-a-half miles, telling Coach weakly around mile two, "Just go on without me (whimper)." He did, scampering off like he'd been freed of a slow, whiny albatross. Two days later I did a slow four by myself, and then on Sunday I did six. And today I did five and felt JUST FINE.

I'm back, bitches!

So in a burst of feeling fit, I looked up some races and found a triathlon about a month away. I emailed TST to see if she wanted to do it, and she said (of course, because she is awesome and up for anything), sure. "Do you want to do the sprint or olympic distance?" she asked.

Sprint distance is a 400-meter swim, a 12-mile bike ride, and a three-mile run. Olympic is a 1600-meter swim, a 24-mile bike ride, and a six-mile run.

"Olympic," I said. Note that I have swam exactly 0 meters since June, but hey, I am feeling pretty good. I looked up some training plans, and they seem to think one has 16 weeks to train. Where is the four-week plan, I wondered? Eh, I'll just wing it.

So we're on for the next challenge! Keep an eye out for updates.