1. Complete a triathlon

Well the first thing on my list was something I thought was manageable, but still a bit challenging. I did my first triathlon with some of my friends and co-workers from CTE back in 2009 (!) and it was a lot of fun. The training was occasionally crazy, I learned to love swimming and laps for the first time in my life, and I did my first open water swim on race day (I do not suggest, should have done a test run before jumping into the water and getting kicked in the face a few times...).

This is the before picture. I immediately crammed my face with pizza right after...which was a good decision.

This time around I knew this was going to take a bit more than jumping in the pool a few weeks before the event and winging it through the bike portion (the section I thought was going to be the easiest nearly killed me). So I am starting 18 weeks ahead of the event training in the pool, but since I'm also marathon training I don't necessarily have to work on the running separate from that.

That just leaves the bike portion. At least one other 40 for 40 goal involves biking, so I think I'm going to plan to train for both at the same time. So Mount Vernon, here I come!

Swimming

I got back into the pool to start working out the rust the last week of May, which would give me 18 or so weeks to get into open water shape, since it had been a minute since I was lap swimming. Now, I've gone very long stretches without being in the pool at all, and each time I get back I'm always surprised at how quickly things come back. After a couple of weeks I was swimming 8-10 laps at a time and doing 30-45 min. sessions in the pool.

July was a tricky month for the pool since the Reeves Aquatic Center was only open a few days, and I couldn't manage to get in more than a couple of times that entire month. So I had to focus on running and lifting to hopefully keep in shape. When I was able to get back into the pool in August, I was still swimming pretty well and hadn't lost too much progress. Just have to make time to get in the pool (either Reeves or the community pool at Wilson).

Biking

I started doing 30 minute bike sessions at lunch a couple of times a week (I had never been on a Peloton before, but I'm now understanding the hype). One thing is for certain, I need to add yoga into my routine because my hips are in terrible shape, and I don't want flexibility to be the reason I crash out and injure myself.

After literally crashing on my bike on the 4th of July (and Georgie breaking her leg shortly before that) I had to take a break from biking to work and took the opportunity to get it tuned up at the shop so that it could be in good shape for the race. I managed to fit in a couple of longer biking sessions in the gym to keep my legs in shape, but after the 40 mile round trip ride to Mt. Vernon, I realized that I wasn't going to be biking uphill the entire time, and that even though 15 miles is pretty solid, as long as I don't try and go crazy, I should be alright getting through it and into the running leg. I did a double-up session at the beginning of August, biking 6 miles and then going straight into running on the treadmill for a mile or so, and that went fairly well. I need to do the same on the swim to bike portion to see how things go.