Cat's Journey to Becoming an Ironwoman

Roughly one month ago, my life as a triathlete changed. That is when I began my membership with a local triathlon training group - Team Z. The team consists of about 300 triathletes of all ability levels. I began my journey with around 50 other new-Z-ers, not knowing exactly what we were in for That is when I think I started losing my mind....

Here we are four weeks later, and my attempts to quell the notion that I can complete an Ironman triathlon are proving futile. I am not sure what is going on. Last fall I toyed with the notion of completing an Ironman in 2009. That was, until a very painful pre-marathon training run.

Through the pain and exhaustion of that run I asked myself how it would have been to have first swum 2.4 miles and biked 112. Yeah, right. I've never even done more than 40 miles on my bike.

And my swim? If you know me, you've heard about my relationship with the pool (and the open water). It is quite hilarious (well, to me). When I was a kid, my mom called me a fish because I loved the water and practically had to be dragged out of the pool. [Or was it because I am a Pisces?] As it turns out, I am great at floating and I do a beautiful underwater handstand. But freestyle (known as the crawl stroke during my childhood fishie days)? Not!

Lest you think I am exaggerating about my poor swimming ability, allow me to share with you my results from my first triathlon season. At Columbia last year I placed 1695 out of 1730 participants in the swim. That’s right. Only 35 people were slower than me. A few months later I actually swam about 3 minutes *slower* (albeit, minus the wetsuit I had the first time around) and was number 104 out of 112 for the swim.

The worst part about it? No, not the anxiety of swimming in the open water. I actually do alright with that. Not the actual swimming in the dirty, disgusting, mucky water while being trampled on by dozens of faster swimmers that start in the waves after me.

What stinks the most about my poor swimming ability is the fact that the swim exhausts me. By the time I make it out of the water I am ready for a nap.

So, I am working on that. And on my biking. My running is okay. There is room for improvement, but I feel like after 6 marathons, I know how to do it.

Yet somehow, after just a month of serious training, I am trying to wrap my mind around the idea of completing Ironman Florida in just 7 short months. So I am starting this blog, because I know what kind of training this will entail. I have already experienced the limitations on my social life. That happens when you go to bed at 8:30 to wakeup at 4:30 am. Yes, 4:30 in the freakin A.M. (It is dark when I get up, it is dark when I get to the pool, and it is still dark after I swim for an hour and drive home (eastbound) in rush hour traffic).

For those that are interested, I plan to write about my training and the inevitable ups and downs of this endeavor. Hopefully they’ll be more ups than downs. I feel confident that my coach knows what he is doing, and he seems pretty sure that I can do this.