Two little Yens...

The last two months, Yen and I have been doing some regular exercise in the lead up to a triathlon in March. We've been swimming, running and cycling a couple of times each week to get ourselves ready for the March 4 race and I'm really glad we've done as much as we have since December. It may not be a super tight regime but it's still something and we're slowly building a healthy attitude towards our fitness and gaining confidence in our ability to actually do this stuff.

Things I discovered:
Running - I think..my worst, although I can now jog for 30 minutes straight. VERY slowly but it's 30 minutes of uninterrupted cardio. Yen's at like.. 45 minutes! Yikes!
Cycling - 10 kms on your bike passes SO quickly. You don't realise how far you can actually go on your bike.
Swimming - I can swim 100 m non stop, every session. Where as 200 m-300 m I could swim only at the training session when the trainer is looking at you and other girls are hitting your toes as they catch up to you in the lane. Swimming cap and goggle makes SO much difference to speed and comfort.

Before the actual triathlon, there's a tri-course designed to help you train up for the race and where you get tips on technique and just time allocated in your week to actually run, swim or cycle. You're supposed to have at least one other session in your own time to train for each of the events. It's quite a crazy amount of training, especially for someone who's never really even had a regular physical activity regime since I was in year 8. Anyway, it would have been way more difficult if Yen wasn't there to go swimming and cycling with!

The triathlon and tri-course is for women only and it's also structured for those who have never competed in a triathlon before so the vibe in these training sessions are pretty relaxed. We still get that motivating push from the trainers but it's still a very easy going environment. Some of the girls would ask each other "What made you get into this?". Most girls had similar goals, which were to be fit and of course be able to finish the race. Yen had done the course last year and was saying how good she felt being active and I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to encourage each other. So not only was fitness and training with Yen the motivations but I think after getting back from Japan I felt like I needed to run around in the wide open spaces! I have a picture of a dog running around trying to get air in it's hair after a bath. hehehe They go mental! But yeah, in terms of Japan, moving from one crowded boxed in place to another does something to you I guess. Makes you wanna shake out your dusty limbs.

Our tri-singlet. It's a bit hardcore. I think I'll save it for race day.

Our swimming instructor told us to write our names on our caps only because there are so many of us at the one session (around 30?). Since mine was black I had to make do.

I actually started eating power bars! I've always pictured the hard core beefcakes with thick necks, arms and popping veins chowing these down, but look at me I'm eating them too! Not beefcakey nor veiny. The tri-course booklet outlines appropriate snacks you should have straight after your training session. They list things like yoghurt and fruit, 750 mL gatorade, sports bar etc.. I just figured sports bars are lot easier to carry around with your when it's hot rather than yoghurt and fruit.

The container thingie is this powdered drink thing that's also great for recovery after a training session. It's kind of nasty but you get used to it and I only bought it because I couldn't find powered gatorade, but I've since been shown where it is in Coles! This bucket of powdered energy I bought is sooo expensive. It's like two and a half times more expensive than the powdered gatorade! I didn't know that until later so I figure I got swindled, although I admit it does help you not feel as buggered the next day.

my wheels

So the two little Yens have...just over 5 weeks to prep for the upcoming race. Holy Moly. That's so soon.

We can do it, Yen! :)