Why this blog?

I've been thinking about blogging for a while now. I got inspired by my friends Kat and Lin whose blogs were/are fun to follow. But because I spend so much of my day at a computer, I never could bring myself to spend even more time hunched over the evil but necessary machine in order to blog my thoughts. Plus my best thinking is done at times when I'm no where near my computer. Like hiking or swimming or in the shower...

I like the idea of journaling my thoughts, which I've never been good at doing. And while this blog is probably going to be more of a place to keep notes about my training and not so much about my deep thoughts, it is a start.

I'm suddenly inspired to take action for several reasons. First off, I've signed up to do my first triathlon and I want to keep notes about my training so that I can go back over them to see trends and learn from myself. (My friend Lexy is my inspiration in this respect). Second is that as part of my commitment to this triathlon is a commitment to raise at least $2900 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And since I will be asking a lot of friends and family to donate to this worthy cause, I thought some of you might enjoy keeping up with my training progress.

My current plan is to participate in the Wildflower Triathlon at Lake San Antonio, Monterey County, CA on May 3-4, 2008. My current plan is to participate in the olympic distance event. (.9 mi-swim, 24.8 mi-bike, 6.2 mi-run). I use the phrase "my current plan is.." because I'm toying with the idea of doing the half-iron-man event (1.2 mi-swim, 56 mi-bike, 13.1 mi-run) but that would take a lot more intense training. And while each of the distances seems quite doable to me, I'm not so sure about doing them one after another. Sure, I've ridden 56 miles before, but did I then go run 13 miles afterwards?? (wait. have I ever run 13 miles before?) A half iron-man might be a tad ambitious for my first triathlon. Especially after hearing how many hills there are on the Wildflower's bike and run courses. Another thought I have is to do the olympic distance at Wildflower and then sign up for another triathlon later in the summer and tackle the half-iron-man then. There's also some off-road triathlons that sound much more intereting to me ("off-road" meaning mountain biking & trail running) Stay tuned as my training progresses.

You may have noticed I also used the phrase "my current plan is.." when referring to the Wildflower Triathlon. That is a weekend that KC has a big show in L.A. and ideally I would go with him to L.A. I didn't realize the conflict until after I'd signed up for the tri. The particular group that I'm training with - Team In Training - has several event options: The Wildflower, King's Trail, and Escape from Alcatraz. Escape is out of the question for me because it is for experienced triathletes who have "earned" their own registration to the event. I wasn't considering King's Trail because it is in Maui and I've always kind of thought that people who are fund raising so that they can go to an event in an exotic location are doing it more for themselves and not so much for the cause. But now that I realized the conflict in my schedule, I may consider doing the King's Trail event. It may depend on how my fund raising goes. (I think you have to raise $5400 for that one). I may also decide to fund the difference myself. Again, stay tuned as my training and fund raising progresses.