Welcome to my Road to Tri blog.  I thought it be best to separate my regular North Fitness training tips blog from my triathlon specific blog, so well here it is. 

What is a Triathlon you wonder? Quite simply it is a sporting event comprised of a swim followed by a bike ride followed by a run with the distance varying tremendously.  The shortest distance is called a sprint, and it can be as short as a 400 meter swim, 6 mile bike and 2 mile run. And the ultimate triathlon, the true test if grit called the Ironman is comprised of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run, yep that's a full marathon after already pushing yourself through the swim and bike. I was curious where the distance choice came from.  How did them come up with the distances for this race, what was the history on it.  Well I found something that sounded pretty true (unless someone knows otherwise)...

"The idea for the original Ironman Triathlon arose during the awards ceremony for the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay (a running race for 5-person teams). Among the participants were numerous representatives of both the Mid-Pacific Road Runners and the Waikiki Swim Club, whose members had long been debating which athletes were more fit, runners or swimmers. On this occasion, U.S. Navy Commander John Collins pointed out that a recent article in Sports Illustrated magazine had declared that Eddy Merckx, the great Belgian cyclist, had the highest recorded "oxygen uptake" of any athlete ever measured, so perhaps cyclists were more fit than anyone. CDR Collins and his wife Judy Collins had taken part in the triathlons staged in 1974 and 1975 by the San Diego Track Club in and around Mission Bay, California, as well as the 1975 Optimist Sports Fiesta Triathlon in Coronado, California. A number of the other military athletes in attendance were also familiar with the San Diego races, so they understood the concept when Collins suggested that the debate should be settled through a race combining the three existing long-distance competitions already on the island: the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4 mi./3.86 km), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 mi./185.07 km; originally a two-day event) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.219 mi./42.195 km).
Until that point, no one present had ever done the bike race. Collins calculated that by shaving 3 miles (4.8 km) off the course and riding counter-clockwise around the island, the bike leg could start at the finish of the Waikiki Rough Water and end at the Aloha Tower, the traditional start of the Honolulu Marathon. Prior to racing, each athlete received three sheets of paper listing a few rules and a course description. Handwritten on the last page was this exhortation: "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life", now a registered trademark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_Triathlon)."

Pretty cool huh? I thought so, so when a friend asked me to do a triathlon with her this year I figured sure why not I can already ride pretty fast and I have a running history from high school and college.  How bad could it be?  Then she told me she wanted to do Vineman an Ironman distance triathlon.  So come this July 28th at 7am I will begin the biggest endurance challenge I have done to date.  Check out the info on the Vineman Triathlon here...http://www.vineman.com/triathlon.htm.

I have already spent about a month and a half of pre training is what I am calling it.  What is this pre training you might be wondering?  Well that is quite simple, think preventive exercise and you have it.  Since the beginning of December I have been working on strengthening my body so it can withstand the stresses it will be placed under during these next 6 months of training.  Some of the stuff that is included but not limited to has been starting with an evaluation to find any muscle/flexibility imbalances, then moving to a few exercises to address those issues.  I am just about half way through that segment of my training.  However that doesn't mean I will stop completely those specific flexibility/mobility exercises, quite the contrary those will need to be addressed throughout my entire time training leading up to the Ironman event.

Stay tuned for more training recaps and thoughts on my training process.  Thanks for reading.