Training Wheels to Triathlon

It’s never too late… to do anything you put your mind to.

All kids grew up learning to ride a bike and go swimming, right? Not me, I was that awkward kid that sat on the side lines and used excuses like I don’t have a bike, it’s cold or I’m busy when the real reason was I didn’t know how and I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.

Needless to say, I wasn’t the healthiest or most active kid. I was what you would call an indoor plant, I spent my days on the couch in front of the TV. For this post I won’t go into detail about my health journey (but let me know in the comments below if you are interested). Let’s fast forward a few years and I am now a pretty fit (well I think so) and active person.

As my love for living a healthy lifestyle grew there were more and more things I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be held back by a lack of some pretty basic life skills.

Then it dawned on me, “if a kid can do it, so can I!”.

First off I set out to learn to swim… yep that’s right I grew up in Australia and didn’t know how to swim. Then I learned to ride a bike.

But what now? What did I do with my new skills?

Not much to be honest haha. I ticked those goals off and moved on with my life.

A new year approached, and I started to reflect on what I had achieved and what was is in store for next year. It was only then did I start to think about why I wanted to learn these skills in the first place. I wanted to go to the beach with my friends and go past where I could stand, and I wanted to go for bike rides when on holidays.

It is one thing to know how to do it and another to be confident, and that confidence only comes with practice.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to do things that I am not good at, so when I had the option of either going for a run, doing a HIIT class at the gym or riding a bike - let’s just say the bike never won.

I needed a goal, something to motivate me… I got it, I’ll do triathlon! (let’s be realistic, I didn’t go and sign myself up to an Iron Man, goals need to be achievable, right?). Luckily there are lots of options if you are interested in doing a triathlon such as an Enticer or a Sprint which are much shorter for people wanting a teaser before getting into the hardcore stuff.

So, what was next? I decided what I should do, but something was still holding me back…

Fear;

Fear of drowning;

Fear of crashing; and

Fear of just sucking in general.

Think after a while my partner got sick of me talking about it, and just signed me up. He also signed up with a couple of friends and this is when it started to get real. I didn’t want to let him down and I am super competitive so wanted to do well too.

Then I realised that was the kick in the bum I needed, you need to find what drives you and for me it is competition.

2nd November 2019 in Huskisson it was going down if I liked it or not. I am not one to back out once I commit so that was it, I had no choice, I had to do it but more importantly, I wanted to do it!

Once the date got close, it started to feel more and more real, and I tried to squeeze in any chance I could to go for a ride or a swim. Weekends just weren’t enough. I was riding before work and going for swims on my lunch break. Every bit counted. I was not going for a record time, I just needed lots of practice so when that gun went off I was confident that I put in the hard yards and could say to myself “I can do this”.

Guess what?

I did it. I didn’t go breaking any records, but I ran my own race and I have never been prouder of myself.

Looking forward to my next challenge!