My fitness journey...so far...

I used to hear about people doing triathlons, bootcamps, or even 5k races and I was so freaking impressed. Also pretty intimidated. I never thought I'd be one of those people. One of those fit people who did things like run and wake up early for bootcamp.

Ugh. Bootcamp? What kind of crazy person does bootcamp. That sounds AWFUL.

Its weird though, y'all, because I am one of those fit people.

In the sense that I workout regularly and enjoy it.

Not like an instagram fit model who has an amazing body.

Because I don't think my belly can recover from these babies. And also, I don't want to control my eating that much.

But I have run 13.1 miles. I have biked 20 miles. I have swam one mile. 

I have woken up before the summer sun to make it to a bootcamp class and left saying, "That was fun!"

And here is the thing!!! I am NOT that impressive. I am not a super fit person. I'm an average girl who decided to try something.

December 2016 was my first 5k. One of my 2016 resolutions was to run a 5k and my sister came down to run that one with me. I couldn't run the whole thing but I did it!

My second 5k was May 2017 and that is when the bug really bit me. After that race, I started waking up early to run several times a week. I worked my way through the couch to 5k training plan. I did a couple more races that summer because I was lucky enough to get free entry. Racing is what did it for me. Races are filled with fun energy and running them made me want to run even better!

In June 2017 I toyed around with the idea of doing a triathlon. I didn't have a bike and I had never swam laps. But it was a super sprint which means super short (250m swim, 9mi ride, 2mi run). I signed up with four weeks to train.

We bought a men's Schwinn Varsity at a warehouse sale.

The first time I swam laps, I couldn't last more than five minutes.

I started swimming regularly. Spinning or going for rides. And keeping up with running.

And come July 2017, I finished my triathlon feeling like a million bucks! I crossed the finish line saying, "I am a triathlete!" And I immediately wanted to do it again. But I had already signed up for another race.

I took a week off and immediately started training for my first half marathon.

That was so freaking hard. I ran three times a week and I was on the struggle bus. But thanks to my running buddy (my former boss!), and my husband for manning the household every Saturday for three months, and my sister for surprising me mid-race, I finished with pretty good time. (And an ice pack waiting for me in the car.) That was October 2017.

And that's kind of when I ran out of gas. I stopped running. Between November 2017 and May 2018, I only worked out once per week, many weeks skipping any exercise altogether. 

Buying a new bike in May 2018 and training for my July 2018 triathlon had me back in the saddle. Not quite as much as I should have and I finished my tri with worse time that I had last year.

I don't mind that though. I didn't work as hard and it showed. But you know what? I'm still proud of my time. I still did something lots of people can't do!

My current fitness goals are

-to complete an olympic triathlon

-to be able to do 10 push ups (no knees)

-to be able to do three pull ups (not chin ups!)

-to touch my toes

I started writing this blog post with this thought in mind: I'm not a fantastic athlete. 

The journey of 3.1 miles, 26.2 miles, or 140.3 miles starts with a single step. And for me, it started with a free 5k and a sister who wouldn't let me quit on my New Year's resolution.