Day one, square one

I'm starting. Today is day one of many on the road to the ironman. The ideal plan is to be able to register for the November Ironman in Tempe this year. My triathlon experience? Swimming a whole lot since I was roughly 6 years old, biking on the same very heavy/sturdy/old-ish bike to school in 5th grade and now to run random errands. And last, running on occasion when my knees cooperate. Have I ever completed or attempted a triathlon therefore? No. But, respecting my 10 to 15 year old dreamer self, I'm gonna go all out and tackle an ironman.

The plan:

swimming- no excessive training until a month or so before, 2.5 miles should be cake-ish, but I will need to get into better swimming shape beforehand.

Biking- recovering from an embarrassing accident on my mountain bike that occurred on New Years day (hello and welcome, 2010) thanks to a few kids on skateboards who didn't feel like sharing the sidewalk with me causing me to catch my tire at a bad angle and thus flip, spill, tumble. Injuries were minor -the most annoying being a sprained thumb- also consisting of a healthy shin gash and a solid pancake of a bruise; one on each leg...yay symmetry.

So, plan is to get over myself and my fear...and my naivete regarding biking, buy a solid reliable road bike, and git crackin.

Running- I figure I'll need to be able to run a marathon in the ironman, so that is the most official and organized part of this process for now. I am registered (yes, this is one way of making myself commit) for a marathon in May- exactly 16 weeks away. A friend of mine loaned me a book, "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" which outlines exact running distances for 16 weeks to be able to run a marathon at the end. Reiterating my opening thoughts- today is day one.

My major apprehension about this whole thing is getting injured. A close second is boredom. I've swam long enough and been hypnotized by the bottom of a pool long enough to know that boredom can keep me from achieving what I'd like to achieve. But more real a barrier would be my history of injuries. Knee surgery in Nov. of 2008 has made my span of trouble-making so much wider. Before this surgery I couldn't run period. Scar tissue made a lovely grinding-crunching sound shortly followed by a grinding-crunching-bone-on-bone feeling....mmmmmm...

Now, I've tested it out, and so far- SOOO good:)

So here it goes. Today will be my 3 mile run. I rowed for a couple hours this morning which I think will help with my knee stability and cardiac endurance.

This weeks goal: Don't go overboard and injure yourself at the beginning...ice and stretch as my body gets used to this new routine.