Still exercising!

We're still continuing to train for Heather's triathlon, and looking at other ones to possibly do together later this year. (The problem with that is, by May it's already almost summer, and the idea of doing a triathlon in the summer heat is somewhat demotivating... but we're looking nonetheless!) I'm pleased and impressed (and surprised) that we're managing to stick with this so well - sure, we've missed a day here and there, but we're averaging 5-6 days a week overall, which I think is darn impressive!

We've hit a few exercise milestones over the last couple of weeks that are worth documenting. Firstly, a week ago we did our first "combination" triathlon training - we rode our bikes 5 miles to the park, swam for 15 minutes, then rode 5 miles back. It was a lot of fun, until less than a mile from home on the way back, I steered my bike into the gutter, hit the curb, and wiped out. I picked up a nice big scrape on my elbow (I'll spare you the pictures!) but otherwise escaped injury. Ever since we got the bikes, I've been waiting for the inevitable first crash, so I'm actually kind of glad to have it over with - and glad it was me instead of Heather!

Secondly, this past weekend we drove over to north Raleigh to try out the actual bike route that Heather's triathlon will follow - 9 miles through a hilly (and rather ritzy) neighborhood. We found that the hills in our neighborhood are nothing compared to the big ones on that route, and that we definitely have some more training to do. On the last big hill we both had to drop to the absolute lowest gear on our bikes just to make it up. But we did finish, and we've still got more than two months of training to go, so it's a good feeling.

Thirdly, swimming. Heather was a swimmer in school, and so it's coming back to her quite naturally as we train in the pool. Me, although I got my swimming merit badge as a boy scout, I've never been much of a swimmer, and my swimming technique has always been more of a way to stay afloat and not sink than a way to move through the water quickly. But with some good tips and suggestions from Heather, I've been rediscovering (or perhaps even learning) how to swim the freestyle, and am now at the point where I can actually swim several laps at a time freestyle without inhaling too much water. It's a good feeling. Today at the pool I covered a total of 1000 yards for what I think may be the first time ever for me - of course, I stopped between laps quite a bit, so it probably doesn't "count", but it's a start!