I am lucky enough to be a #sweatpink Ambassador @
FitApproach. I have met (cyber-met) a lot of great ladies. All of whom are active, encouraging and cool!
Katie @
Healthy Heddelston a Sweat Pink ambassador's set up a Blog Swap between those who signed up.
I was lucky enough to be paired with Cristina over at
Triathlon Mami. I am also lucky to have Cristina be a part of our Twitter #plankaday support group. We are a group of approximately 8 tweeter's who help encourage each other in many ways, including getting our planks done every day. Cristina posts the best Youtube videos. You have to go watch some of them!! Her birthday post and a post this past week, were hilarious! This girl is funnyyyy!
Triathlon Mami's Youtube greatness
So I am very excited to introduce you to Cristina ~ who was kind enough to blog about her experience with Triathlon's
Enjoy!!
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Triathlon is a great sport to hide in since it consists of three disciplines meshed into one. If you were a great swimmer, cyclist or runner you would focus on your sport and do great. If you are none of the above, then you can practice this sport where no one is an expert at anything except endurance and determination.
I totally hide behind triathlon. I struggle in cycling and in running, yet put them together with swimming and somehow it’s a combination I can commit to. I LOVE endurance, I don’t just like it. I grew up in Brazil where it is very hot, and I would love doing sports in the brutal midday sun. I sweat more than most and I feel like a champion fighter when I am done with a workout. So these two things combined – my relative lack of talent and my love of heat exhaustion – makes me a perfect triathlon addict.
Training for a triathlon is also much more fun than if I had to spend the same amount of time training for one of the disciplines. My cross training is incorporated directly into my schedule! I train with a group, Tri2One, in Miami, Florida.
We train seven days a week. It is somewhat hard core, but triathlons are sort of all-or-nothing. You need to practice swimming so as not to drown, cycling so as not to fall, and running so as not to walk the end. Then you need to practice doing one after the other, and then practice to doing each thing for longer periods of time. There is a lot to think about and a lot to do so you just have to grin and bear it, or don’t do it.
I prefer the longer distances because again, my lack of speed can be hidden in the sheer volume of the miles. I have done sprint triathlons typically (1/4mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) and dislike them. I finish them gasping for air like a beached whale taking its final breath. I don’t like fast. I am okay with Olympic distance typically (.9mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6 mile run), but so far my favorite distance has been the half ironman or 70.3 (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). I did one last year, I am currently training for one in November 2012 and having completed it propelled me to aim for a full IronMan distance (140.6 miles) in 2013.
Now, with two young children, a husband (who sometimes is considered a third child), and a job, training can be difficult. My way of dealing with it is waking up at the crack of dawn, meeting my team usually between 5:45 or 6:00am depending on the workout, training hard and getting home by 7:20. I then have a frenzied hour to get the kids and myself out the door and into our respective classrooms (I am a teacher and they go to school). Two afternoons a week I go to a bootcamp while my kids are in soccer practice. At night, I go to bed early. By 9:00/9:30 I am either asleep or falling asleep in front of my computer screen … a good example of this would be right now.
When my husband travels, my early morning babysitter is gone. I can do the bike workouts at home as I have an indoor trainer, but otherwise I need to make up the session, somehow, in the afternoon. That’s when I call in every favor, every playdate, or family member that is available to babysit. Sometimes it doesn’t work out (bad pun yet irresistible). My first instinct is to panic, but then I realize it is not the end of the world to miss a session here or there, and if it were a key session, say a brick where you bike and then run, I try to do it another day.
My husband’s marathon training, the boys’ races and kid birthday parties interfere with weekend training. The occasional stomach virus, boogey monster, or bad dream interferes with sleep. The hopefully more occasional injury may sidetrack me here or there but in general life as a triathlete mom goes on. And to this mom in particular, hiding behind triathlons far outweighs sitting on the couch because I couldn’t swim, bike or run faster than anyone else I knew.
Thank you Cristina! You rock!!
Follow Cristina's adventures at:
www.triathlonmami.com
www.facebook.com/triathlonmami
Twitter:
@triathlonmami
Be sure to check out my blog post over at
Triathlon Mami
