off with a bang

Anyone wanna guess who this is??

If you guessed some weird sweaty girl who sneaked into the group fitness room at the gym so that she could take a selfie and then apply a strange filter to it and post it on the internet then you would be partially correct. I mean, you would be entirely correct, but there's more to the story than just that. Obviously.

That would be me, an hour ago. The very same me that just worked out SIX of the last SEVEN days.

I know, I know. Please. Really. Your applause is deafening.

I warned you: When I decide I'm going to do something, I get extremely enthusiastic extremely quickly. And when I decided that I wanted to do a triathlon, something I'm not remotely qualified to attempt...I decided to funnel the enthusiasm towards training. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty dang proud of myself this week. Not that I've made any great strides towards becoming an amazing athlete...but that I freakin' WORKED OUT six out of seven days? Yeah, I'm proud of that!! It makes me feel like I really can do this really hard, really not-me thing, if I can keep trying.

Most of my enthusiasm probably stems from the fact that starting any new 'hobby' (if this can be considered that...I certainly can't call it a lifestyle yet, so 'hobby' will have to do) involves a lot of shopping and buying, two things I'm excellent at doing. Saturday morning found Matt and I at the local used bike shop where I purchased a bike...something that will probably come in handy when trying to do a triathlon. Do I know anything about bikes? Did I do any research? Um, no, unless you consider reading all of the comments you folks wrote to be research (which I do, so thanks!). I pretty much picked the one that looked prettiest and had comfy handles. Scientific, I know. We got the bike home, I took a few spins around the neighborhood (including one major wipeout in my own lawn...apparently Lola does not like to be 'walked' by someone riding a bike and did not take things into account when she decided to take off running at top speed after a squirrel, consequently yanking me off the bike? Who knew. Please ignore my stupidity. It won't happen again for a few more days) and Matt and I were off on our first bike ride around town. We rode on quiet side streets, some trails through the woods, and our little town's downtown area (that has bike lanes and like...1 car every 5 minutes). It was fantastic and exhausting...I seem to remember bike riding as being a lot easier the last time I did it (1998ish). 

"I love when Erika gets new hobbies and buys tons of 'necessary' crap and makes me fix it all!!"--Matt

  We also got in a workout Friday night. Normally we go to the little taqueria in our town for dinner. It's about 2.5 miles away. So instead of driving, we jogged there (with a few breaks for walking and catching of breath). It was great. And then we had to walk home. That was not as great. But whatever, it was basically free exercise, and we still go to eat Mexican, so...genius, really. 

I decided that in order to really do this thing, I would definitely need one of those little arm band thingies to hold my phone. I probably shouldn't share the methods I've been using in the past to hold onto my phone if I need it when I go on a run somewhere...let's just say, they're not as socially acceptable as an arm holder thing. Or as sanitary. SO! Arm thingy it is. And I bought a little bag thingy (a lot of 'thingies' are involved with tris, apparently) that hooks on my bike so that I can tote my junk around when we're riding, too. See? I like buying things. And then I want to exercise more so that I can use all my things, so it all works out. And I downloaded the Endomondo app to track my workouts and mileage. Anyone else using that? Wanna be friends with me on it? Lemme know. There were lots of similar apps to choose from...I picked this one because it got tons of great ratings AND I thought it was funny that the word 'endo' is in the title. It refers to endorphins. Maybe I can start replacing the negative connotations of 'endo' in my brain? Probs not, but we'll try. Also it has the world 'mondo,' which I'm pretty sure is the name of those Koolaid-like beverages that were in plastic bottles with a snap-off top that we drank in elementary school? Those were the jam. So obviously my logic for selecting workout apps is as solid as my logic for everything else (picking teams, picking golfers...) in life. Glad to see that hasn't changed.

So anyway...the conclusion of this mostly-pointless post is that six days into my decision to try to do a tri, I am still really excited and into 'training' (if you can call my feeble workouts 'training,' even), which is probably some kind of world record for me. The end.

PS. Also, for those of you like my friend Casey who still find yourselves to be on 'Team Rum Drink,' (as Casey named it) as opposed to Team Triathlon, don't worry-- those are actually not two opposing teams here! Because IF I stick with the tri and go through with it...my trip to Mexico will be a few weeks after the tri, which is totally ideal because a) maybe I will be smokin' hot from the tri training, but even if not, b)I will definitely have earned a week of Team Rum Drink and Team All You Can Eat 24/7. So YEAH. I'm still on Team Rum Drink...it's just taking a back seat for a few months.