And thus it begins...

This officially stands as the first time I've ever posted a blog. "Posted a blog...?" That sounds more like some sort of medieval Scottish ritual than it does a 21st century technological wonder. "Did ye post th’ blog Shamus?" "Aye, that I did William. It do be postin' up somat fierce, but it do be posted."

As far as medieval Scottish rituals go, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the modern-day triathlon originated from some twisted form of torture. “Shamus! Toss th’ bloomin’ Anglish en th’ moat fer a nasty bit o’ a swim. And when they do be done, make em’ run fer a day or so. Ifn’ any o’ them do survive, farce em’ to post a blog!”

Since I was already conjecturing about the history of the triathlon, I thought I would do some quick research on the actual history as posted on BeginnerTriathlete.com. It’s not nearly as glamorous as my idea, but apparently “factual” rates pretty highly among some people. Whatever. Most of this is somewhat true.

History of the Triathlon

Triathlon’s roots can be traced back to 1974, Mission Bay, Southern California where a group of friends began training together. Amongst them were runners, swimmers and cyclists and before long training sessions turned into informal races. Directed and conceived by Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan the first Mission Bay Triathlon was held on September 25th 1974 and welcomed 46 athletes. Triathlon’s foundations had been set!

In Hawaii, 1978, an argument arose regarding which of the three disciplines required the greatest endurance. At that time Hawaii hosted The Waikiki Rough Water Swim (2.4 miles), The Oahu Bike Race (112 miles) and The Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). Originally events in themselves, they were rolled into one to become the ‘Hawaii Ironman Triathlon.’

The event attracted 15 athletes and of them only 12 crossed the finish line. By 1982 the Hawaii Ironman gained extensive coverage on ABC World Wide Sport and participation levels had increased to 580 competitors. Last year over 3000 athletes completed the grueling challenge. The fastest women finish the course in just under nine hours and the fastest men finishing in little over eight hours! The slowest competitors often die painful and ignominious deaths.

As far as my own training goes, I officially started going to the gym about a month ago (early February). My initial focus was on an overall workout – cardio a couple of days a week, with 3 or 4 days of lifting mixed in. For the first day back, I went with a friend (Jordan) who is much, much stronger than I am. We’ll see if that ends up being a stupid decision in the long-term. What I do know, is that it was, in fact, a stupid decision in the short-term. Even having gone through the “first day lifting stupidity” phase a number of times, and knowing that I would full-heartedly regret it for the next several days, the 2% machismo factor quickly overtook the remainder of my brain, and I found myself lifting “all out” in order to not be as embarrassed. I even remember thinking, “you know, even though it’s been six years since I’ve even touched weights, I’m still in decent shape all things considered.” In a result as predictable as any chick flick, I experienced new levels of excruciating muscle soreness. To give you an idea, for the next week, it was all I could do just to put on deodorant, and I had to come up with creative ways to change my shirt. Usually, it takes me about 2 weeks to get back up to the weight I lifted the first day, and from there I progress pretty steadily. It’s been a month. I’m still not even close. Jordan, on the other hand, is comfortably benching approximately twice what I can. It does wonders for the self-esteem to have the entire gym pause to watch the skinny guy struggle to lift off the plates that his buddy was just benching with ease. Sweet experience. Every time.

As far as the cardio goes, I’m now able to “run” a mile without walking, and could probably do more if it weren’t for that darned endurance thing. I ran a mile this morning, walked for 2/10ths, and then ran another half mile. The half mile section wasn’t really all that bad, so that’s encouraging. I read that you’re only supposed to increase about 10% a week when you’re working on your endurance to avoid hurting yourself, so I’m trying to learn from my weightlifting experience and ramp-up slowly.

As for the swimming, my first attempt was Wednesday, Feb. 20th. I say “attempt,” because I think it officially ranks as one of the most exhausting and humbling experiences of my life. After a grueling 40 minutes of swimming as gracefully as a Volkswagen, I finally finished 400 M. I could only do the first 250 M freestyle, but was determined to finish 400 M, so I threw in some breaststroke (a mistake), sidestroke (better), and finally, backstroke (there’s the ticket). If only I could see where I was going on my back… I followed it up one week later with my second attempt, and managed to swim 500 M in about 35 minutes - all freestyle this time. Similar to the run, the last few 50’s were actually starting to get a little easier. I’ve come to the realization that swimming is going to be more of a technique battle than an endurance event for me. We’ll see how it goes on round 3.

Scottish For Beginners