The insanity resumes

I've taken the summer off. I've eaten lousy food, haven't sat on a bicycle, maybe I ran twice, and swimming and the snooze button have collided. Well, with the passing of Labor Day, summer's over, and I have a year to prepare for next year's triathlon.

I got an unexpected surprise last weekend. Nat said, "If you do the Olympic distance tri in Chicago, I'll do the sprint." Knowing what I went through just to do the sprint last year, I was impressed. So now, there's focus.

The next step is preparation. We got personal trainer sessions as part of our membership. My goal was to find someone who could work with MY goals-finishing the race in Chicago. I've been going to gyms enough to see what kind of trainer you can get if you don't pay attention. If you want to bulk up, there's a trainer for you. If you want to do kickboxing, there's a trainer for you. If you want to just lose weight, there's a trainer for you. The problem is that I want to do some of that and more, and I don't need the person standing there every workout.

In addition, those of you who read my account of the sprint tri I did last year know that I had several problems that could be averted by experience. Having no stamina for the bike ride, for instance. Swimming erratically. Unbalanced training. These are things that somebody else could tell me I was doing wrong.

The woman I found after a spin class at 6 yesterday morning had that background. She ran a triathlon club previously, participated in several races in Berkeley and has not only raced in the event I did in April, she has another race coming up in two weeks. I was excited. I told Nat she had to meet her, and all appears smooth. She's trained people for these sorts of races before.

I told her what my milestones were: same leg of the Brass Challenge on October 16, Olympic distance at Lake Las Vegas on April 26 of next year, Olympic distance in Chicago next August. Nat explained she'd like to do the two sprints.

We agreed on a philosophy of exercise, on the timing of what we're doing, and a fee schedule. She also pointed out that if we were looking to do activities outside the health club, such as swimming or cycling, she could schedule that as well. She agreed that of all the events in triathlon, there's no simulation for open water and no simulation for the cycling.

This might just work. I tried a spinning class yesterday morning at 6 AM, which ironically would be too late in the morning on a workday because it's an hour-long class. I need cycling legs if I'm going to get where I want to go, and a spinning class will get me there. Then, maybe next week, the mornings start in the water. I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier today, and will add on fifteen minutes tomorrow, and by the end of the week, I should be ready for mornings.

By Christmas I hope to have lost thirty pounds. We'll see how it goes.