Time to put the women and children to bed and go looking for dinner

It's official. I've decided to do the Lake Geneva Triathlon this year. It will be September 9, 2006 in beautiful Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The roommate and the nurse have a little bet going on for an Olympic length tri, but all bets aside, I just want to beat everyone I know in the damn thing.

Here's the thing. I've never competed in an endurance event in my life. Yes, I am a soccer player and you would think I would be good at endurance sports. You would be wrong. In the words of Yogi Berra, "it's 90% mental. The other half is physical."

Not that I don't have the physical ability to be an endurance athlete. My coaches always said that physically I was built for the 800 and the mile. I have just never had the mental ability to focus and pace myself. The longest race of my life was 800 meters, half a mile. I only did that probably 10 times too, and it was hell. The 400 was my bread and butter...a long all-out sprint.

The swim is what worries me, but I won't start training for that for another couple of months so I have time to get back to the level of fitness I'm going to need first. Plus I want to get my weight back down. I dropped 20 pounds this past summer riding the bike and playing soccer, but I've put 10 back on. I'd like to get down around 150 or just under by August so that I'm not carrying that extra 10-15 pounds on the bike and the run. I'll need the extra energy because I'll surely be behind after the swim.

So tonight, it's back on the trainer. The goal for today is to keep the cadence up around 80-90 rpms and the mph above 19 for 40 minutes or so and then finish out the 25 miles however I can. I figure I'm going to need to crank around 20 mph+ for 75 minutes or so and there is no telling what the hills will be like since none of us have ever done this tri.