Jumping into the deep end

My husband has been pestering me for years to start a blog.  I finally decided to - because I finally have something to talk about (besides the hum drum of daily life). 

Let me start at the beginning.  I'm 37 years old.  I live in North Carolina.  I have a husband, two beautiful girls, a dog, 2 cats, and a lot of motivation.  I have never, ever done competitive sports before. I have always hated running.  I swam for fun - tried out for the swim team in high school and made it to 3 practices before I quit.  Never did more than bike around the neighborhood as a kid.  But I've got a fire in my belly to try something new.

My husband and I decided that we needed to make a serious change at the beginning of this year.  We joined Weight Watchers, and in the past 6 months I've lost 35 lbs.  I have always been active - even at my heaviest weight I was still going to the gym about twice a week and doing some exercise.  But I love food too much, and it took a strict program for me to see the benefits of that exercise.  As I've lost weight, my fitness level and intensity has increased.  I've added more weight training, and I've started running more on the treadmill.  And about 2 months ago I bought myself a new road bicycle - the first bike I've owned in about 15 years.  I've been riding around my hilly neighborhood since then, gradually increasing my distance and endurance (as well as my comfort level with 2 ton road companions).  All of these changes have inspired me to take my new body and new fitness to the next level.

I've decided to try to run a triathlon.  I'm planning to run in a sprint triathlon that will be held next spring - in May 2012.  And perhaps do a full triathlon annually held a few weeks after that.  I've got lots of time to train this old dog to do some new tricks.  I know I'm not the only one who has ever contemplated going from minimal fitness experience to a triathlon, so I decided to start a blog and take you on the journey with me.  I hope to log my experiences trying to balance training and daily life, trying to understand what training involves, what are all these strange looking pieces of equipment, how to make sense of triathlon training guides written for folks who obviously understand the details of training, when my whole sense of training involves putting on shoes and running.

So join me in this adventure.  I aim to learn a lot along the way - and hopefully inspire others out there.