The Next Mountain: The Triathlon
They say that you are a product of your environment. They say that you become who you are by the choices you make and the people you surround yourself with. Well, I am friends with psychopaths. I mean that in the most loving way. But seriously, they are all psychos. So, in theory, by default, I guess that makes me one too.
Here is the latest example. I was lifting. It was a casual lift day. I was going to get in some light upper body to set up the rest of the week. Then I get a text out of the blue from an old teammate, “Considering doing an at-home triathlon.” Damnit. In my head, I thought that a triathlon was Ironman distances (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, 26.22-mile run) and I texted back, “That’s a long day, my friend.” We aren’t going to do this, I’m fine. Then he hits back with the Olympic distance numbers. Swim 1.5km (0.93 miles), Bike 40km (25 miles), Run 10km (6.2 miles). Fuck. That’s not half bad…
I continued with my lift. I pace in-between sets. Typically thinking about whatever happened that day. “6.2 mile is a cakewalk. I average 13–17 miles in a 45-minute peloton class. I actually can’t swim that long. But it’s only .93 miles..” I texted my other buddy, who just recently moved to LA. “You have a pool, right? Vilaubi wants to do a triathlon.” He confirmed that they had an open pool, and he was immediately intrigued. We went over the numbers, and his response was, “Well, let’s do the swimming section on Wednesday.” What. “It can’t be that bad; let’s give it a try.” Fine. Mind you, I haven’t swum laps since my senior year of college, and even then, I did that infrequently. The first day of training, set.
None the less, here we are. I went back to Hal Higdon and got his Triathlon 2 training course. We set the date of October 3rd. I don’t have a road bike. I don’t have any triathlon “clothes.” I’m not sure I know how to stay afloat that long. But, again, here we are from one endurance race to the next.
In all honesty, I am looking forward to getting back out there. There is something about pushing your body to the limit and pushing yourself past what you thought was possible. There is something to flipping that switch from civilized corporate drone to primal animal.
October 3rd. Course to be determined. You can catch Jonathon Hernandez, Aaron Vilaubi, and I in some tight ass outfits cutting through water and pounding pavement, looking forward to telling the story. Stay tuned.
