One of the Reasons I love Being a Triathlete!

When I first moved to triathlon from running only I was frustrated.. really frustrated.. all the time.  I was good at running, I knew running.  I loved the simplicity of running and the fact that within 2 minutes I could be out the door in my shoes and on the road.  All of the sudden I needed a whole caravan of items just to make it out the door to bike and I don't know HOW many times I would forget something (insert sunglasses, gels, my phone etc. etc.) and have to go BACK inside and get my stuff.  Even swimming, oh.. swimming.. how many items you need and the driving time!  Not so simple!

I was slow at the other sports and I always felt behind (like as soon as I got in the water and through the rest of the day!).  One thing I did like though is that over time things got easier and my training sessions got more fun.  I started training with others and enjoying a laugh.  Another pastime was taking the occasional picture with the alpacas along the way with Heidi Austin or other friends which helped immensely!

During Masters swim I learned to be pushed by other swimmers and although I was slow, make a little progress day in and day out.  This summer has been pretty good for training with friends.  Sure, sometimes schedules won't work out, but when they do (especially for the bike) it really has been awesome.  Lisa, Jocelyn and I are the three amigos and I can come away feeling like not only I've gotten the work done, but I've had a little therapy as well!!

Last week I was able to coordinate with Beth for a bit of our 6 hour rides and we had a great time. Beth is a really strong rider so I was lucky enough to catch her on an easy day where she could do more chatting and less killing me up the hills :)  I had a tougher section where I was supposed to go harder at the end of my ride so it worked out perfectly for us to do our middle 3 hours together.

At one point I suggested we take a quick picture but I'm real coordinated with the camera and trying to actually get myself IN the picture (not so much).  I mean, I'm not Sonya over here who can take a picture while riding and posing on her bike!!  She's unbelievable at it!!  I should take a class from her.

Anyway, I was trying to hit the picture button (which I can't see and is on a touch screen on the other side of the phone) so I was convinced I wasn't get ANY of our photos since I couldn't hear it click.  I made Beth just stay there until I thought I maybe got one photo.. looks like we got a few more..

We both started laughing because I just knew I was not nearly doing a good enough job and I was probably going to get a picture of my eyeball or nostril only!   I forced her to just stay while I kept trying to get the dang thing to click!!  No dice!  I heard nothing!!

Later after I finally gave up on the fact that is wasn't going to work did I see we had like six different pictures like we in one of those photo booths or something!  It was pretty funny.  Hat's off to the smart girl who doesn't know how to run her camera.

That's one of the things I just love about the sport though, the people.  Sure, I love competing but meeting new friends, fellow bloggers, staying with homestay families and training with fellow athletes is so fun.  It really makes it for me.  Riding with Beth is great because it challenges me and I get to catch up on her life and talk about surviving our rookie years as fellow professionals just trying to have fun and learn how to compete at this new level.  It's a real blessing to have so many people in my area I can train with and just get to know.  I don't know how I got so lucky!

Hope everyone's training is going well.. I'm feeling pretty beat at the moment but hoping to pull myself together for a fast 5k tomorrow!  We'll see if these little legs remember how to run after a crazy week!!

Here's to FRIENDS!  They make our lives more interesting, fun and we are always thankful when they come around :)