what’s beautiful: facing my fears
**This post is written as part of the FitFluential and Under Armour What’s Beautiful campaign. Feel free to follow me as I complete challenges along the way, or start your own and join a team.**
I’ve had a triathlon on my Fitness Bucket List for awhile now. Ever since my stress fracture 7 years ago, I’ve been contemplating training for a triathlon. I think after any runner faces an injury, they think about or start doing triathlons since cross training usually occurs on a bike or in the pool. Seven years have come and gone, several injuries have occurred since then, and guess what? I still haven’t even started training for a triathlon. *sigh*
One of my goals for the Under Armour What’s Beautiful campaign is to train for an complete a sprint triathlon. But, I talk a big talk. I say that’s my goal, but honestly, I’m scared to death to actually go through with it. I’ve gone back and forth about actually attempting my goal, for a few reasons.
1. The bike.
I know I’ve talked about it before but I’m scared to death of the biking part of the tri. Mostly because of my fear of falling or being hit by a car. I know it’s going to be my weakest sport, and I’m totally OK with that, as long as I survive.
But, the bike is also an issue for me because I simply don’t own one. I have a really old mountain bike that I rode around in college – that’s really not going to cut it for a triathlon. The fact is, I’m cheap. I don’t want to spend a ton of money on a road bike if I’m only going to train for 1 triathlon (we’ll see if I actually like it enough to train for a second one). I’ve been scouring Craigslist for used road bikes, but I really have no idea what to look for. I checked out Walmart and found 2 that looked decent and weren’t ungodly expensive, but I still have to check the reviews. There’s a lot of what-if’s hanging around this one issue and unfortunately, it is holding me back a little from putting my heart into training for this.
2. Losing my speed.
I am a runner through and through. I’m a self-proclaimed addict to running. I need it in my life. While I’ll still be running while training for a tri, I won’t be running nearly as much, and I definitely won’t be doing nearly as much speed work as I usually do with my running. And that scares the heck out of me.
I’ve worked really hard to get to where I am in regard to my running. I’ve trained my little rear off to get back my speed after pregnancy and I’m so happy with where I am at right now with my running. I still have that dream of breaking 20 minutes in the 5K again and I know that despite not wanting a second child right now, the clock is ticking as to when we start trying again. And I really want to break 20 again before then.
Training for a tri means less time running and less speed work. I am so scared that I am going to lose that speed. It’s so dumb, I know, but I can’t help but thinking that. Like I’m going to go crazy because I will be running one less day per week than I normally do. Who says I can’t do speed work while training for a triathlon? No one, but for some reason I think this. Seriously. *sigh*
But, I’m going to do this. This is my time to do it. I have all summer to train. I have a triathlon picked out for mid-August. I have my training plan set and ready to go (I’ll share that next week). I can get around not having a bike for awhile while I search to find the right one for me. I found a swimsuit that will be perfect for lap swimming as well as transitioning into biking and running.
I’m determined to do this. To achieve my goal. To overcome my biking and training fears. Now’s my time to shine and prove to myself that I can push myself outside of my comfort zone. I will.
What fears do you have about training for athletic events, like races or triathlons? How do you overcome those fears?