First off, I'm not going to be doing weekly workout reviews. Rest assured, I'm still keeping up with everything. Just nothing new or exciting is going on with the workouts. If there's something new to report on that front, I will. The next big event I have on the schedule will be in February.
In the mean time, I will try to put up some thoughts on my efforts, in general. To that end...
Last week, I got called an athlete. Me and athlete have never been put together in the same breath before. My previous athletic endeavors have been limited to playing softball in fifth and sixth grades. And I played catcher, so it wasn't like I had to run around the field a lot. For my two PE requirements in college, I took fencing and gymnastics. So while I still consider myself a novice in my athletic endeavors, I can see how far I've come in five months.
I can run continuously for over an hour. I've done a triathlon (it wasn't pretty, but I did it). I've run faster than I ever have before (or since) in a 5K. I rode my bike 66 miles over two days (at a decent pace, too).
There hasn't been any big trick to it. I had a plan and I had a gradual build-up to my goal (which was originally just the running). And I definitely see results. I couldn't have done as well with the biking this weekend without the conditioning I got with the running.
So, yeah. I guess I'm an athlete.
