Training for a triathlon
This is a huge challenge, but as each day passes, I enjoy it more. Cycling is no problem. Rochelle worked out a program for running that I’ve been following over the last month. Silvia van Tromp is my swimming coach and I swim every Monday and Thursday morning at Virgin Active.
When I started running, Rochelle said that I should run between lamp posts. I would walk from one to the other and then run one for ten minutes. Today I ran five lamp posts and walked one for twenty-five minutes. After I had done five lamp posts, I felt so out of breath that I thought that walking one lamp post won’t be enough to rest, but when I reached it my body had gained strength to do the next five.
On 18 March there will be a fun run at our local mall, and Rochelle and I agreed that it would be our first goal of the year. We are planning to run five kilometres.
The swimming lessons are a comedy. There is so much technique. You need to focus on using your arms in a certain way and also kick. By the time I got it right, I realised that I had stopped breathing; at this point, all I could do was laugh at myself!
The cycling didn’t shift to the back seat. It is the one activity of the three that works the best for my health. I had a race on Sunday and plan on doing another this coming Saturday.
Some people can learn things from books, but I prefer to have a coach who knows what he or she is doing because I like to ask questions when I don’t understand some of the techniques.
Learning something new helps us grow and mature.
By Deon Labuschagne
