Yesterday, I completed my first triathlon, and I’ve caught the bug.

I was nervous about completing all three events, and whether I’d be zapped of energy when it came to the run.

But it all worked out well. As I expected, swimming was the biggest challenge for me, and this was accentuated by having to share a lane in the pool.

Also, the first transition was a little tricky, as I went from being soaked to putting on my Nike Dri-FIT two-in-one running shorts. Note to self – they’re pretty hard to put on when wet.

But after that, it was smooth sailing with the bike and run.

It was so gratifying to complete it, and I’m going to look at a schedule now for future events in the area.

Tomorrow I am taking on my first triathlon. Now before you even have to wonder, I’ll tell you – no, it’s not an Ironman Triathlon.

The Ironman is the one you see on TV sometimes, and it consists of a 2.4 miles (3.86 km) swim, a 112 miles (180.25 km) bike and a marathon (26 miles 385 yards, 42.195 km) run, raced in that order and without a break.

My triathlon is an Indoor Tri at my gym and it’s significantly scaled down.

This triathlon consists of a 10 minute swim in the lap pool, a 30 minute bike in the Cycle Fitness Studio, and finally a 20 minute treadmill run.

I get 10 minutes of transition time after the swim and 5 minutes of transition time after the bike portion.

You think it sounds easy, do you? I did, too. Then I started training for it a month ago. This is a tough task for a fat dude.

But I’m up for it, and I can’t wait to be able to say “been there, done that, got the t-shirt.”

I am swimming a few times a week these days in preparation for a triathlon in less than two weeks.

But there’s a problem. I taught myself to swim as a kid, and I don’t think I was a very good teacher.

I’ve noticed when I am at the pool that everybody else seems to swim fast and efficient, while I am slow and clumsy.

And I get tired really easy – like I need to take a short break after each 25 meter length kind of tired.

So, as embarrassing as it is to have to take swim lessons, I think it’s time. Ugh.

I’ve created a profile on dailymile to track my progress as I train for my first indoor triathlon in the coming month.

It’s a neat community where you can sync with Nike+ for runs and manually input details for swimming and biking.

The site includes an option to have each update automatically post to Facebook and/or Twitter. I have my account set to post the updates on my Twitter account @thefatblog.

See my profile at http://www.dailymile.com/people/affiliatetip.

Just a couple weeks until my triathlon.

I just signed up for the Life Time Fitness Indoor Triathlon, taking place March 14, 2010 in Berkley Heights, NJ at Life Time Fitness.

Granted, this isn’t an Ironman Triathlon by any means – it only spans an hour total, but it’s a new challenge and I’m excited for it.

This particular triathlon consists of a 10 minute swim in the lap pool (good this is first, because it’s my weakest area), a 30 minute bike in the Cycle Fitness Studio (probably not so bad, but I never really ride the bike), and finally a 20 minute treadmill run (should be a piece of cake, though I always run fresh, and I won’t be here).

Time to add in some swimming and biking to my exercise routine.

I started running back in the early summer last year. It was partly out of being stubborn.

One day, I decided to go for a run. This was totally random, since I hadn’t run since 1993 or so.

So, I was running and felt like I was about to die after a half mile. That day I decided I needed to get in better shape, and I made plans to complete a 5k race about 6 weeks later.

Long story short – I’ve run three 5k races since then, and I just got to a new level on my Nike Running account. I’ve run over 150 miles now.

I am working on running longer and more often. Feel free to check out my progress at http://my.nike.com/affiliatetip and give me grief if I slack on it.

I went to the gym today to run a couple miles on the treadmill. It was my first run of the new year, and I was anxious to kick off the year.

But so were tons of other people – all of the college kids and New Years resolution makers crowded the place.

And then I had some bad gas, which isn’t a great thing in the gym on any day, but worse when it’s packed.

If you’re not familiar with Walter the Farting Dog, it’s about this dog who is making lethal fart and his owners want to get rid of him. So he tries to hold them in. Ultimately, there is a big explosion at the end, which takes out some robbers, and Walter is the hero.

Anyhow, that was me holding it, but no funny ending.

I can’t wait until the gym clears out again in a couple weeks.

I haven’t run outside since mid-November, and I got excited when I saw that it was 50 degrees today.

I figured it was a good time to get some fresh air and run someplace besides the treadmill at the gym for once.

But shortly after starting, I was struggling as I took big pulls of cold air and ran against the wind.

This wasn’t the refreshing and comfortable run I planned on. Rather than my usual 2 or 2.5 miles, I dropped off at 1.5 miles.

Back to the gym until it warms up in the spring… or I forget how I don’t like cold running.

We’re just a few weeks away from the diet frenzy that kicks off January 1 each year. But why pile it on now and work harder next year?

I fully accept that I’ll be more of a pig this month than usual with the parties, gifts, etc. throughout December, but there is no reason to just straight out gain.

It’s a stressful season – well, it isn’t to me, but I always hear that – so get some workouts in to alleviate that stress and burn off some of the egg nog, candies, cakes, etc.

I am actually planning to step up my activity this month to compensate for the added calories, and keeping consistent is the way to go.

I seem to pick a lot of songs with sounds that sometimes freak me out while running – the worst is when I think I hear a siren.

Sometimes if I’m not paying attention to the music, I’ll be caught off guard by what seems to be an ambulance racing up behind me.

One that comes to mind is Ring the Alarm by Beyonce.

Read Five Freaky Sounds That You Don’t Want in Running Songs for other sounds you probably want to eliminate from your song selection when running.