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’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.

After conquering my first 5k a few weeks ago, I’ve signed up for my next one, the Berkeley Heights 5k, taking place on September 20, 2009.

I am excited about the next run, because it’s the same route as my first 5k, which punished me with hills I didn’t expect.

This time around I’ll be ready for those nasty inclines.

Also, I would like to give a shout out to Peter Shankman, author of “Can We Do That?” and head of Help a Reporter Out, as well as one of the keynote speakers at Affiliate Summit in a couple weeks.

Earlier this week, Peter completed the Nautica NYC Triathlon. An impressive and inspiring job, Mr. Shankman.

I aspire to do that one day. In the meantime, I had better focus on some 5k, 10k, and duathlon competitions.

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 217
This week: 217

Video: Training for the Next 5k Race