Attitude, healthy lifestyle, and finish your first triathlon!

Damn, that felt like just the other day, but look at me now: 110kg, belt needs another hole, shirt size needs to be recalculated because the neck size doesn't fit the body size. Next thing you know, you can't even skip up a few stairs. I know, I've been there. You keep telling yourself that you're pretty lean for your age, but an assessment will tell you differently. I found the way to change all that.

TRI-Fit is a beginner's triathlon course run by the SSISA (Sports Science Institute of South Africa) to complete a sprint triathlon: 750m swim, 20km cycle and a 5 km run. All you need is a bike, a costume and a pair of running shoes, but, most importantly, you need a "can do" attitude. Do you have a can do attitude? If not, skip this and keep dreaming about "when I was". Otherwise, this is how you do it.

First assessment and getting started

Waking up on Saturday morning to do the first assessment felt like I was doing my first Argus Cycle tour 20 years ago. Bike was in the car, got my swimming shorts ready with my biggest towel to hide the waistline, grabbed my vitamins, water bottle and off we went (managed to scrum a mate into joining me). Who knew that waking up at 5.45am would be filled with so much adrenalin, just to do an assessment?

Got to the blue floor at SSISA and was greeted by a lovely lady (our main instructor). "Welcome" she said, "first thing we do is a health check: blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, weight, height and 20 questions about general health.'' Easy, no problem.

Okay buddy, off you go to do your max power output on your bike; build up from easy and then push up to the max output you can manage, said the instructor. This took me seven minutes, but as I got off the bike I felt like I was on somebody else's legs (after only seven minutes?). Wobbly jelly was more like it. Where to now? Down the stairs and straight to the pool, where they're waiting for you to do a 200m swim. If my legs would just stop caving in I could get there, just as well I didn't use my arms in the bike test.

No touching the bottom

The goal was eight lengths non-stop, no touching the bottom and no resting. Prrrt the whistle blew. How come this pool seemed so long today? Did I really still have three laps to go? I seemed to be dragging my legs on the bottom of the pool, they're weren't propelling me forward, arms were useless by now. All I could do was hope they had a good lifeguard on duty who would come to save me

I don't know if I can do 12 weeks of this, but as I rested on my couch I felt great for completing this assessment and can't wait to get to the next session, which starts on Monday. You can do this, you can do this. Oh boy, I had no idea what I could do, but I'm glad I made the decision to get off my fat arse and do something! This is what I wanted: a healthy lifestyle, small waistline, a six pack and a positive attitude. Only I could make that decision to go again, one step at a time.

Next week I might realise just how little I have in the tank, but it does not mean I have nothing to work from; I already feel rejuvenated just from the assessment!

You are not as lean as you think, but you can change. Do a triathlon!

Catch you next week couch potatoes.

Source: www.samen.co.za