Day 1

Profile: Female, 5'5', 120lbs, Philadelphia native, currently reside in Newport Beach.

About me: I am very athletic, always have been. Soccer, basketball, softball...all ace's in my pocket. Now...triathlon= very different. Being that I can generally do most sports, I wasn't too scared of this endeavor. Great runner, never tried biking, and swimming, well, sure why not?

The Challenge: One of my really good friends beast-ed his way through his first triathlon. While he was training, I kept entertaining the thought that I might sign up, just to see if I could do it. All the while thinking, of course, no biggie, I could do this in a heart beat. Thank God I didn't sign up, because I would have been beaten up by these insane people. My friend, let's call him Dash, started out with the swim, and powered through. Dash, handled it like a pro, although he said he thought he might drown for the 1st leg. This was intense. People were on top of each other- getting kicked, elbows swinging, not to mention the swim was LONG. Let me remind you this is just a sprint. I am honestly not sure I would have made it, if I had been so foolish to sign up.

Dash, finishes with flying colors, and of course being the competitive male that he is, immediately wants to do another one. The next one, which he challenge me and his best friend, my boyfriend, let's call him Dino, is : Da da dunnnnn..... in open water. I LOATH OPEN WATER.

Dash and Dino are all about it. I live in Newport Beach, own a surf board, and have been surfing only a handful of time, because I have this insane fear of open water. Put me on the east coast and I'll swim in the ocean all day, but the west coast...no way. I have watch too many seasons of shark week- thanks a lot discovery channel. Now when I say this is a fear- that's an understatement. I have nightmares about sharks. I can't concentrate while I am surfing, and being that I am small and my board is 6'8" I usually just curl my whole body on the board and float. I try for the occasional wave, just to kept coolness level afloat, and pray for Dash and Dino to say they are done with surfing for the day so we can go in.

I've decided it's time to get over this fear. Maybe after this, I can put my very expensive surf board to good use.

Day 1 is a Monday, which all the training sites have listed as a day off- easy breezy. I am using a program that I got off of trifuel.com.