Before I could walk I could swim. My mom threw both my sister and I in the pool when we were just babies. Now although I don’t recommend that anyone throw a baby into a pool and expect the baby to swim, this is how we learned in our family.
My mom was a swimmer her entire life, in fact I think she might still hold some old age group records. So it was no surprise that she would raise her children to be swimmers as well. I remember from a very young age my mom, sister and I all in the pool playing what my mom use to call ‘little duckies’. Since I was the youngest I always had to swim behind my sister and constantly got water kicked in my face and often felt like I was suffocating. I hated it! I think it was in those very young impressionable years that drove me to become a champion swimmer myself. You see, although I hated being last and getting water kicked in my face, I loved swimming.
Growing up I swam competitively in summer leagues and in high school. Year round I swam on a synchronized swim team. I started swimming year round when I was 6 years old. My family was the type of family that insisted on picking a sport and becoming the best at it. By the time I quit swimming and consequently finished high school, I traveled throughout the country and abroad competing to win different rankings in age group and senior competitions.
Because of the level I was competing at, my training schedule was rigorous. During the school year we would train before school and after school as well as extended hours on Saturdays and Sundays during competition season. Perfecting our routines was our focus. During the summers, what would be considered our off season, we would still work on our routines for the new season, but this was the time to really focus on our endurance training and cross training. We would swim, cycle, weight lift, as well as take aerobics, gymnastics, and dance classes. Ironically, I never considered any of this to be exercise; it was just what had to be done in order to be a nationally and inter-nationally ranked synchronized swimmer. When I quit swimming, I quit it all.
My experience on the Biggest Loser taught me that I wasn’t an athlete because I was a synchronized swimmer. Rather, I was a synchronized swimmer because I am an athlete at heart. An athlete in my definition is someone who operates well with and excels through having a goal and training for it. I knew that I needed to find something, a goal to strive for that would awaken my passion to train. Triathlon has provided me a training goal and so much more.
The key to success is knowing yourself and creating a goal that is right for you. I quit things when I get bored. This is not something that I am proud of, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is true! Becoming a triathlete has allowed me to mixs thing up in my training because it is three sports in one and it doesn’t get much better than that. Triathlon training is far from boring and with different races and distances I feel like I always have a new challenge ahead.
Through our journey of training together and sharing you will very quickly recognize that running is my weakest link but we are working on our relationship. I know that consistency is my best bet. Do you know your weakest link?
This week is Point A week. Point A week is check-in week. Check-in week is when you figure out where you stand in your swimming, running, and cycling. Once we know what our Point A numbers are we can make a plan, aka training program, to get to Point B which is race day! I promise you it does not matter where we find ourselves this week (Point A) we just need to know where we are starting so we can set appropriate goals and get on board with the right training program. You might be at a point where you just see how long you can continuously do each activity, that’s ok, just remember to write it down. Maybe you already do all the sports or possibly already do them all together and you are a triathlete, but you have new goals for this season. This is the week to think about your physical ability, where you want to improve and what your training and racing goals are for 2011.
Oh yeah, did I mention you will need to write EVERYTHING down? Go buy yourself a notebook that you can have with you always. Mine fits in my purse so I can carry it everywhere. It keeps me motivated and looking forward to my next workout.
Good luck, remember this is FUN 
xo, ali
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