I don’t have any triathlons or races on my calendar so you might ask me why I would set up a 7-day challenge revolving around swimming, cycling, and running. Welp, maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. Actually, there’s no maybe. As a coworker once said to me: “You pride yourself on depriving yourself.” That is definitely the case and designing a workout challenge matches up with my desire to not get too comfortable.
Also, I had sort of gotten out of any routine of cycling and/or swimming so that needed to change, at least for these 7 days. On top of that, once I get an idea in my head for ways to torture myself, it’s hard to let go. 🥴
The 7-Day Challenge: Complete 2000 yards swimming, 100 miles biking, and 20 miles running.
I knew I had my work cut out for me. Especially the swimming and cycling because it takes more effort and planning– driving to a pool, finding a safe place to cycle, that kind of thing. Running, on the other hand, you can basically step out the front door and start. To make a long story short, the one word I’d use to describe the entire thing: Tough. Multiple times on multiple days I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to complete the challenge. Especially as I neared the end. The height of my disbelief was on day 4, with only 3 days left to finish. Surprisingly, I had already completed the swimming portion, which is my weakest of the 3 disciplines, but I wasn’t even halfway on the cycling and running. There was a group bike ride on the morning of day 5 and I knew that that decision was the way the challenge would go. If I joined the group ride, I may be able to do it all. If I don’t, then I’m out and I’ll try again some other time in the future.
I didn’t do the ride.
It was over. Without doing a lot of miles on day 5, there’s no way I could do 50 miles on the bike and 20 running in just 2 days. Plus, with the weather the way it is, the window of opportunity was pretty limited here in north Florida. But then… I decided to go out for a bike ride by myself and knocked out enough miles to give myself a boost of hope. I ran a few miles the evening of day 5, too, and started to believe.
The Result: I’m not too proud to admit that finishing the challenge surprised me. Somewhere in the middle, like I said, I figured I was done and wouldn’t be able to reach the goal. So I’m *very* proud of myself for sticking with it even when I had mentally given up more than a few times! I’m not a swimmer and I’m just a hobby cyclist and runner. I really didn’t think I could do it so maybe the moral of this story is that you and I can do whatever big thing is in front of us, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And we can be encouraged, too, that even if we don’t quite hit the target, we’ve done *something*, right? What’s that saying, “Don’t let great be the enemy of good.” I’m extremely happy that I finished this challenge and I hope to do another one this week, more on that later…
Tell me about your challenges, no matter how big or small they are. Did you finish? Did you give up, like I did, about halfway through, but somehow keep going? I want to hear about it and what your thought process was throughout your experience. Write a comment below, I’ll be on the lookout!
-Out of the Wilderness
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Out of the Wilderness 