A note to (scared) newbies and the overweight

this book changed my life

On Tuesday night I attended the first session of our mommys/babes in motion team training and we had a lot of new people. I remember the newbie feeling last year, another way to put it would be SCARED TO DEATH. I heard afterwards that a few of the girls were thinking that they were out of their league but if I could get some time with them I would tell them a few things that I have learned along the way. (these are also good reminders to myself). 

The run tonight sucked but you DID IT! Who cares if you walked it all, you were out there. 

It does hurt but it gets better, ummmm probably not tomorrow. ;-) 

You will run a bit more the next time and a bit more the time after that.

If you think next week will be easier because you'll be more prepared, in a better frame of mind, **insert any old excuse here**, you won't.

A year from now you'll wish you started today. 

This is supposed to be fun, if you honestly don't like it, find something else, dance, weight lifting, walking, just swimming, just biking, anything. But I gotta say, triathlons are just plain cool. 

Find a coach, join a team, it's much easier to get out there if you have loads of people waiting for you and it's the most fun when you cross the finish line and they are all there screaming your name. 

Swimming, biking and running seem to hurt less when you know everyone around you is in pain too. 

The high afterwards last for hours. 

It will still be tough to get out the door the next day for another work out, do it anyway. 

If you start thinking about it, STOP THINKING. It's very easy to talk yourself out of a workout. 

Connect with like minded people. Why am I still doing this after all this time? I have connected to some amazing people that I really look up to.  They motivate me and understand my goals are not the same as theirs. If I bike or run what is for me, a long distance and am super freaking excited about it, they are even more excited than I am!!! And these people are hard core, my long distances are a drop in the bucket compared to what they do. 

DO NOT compare your training to anyone elses. What did YOU accomplish, how did YOU feel, what's on YOUR schedule this week. 

If you miss a workout don't sweat it (haha), can you make it up? If yes, go for it, if no let it go.. Don't go on and on about the miss, shit happens, LIFE happens. 

You won't find a better community than the running/biking/triathlon community for welcoming and supporting newcomers. 

Accept that you won't look like Chrissie Wellington in a month, most of will never get close, ever. 

Accept that your body, even unfit and/or overweight can accomplish amazing things. 

If you practice it gets better. 

If it's getting easy you're not working hard enough, increase your challenge. 

Pick a short term goal and work towards that. 

Screw the scale, how do you feel? 

If you eat Mickey Dees tonight, your run tomorrow will suck, just sayin'. This is not to say that Mickey Dees is always out of the question. 

Get involved. I have more fun volunteering than I do even racing.. ok it's equal fun really but volunteering is great and connects you with so many people you might not meet otherwise.

Get over yourself, I look absolutely terrible in a bathing suit/tri suit/cycling kit but I do it anyway. Once you do it the first time I can't say it gets easier BUT you care less. Now I spend my time thinking about how well I'm going to do or what I want to accomplish rather than 'oh my god look at my ass!!!!' Ok, I admit I still think 'oh my god look at the size of my ass' but my ass ain't gonna get any smaller sitting on the couch.

And when you see a newbie with that look in their eye, pass the message along, show them some support. 

with love, that's all I got...