My wife, Jennifer, is to blame for this. Her motto is “Pain is weakness leaving the body”, which I’m sure is the main reason she likes triathlons. She was the motivation behind me doing my first triathlon, and now she has encouraged me to do 2 of them, back-to-back. The good news is that I am in better shape than I’ve ever been. The bad news is that the triathlons are 36 hours apart…the first is a small sprint triathlon in Boise on Thursday night…the second is a slightly bigger one in Emmett on Saturday morning.

As if the challenge of mentally and physically being up for this endevour weren’t enough, I woke up yesterday morning with a severly inflamed and tight neck and shoulder area. I guess the 2 bike rides, 4 mile run, and 1/2 mile swim on Saturday caught up to me. A couple trips to the chiropractor yesterday got me on the way to recovery, but I missed the all-important training day, leaving me only 48 hours to recover after tonight’s workout. My original plan was to workout hard last night, then recover for 3 days, hit it hard on Thursday and hope there was enough gas left in the tank for Saturday. At this point I’m hoping to “limp” my way through a workout tonight without causing anymore stress on the shoulders, and hope that everything is back to normal by Thursday.

If pain truly is weakness leaving the body, tonight’s workout should be enough to prove it right. Either way I’ll be in Emmett on Saturday…I’ve managed to avoid ice cream for 5 weeks now and I promised myself a great big milkshake after the Emmett tri. One way or another, I’ll be there for the milkshake… 🙂

Donnie and Dave Perry are both taking part in the action Thursday night, and Donnie, along with Jennifer, were brave enough to sign up for Emmett as well. For those who might not be familiar with triathlons, there is a great video below that captures the true spirit of the swim portion of triathlons.

The real motivation for getting in shape for a triathlon is elk season, which is less than 4 weeks away. Three weeks from Saturday, the pain we’ve experienced and effort we’ve put into it will all be worthwhile when we head to elk country with bows in hand. Pain is temporary…the memories from elk season last an entire year!