First day of the rest of my life

Hokay..SO:

I think i'll start with a little bit of background information. I have never been a competitive endurance athlete. The shirts that say "my sport is your sports punishment" in reference to cross country, were made for me. I ran for two reasons 1) I had a coach yelling at me or 2) I was trying to lose weight/stay in shape during off seasons. I grew up a baseball and basketball player, but some time in High School i realized that my future was not going to be on ESPN. When i came to college, i determined i needed some sort of motivation to stay in shape, so i started playing ultimate frisbee on our club team. For those of you that don't know, college ultimate is INTENSE
Well, after a year of midnight practices in the rain/sleet/snow, i decided that Ultimate wasn't the best thing for my education. Begin sophomore year: need new goal to stay in shape. I had seen the Team Hoyt video a few years back, and the idea of an Ironman AMAZED me. After some thought, and the fact that i was now living with two cycling junkies (one of which biked across the country this past summer) , the idea of a triathlon begin to form in my mind. Three months later, i did my first sprint: the Take Flight Sprint Triathlon in Huntersville, NC. This was a great experience for me. Swimming was obviously my weakest discipline, so this short swim was very beneficial. I survived the pool swim, and averaged 1.5 mph faster than i had intended on the hilly bike course. Problem? I didn't think so, i felt great! Well, all of me except for my lower back. About a mile into the run, my back began to scream at me, continuing to be a constant PITA for the remainder of the race, adding ~4 minutes to my projected/goal run split. All in all, i crossed the finish line, and was hooked on the sport of triathlon.

I took a few days off, seeing as my back was killing me, and began a general training routine shortly thereafter. Looking at the upcoming schedule, i realized i hadn't planned very well. I picked the last race of the season, meaning i couldn't get another fix of tri-crack for about five months. Decided to take a few weeks off, let a broken toe heal properly, and that brings me to today. I began training again on Monday 12/1. The target for now is a two sprints in early/mid march, a half marathon at the end of March, and an Olympic distance triathlon in the middle of April. In my head, I would like to do olympic-distances all this coming season, possibly doing a HIM in the later part of the year. If all goes to plan, I will be registering for a US Ironman sometime next summer, and be purchasing finisher gear a year later.

Well, that's all for now, very surface level stuff. Time to go study for exams (O Joy).

Monday->24 Swim 48 Bike
Tuesday-->28 Swim
Wednesday-->32 Run
Thursday--> 38 Swim
Friday (Today)-->80 min Bike