So it begins.

Yesterday, Melanie plotted out our training for our biggest triathlon challenge to date, our Olympic distance Triathlon in August. An Olympic, also known as an international, is about double the distance as the Sprint Triathlons we've been doing. A typical Sprint Tri is 750m swim (.5 mile), 20k bike (12.4 miles), and finishes with a 5k run (3.1 miles). There is some flexibility in the swim, as it can be as short at 500m. An Olympic distance is 1.5k swim (0.93 mile), 40k bike (24.8 miles) and a 10k run (6.2 miles). Even though this is a big step up for us, its still only about half way up the Triathlon ladder. The one everyone is familiar with is the Ironman, which is 140.6 miles long, which is also what is referenced if you ever see the white oval stickers on cars with 140.6. The next distance is the Half, which is exactly that, half the distance. After that is the Olympic, and finally the Sprint. There are several other types mixed in between, but those are the four main types.

The Olympic we are shooting for is about 14 weeks away, so we had to modify a 16 week training program to fit our needs. Thankfully, we've been training already since we had a Sprint Tri a few weeks ago, and our next Sprint is next Sunday. This should be interesting, and I'll do my best to update our progress (Mel is better about tracking her progress on her blog). Wish us luck!

Want to Remember Everything? Surrender to This Algorithm

Given the chance to observe our behaviors, computers can run simulations, modeling different versions of our path through the world. By tuning these models for top performance, computers will give us rules to live by.Its a bit long, but I highly recommend taking the time to read it. It kind of served as an partial epiphany for me, since I've been looking for something like this for awhile, only subconsciously. I plan on giving the program a try, and I'll report back on my findings.

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Different way of thinking about it...