Can I do this?

I'm new to this board and would like to ask for some encouragement. I just signed up to do a short triathlon (400m swim, 16K bike, 5K run).  It is on June 1st, so I have a lot of time to train.  I am about 8 months out of RNY and doing well. I can bike and swim - I'm not very fast, but I can do it and was pretty active in both of those even before surgery. As far as the run, I'm concerned.  I can walk, no problem and have been getting faster with the weight loss.  I walked a 1/2 marathon a few weeks before my surgery, but it took me 4 hours, 20 mins.  I've never been good at running.  Even as a kid, I hated running and thought I would die whenever forced to run in gym class.  I'm following a couch to 5K program that I found online.  I'm in about the 3rd or 4th week.  They have you walk so many minutes, then run so many minutes.  I've done pretty well with that - I'm running (jogging) about 1 1/2 minutes and walking 2 minutes at speeds of about 5.0 mph and 3.9 mph.  I do that for about 30 minutes which is a little over 2 miles.  It seems to be going pretty well - I don't feel like I'm dying, so that's good. Do those speeds sound reasonable?  Does that kind of routine sound reasonable - to alternate jogging and walking and slowly increase the jogging part? My biggest fear is finishing last or finishing and they are already shutting down the course or something.  Anyhow, anything you can throw out there would be appreciated.  I'm glad I found this site - seems more positive and focused on good habits than some of the other boards. Thanks ZZ

ZZ, Congratulations on your new goal!  If you're using a couch to 5K program, you will be fine.  I started doing a walk to jog program in May or June the year I had surgery,  and ended up able to do a 10K the following October without stopping to walk.  Please don't worry about finishing last.  There will be many first-timers out there.  You will find that competing in a race is one of the most supportive experiences you will ever have. The competitors have all been there at one time or another and will give you nothing but encouragement.  These athletes are just as happy for you as you are for yourself.  You'll see.  It's pretty cool. As far as your speeds go, If you don't feel like you're dying, maybe you should try increasing your run speed a little at least once a week.  Maybe next week try to do the run parts at 5.2.  Once that gets easier, maybe in 2 weeks, try to increase it to 5.3 or 5.4.  This will help both your endurance and your overall run speed for the race.  If you find you can only do this once or twice during the 5 minutes, that's fine.  Sometimes when I do speed workouts, they're too hard the first time I try to increase the speed and I can't do the whole thing that time.  I just do the faster speed as much as I can and take it back down to what I did the past week and then back up if I can. Half the fun in training is to see how much you can improve over time.  It's not usually easy, but well worth it. You'll do wonderfully! Linn

Thanks for your reply.  I'll take your advice and slowly try to increase my speed over the upcoming weeks, even if not for the whole work out. I'm excited to be working on this goal.  I've been swimming for years and have always wanted to do a triathlon, but could never have done the running part at my old weight. ZZ