The Goddess of War

As the new year approaches I find myself doing the same thing many people do this time, resolving to lose weight.  I had lost about 9 pounds and got to a good weight (for me) during my first Triathlon season.  But just like many other people out there, during my off season, when the workouts aren't as strenous and no races are on the calendar, well...I put weight back on.  I'm not built like most triathletes that you seen on TV in the Kona coverage.  They all look leggy and lean.  I was blessed with short legs and my father's family genes, of whom the term "lean" would never apply.  I have fought weight issues my entire life which is part of my motivation for trying to stay as active as I can - maybe to counter balance any damage I do via my food intake.

I had the idea of today's blog entry in my head, but I never thought  it would apply to me (again).  If you are into mythology, perhaps you have heard the name Athena before.  Athena is the "goddess of war" whose companion was the goddess of victory, Nike (how cool right?).  How does this relate to Triathlons you ask?  Well, USA triathlon has a category of race participants called "Athena Division".  However, it's USAT's nice way of defining a division for...'the big girls'.  The Athena division is for women over 150 pounds.   Not exactly the vision of the Goddess of War I've had in my head.  But, if I entered a Tri tomorrow, I'd be in the Athena division.  Bummer.  I know I'll be much faster and less prone to injury if I get back to racing weight again.

So an early goal of my renewed training is to put Athena permanently in the rear view mirror and just be a plain old 'age grouper'.  They say nutrition is the 4th element of the triathlon, so it goes into my training plan.  We'll talk more about this in future posts.

Any Athena's out there?