If you don't push yourself, who will?

Well, now that my holidays are over, I can get back to the training in a serious way... we did family Christmas today, so my celebrating is over. I have been swimming once or twice a week, started the running and now am the very proud owner of a new tri bike. I am so excited about this... I never  thought i would ever want to do a triathlon, instead spending all my exercise focus on the road bike. But once I decided to retire from officiating after the football season was over, I started thinking it would be beneficial to cross-train, and talked to some friends of mine about their own triathlon experiences.
So after much deliberation, I registered for the Rookie Triathlon, which is May 9th. I thought this short distance would be the best way to see how much I like the triathlon environment. Well, shortly after registering for the Rookie, we figured out the Lone Star Half-Iron is in April, which would make THAT my first event... hold on, I am only doing the sprint distance on Saturday. So I am currently signed up for two triathlons, and very excited about it.
I had also signed up for a swim clinic with our Team In Training swim coaches. When we took the swim clinic, I couldn't make it very far at all - heck, I was lucky to get all the way across the pool one time. Haven't done the open-water swim yet, but I am looking forward to it. I have been able to complete multiple 300- and 500-meter swims. Not fast, but finishing. Speed comes later - I hope.
Right now, it gets dark pretty early, so my long rides will be mostly restricted to the weekends. But the running and swimming I will try to get in multiple sessions. I have a 16-week Sprint training plan from Beginner Triathlete, so I will be working on that.
This past weekend, I did my first personal mini-triathlon. Rode the bike on the trainer for 30 minutes, then swam for about 1 1/2 hours, mostly doing short sprints of 50 or 100 meters while my training partner did her 4 million meters. Then drove home and ran for 31 minutes, also not fast.
Last night after work I managed to get in a 15-mile sprint on the road bike, to test the speed - boy, I am out of shape. I only managed a 19.85  average,  Weird though - carrying the bike back into the house, a spoke on the back wheel popped.
Got the spoke fixed and the Tri bike fitted today so I am looking forward to getting out on the road tomorrow.
I never imagined I would ever do 3000 miles on the bike in a single year, but I am just over 100 miles away from achieving that. With the training for the Triple Bypass and the two triathlons I signed up for, I expect to do a lot more in the next 9-10 months.
I thank God for the opportunity He has given me to do this, and I am tremendously grateful for the support I am getting from my training partner, and my cycling teammates on the long rides.