Time to Play my 1st sprint tri on my own.

I think I forgot how to play. Sounds kinda weird I know but this is even more bizarre given that I'm a Recreation/Leisure Professor (yes it is a "real" job!).  Trying to lose a 100 lbs and more recently getting focused on longer term fitness goals like running my 1st half marathon in October has me downloading data from my garmin, tracking miles, elevation, intervals, heart rate and perceived effort and even protein intake in grams. And I know from twitter and the podcasts I listen to I'm not the only one! I think sometimes we forget the benefit of play when it comes to our passions! So I've taken to simplifying a bit. I need to go fast, go easy and go long each week. Training plans do matter but I've taken to tracking things a little less vigorously. I've also decided to throw in the occasional twist. Remember being at the playground and finding something new and cool? or being invited to play some other games with a different group, we didn't say "can't today" I'm doing swing intervals, we explored, we experimented, I think this is really what makes having fitness worthwhile, to try new and different stuff sometimes. So that being said this weekend I came up with my own sprint triathlon (also my 1st tri). A swim in the lake a 20 k ride and 5 k run. Lets see what happens! I have base fitness but no I haven't trained bricks or transitions, but whats the worst that I can happen? Too often we train to minimize any chance of failure yet failure is how we learn, it is how we push past our comfort zone. So maybe a little play might not only add some fun, it just might make you better as well? What do you think??