WaterDog66's Group - Full

Hi,

If you still have room, I'd like to join your group.  I'd love to be training the distances you train some day.  I'm a 39 year-old  father of two small kids.  I'm cop in northern CA.  I started to train about 6 months ago.  I had planned to do my first sprint tri last sept, but my son ended up in the ER early on the morning of the race, so...  But he's fine.  Any way, I just ran my first 1/2 mary, and have run 2 10K's over the last few months.  I'm in the middle of BT's 20 month Marathon plan with the goal race being the Napa Valley Marathon on March 4th.  I'm wanting to do 3 or 4 tri's this summer, with the first being early May.  I figure I need to start swimming and cycling again sometime in the next 2 months.  So, that's me in a nutshell.

Brad 

Thanks Tim, here's the story on me. And hello to my fellows here, I've added you to my blog.

username widgeon, Tim IRL

Story: I've never been athletic but was always adventurous and have done caving, climbing, flying, backpacking, diving and other stuff. In 2004 I stumbled onto BT and signed up (as username wrybosome) with the idea of doing a sprint. Toward the end of that summer I injured my foot in a boat accident, didn't make the race, stopped logging here, and gave up on the whole idea. Went back to hanging out in pubs and playing music. By May of this year I'd gotten very soft, totally out of shape, stiff, sore, irritable. Then I went out with some coworkers to celebrate a work event, and got pulled over immediately after leaving the parking lot with my lights out. DUI, handcuffs, photographs, the whole nine yards. (sounds awful, but my blood level was .11)

It was the best pain in the a$$thing that ever happened, I started training again right away and havent looked back since. I've completed a 1/2 marathon, which was a big milestone for me, and now I'm aiming at an olympic tri in June 07.

Life: I'm a chemist in the philadelphia area and live with my wife and four kids, 2 cats, and gerbil.

Training: I train consistently 5-6 days per week, about 4-5 hours total. I've concentrated mostly on swimming and running since I'm confident on a bike. The swimming was going well, but I developed biceps tendinitis from overdoing upper body moves in a gymnastics class my wife and I did, so I'm still feeling my way back there. My goals are to complete the oly in June with a time somewhere toward the top of the 4th quartile but with a smile on my face.

I know I can complete all the events in the oly, but the back to back will be a challenge as will keeping a better pace than I do now. Swimming i need to work on volume and pace, bicycling and running I need to work on pace and secondarily on volume as a support to a better race pace.

Surfing: Always wanted to do this but don't know how to start 2 hrs from the ocean, and NJ ocean at that.

I can deal with cold.   But how do you get started?  Is it year round or 3 season?  Every time I go there (Ocean City) the waves are like 3 feet high.   Do you look for storms out at sea?

Hey Mike,

I don't know if I qualify as a "good" runner yet, but here's what I've been doing with some success.  On long runs I eat Gu gels; generally 1 right before I leave on the run and 1 every 30 minutes.  For hydration, I have a two bottle fuel belt, and I take a 20oz bottle of Gatorade and a 20oz bottle of water, and I alternate bottles each time I drink.  I try to not follow a Gu gel immediately with Gatorade.  My stomach likes it better if I wash down the Gu with water.  I run a 5 mile loop with my house in the middle and I replace water bottles as needed on really long runs.  I think I would probably need to supplement more electrolytes if the weather was hotter though.

Brad 

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd check in and say hello. I hope everyone is having a good workout week and staying healthy. I stayed home sick from work tonight, and read Running Times and Triathlete magazine. I also got to kiss my kids goodnight (on their foreheads, so they don't get sick too) wich I don't get to do during my work week--so that was cool. Anyway, I got a lot of motivation from reading the magazines, now I just need to wait till I'm healthy enough to put it to good use.

I'm pretty sure I won't be working out tomorrow or Saturday, so here's how I did this week:

28.5 miles of running. 

How'd everyone else do?  And yes, Waterdog will make us all look bad, but that's why he's the mentor.   

happy training.

brad

Hi guys,

Hope everyone's holiday was good.  Mine was great.  I got a Cycleops fluid² trainer from my wife.   Haven't tried it out yet, but it's going to be nice to be able to get rides in while it's raining. 

Finally ran again today.  It felt good to get outside and get the legs moving.  

Happy training.