Kenj and Meulen's VO2 to the max any distance group!!!-OPEN

WHEN CAN YOU START: I can start right away.

GROUP FOCUS:

NAME: kenj/ Ken Johnson

STORY: I am 51 years old and live in upstate NY in the Finger Lakes region, near Rochester. In early 2006 I decided I had enough of being overweight. At the time I weighed about 285 at 5 feet 8 inches tall so I was in rough shape. I played mens league hockey once a week and was struggling to keep up with guys that when I was younger and in better shape I had no problem staying with. So I decided to do something about the weight and started Nutri-system. Part of the program included 30 minutes of working out per day. Did not matter if it was walking, weights, or whatever got me moving. For the most part I walked on the treadmill. By early spring I had lost about 50 pounds so when I was able to move outside I started running some. By the end of the summer I was down almost 90 pounds, but was struggling with achilles issues running every day so I picked up a bike and started riding some. Found BT and connected with some local members and started doing some 5ks and thought about tris. The wildcard was the swim, but I joined the local masters group with the encouragement of Dexter and I learned to swim, sort of.

I did my first tri in June of 2007, another in July and decided watching IMLP that year on the net to sign up for 2008. Probably not the recommended way of getting to that distance, but I downloaded a plan from BT and finished with a respectable time. Since then I have done several halfs, many more sprints and oly's and 4 completed IM's and one almost completed IM! 

Currently the weight drops during the season and I let it creep up a little during the winter but I am safely past the 5 year mark and happy with the way I am maintaining my health and weight.

FAMILY STATUS: I am married to Connie, who is not only a great wife, but my biggest cheerleader! She never questions any of the crazy ideas I come up with and is always there to support me! I also have two adult children. Plus a chocolate lab Molly and Buster the crazy cat.

CURRENT TRAINING: I started working with my current coach and team back in September after my old coach retired earlier in the year.  We are working towards 2 A races so right now the focus is on preparing for those.

Since I used to be self coached using predominantly BT plans, I am fairly knowledgeable about most of them.

LAST YEAR'S RACES: 2015 was mostly a year off from long races and destination races, focusing mostly on HM and local races.

2016 RACES: It will be a fairly heavy year of races with 2 HIM's starting in May in Chattanooga and another local HIM in July. Additionally I will be participating at IM Chattanooga in September.  I did this race in 2014 and had a nutrition issue due to not paying attention to it on the bike and winding up dehydrated in the med tent with a couple of IV's.  Not the way I wanted to finish, so its back to finish!

WEIGHT LOSS: Missing a lot of the training volume that I was used to allowed my weight to sneak up a little, but I started the year in about the same place I do most years. I have managed to drop 20 pounds since starting with my new coach and am now at a point where I think I can race at a level I had only gotten close to a couple of times. 

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTOR: I think I will be a good mentor as this will be my 6th group. I have been fortunate that all of my mentor groups have had some great participants that add to the conversation in a very positive way! I have enjoyed that aspect the most! I enjoy working with both experienced triathletes looking to go to a longer distance, or just looking for a group to offer them support. I also have enjoyed seeing new athletes set goals and put a plan together to accomplish their first triathlon, regardless of their experience. From weight loss to racing, I have done a lot right and a some things wrong and I think that experience is something I can share with others trying to figure this out. Additionally, I love triathlon and enjoy not only the training, but the positive support that most people in this sport offer each other. These mentor groups are a great way to continue this support away from the race venues and especially in the off season!

I also know that a few folks from my past groups will probably join in and since they could probably run their own group if they chose to, their experience helps lift the entire group and they are all good at sharing their experiences. I look at the mentor as not necessarily being the person with all the answers, but being responsible for keeping people focused and moving towards their goals.

Although I travel occasionally, I am usually pretty quick to respond to posts which I think helps keep the group focused!

I am looking forward to working with Brian as I think we will make a great team both doing long course with races close together.  Both of us have a lot of experience and with Brian's coaching credentials I think there is a good mix of experience with the sport!

Welcome Lisa!  I am looking forward to having you in our group!

Hi Mariah!

Welcome to the group!  It is certainly ambitious, but if you are committed to getting the training in it is certainly doable.  Have you thought about a training plan yet?

I do a lot of my training on the trainer and/or treadmill.  It can actually be very effective if done properly.  I must say though, I have only had one bike wreck that resulted in an injury and that was in the basement on the rollers.  If you can get outside for some of the work you will be fine.  As far as the swimming goes I think your situation is common to most people.  Most of the swim training comes in the pool.  If its a wet suit race, it would be nice to get a couple of swims to get used to the suit itself, but otherwise manage the swim effort.

The biggest thing that can impact your race results at this point is a lack of consistency.  Try not to miss more than a day here and there and you will be fine.  We all have days where life gets in the way, but you need to minimize that, even if getting it in means cutting it short.  Turning a 5 mile run into a 4 mile run won't hurt your race overall, but making it a day off might if it happens too often

Relax and enjoy the journey!. 

Hi Jessica, welcome to the group! 

Sounds like you have a great summer planned!  My only advice on the races would be to cut back some once August gets here.  Running races are ok if they are long enough to fit the training plan, but when racing a lot you lose some training time due to the recovery post race, plus some pre race depending on the taper.

Don't be afraid to get a lot of time on the bike on the trainer this time of year.  Work in some higher intensity intervals once you get some endurance in the bank.  The run and the swim need to be trained, but my experience working with newer long distance triathletes is that they worry about the swim if they aren't a natural swimmer or the run because it is longer than they typically run, but don't worry about the bike.  56 miles is a long time in the saddle and having strong bike endurance will not only give you a great bike experience, it will set you up for a much better run!

Excited to have you part of our group and glad to see our group is finally getting some participants!

Just a couple of tips, first there is a place towards the bottom of this page that says toggle notifications.  Click on that and turn on email notifications of when new messages are put here.  It saves time checking if no one has been here!

Also, please log your training here on your log.  It helps us all give you feed back on your training, plus a little accountability helps if you know someone will be seeing your training.