kenj group - Closed

Ken,

I would like to join your group.  A little about me:

 I am 40 years old, father of two kids, 10 year old girl, 6 year old boy.  Married for 14 years.  I work as a fire protection engineer in the insurance industry.  I live near Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I started running again about 4 years ago when I got on the scale and saw a number I was very unhappy with, 260 lbs.  I used to run a lot in college but I hadn't done any real excercise on a regular basis for more than 10 years.  I was mainly running 2-3 miles for the first couple years.  I did some local 5ks.  I happen to live on a lake and once a year on my lake there is a sprint triathlon.  For 2 years, I would take my kids up to watch the people run by.  The whole time I would be watching, I would be thinking in my head, that should be me doing that.  So 2008 roles around and I start thinking, if I am ever going to do this, I am not getting any younger.  I turned 40 in July so many people I know chalked this up to a mid-life crisis.  I finally decided in early June that I was going to do this triathlon in July.  Problem is, I am a horrible swimmer.  First time I went out to swim, I probably made it 25 yards.  Well living on a lake has its advantages so for the next month, every single night I went out and swam.  Mixed in the running and the biking and I thought I was ready for my first tri.  Well, I finished that triathlon but I was one of the last people out of the water and one of the last to finish the race.  I did another tri in August and did even worse as I hadn't been training as hard after the first one.  OK, now its time to get serious about this. 

Since that time, I got rid of the old Schwinn and bought a Giant Trinity tri bike.  I have picked up the mileage....or did at least until the snow machine started.  As for the swimming, well lets just say I need some serious help.  I am down to 230 lbs.  Still a big number but I am 6'5" and have a large frame.  I think I want to lose about 10 more pounds by next spring to make myself a bit faster. 

 For 2009, I want to do at least 4 sprint tris.  My goal is to break 2 hours in the tri on my lake....last year, I finished in 2:39.  Yeah thats a big improvement but hey, goals should be hard.  I would like to be part of a group where we can encourage eachother and have someone to ask who has been there done that. 

 Thanks,

Craig

Great to have you in our group Craig!  Swimming is a challenge for me as well.  Fortunately I have found the local masters group and with their help and some time in the pool, I have at least gotten respectable.  With any luck, maybe we will get a swimmer in our group that can pull us along!

I see that you are doing a great job logging your workouts here.  That will be a help.  Have you considered using one of the winter training plans from BT?  I have found that they are a big help in keeping focused during the cold dark snowey winters we go through.

Ken,

I started logging my workouts here on October 1st.  I have never followed a training plan so perhaps I should look into that.  To date, I do not have an upgraded membership, do you need that to access the training plans?

I would like to join your mentor group.  I am 55 and beginning the couch to sprint plan after 2 years of low activity.  Prior to this, I ran extensively in 2005-6 and completed several half and full marathon but got burned out with just running.  I want to complete a sprint tri in June here in NC. 

Initially, Im just trying to build a solid base of fitness and drop excess weight.  Will you help?

Welcome to our group!  That is one of the things I like about tri's! If you don't feel like going for a run, you can hop on the bike or go for a swim. 

It will be great to have you as part of our group too!  I understand completely about losing focus after completing your A race for the season.  I struggled with that myself after Lake Placid last summer. 

We'll do our best to help you with your knee issues and get your run mileage up where you want it to be.  A couple of thoughts that you may or may not have already tried.  Make sure you are warming up good, one of the things that I like to do (although I have never had knee issues) is to kind of half squat with my hands on my knees and rotate the knees in a circle both directions to loosen them up a bit.  The other would be to try and get to 4 short runs a week and build your weekly mileage slowly.  Once you get a good month or more of this behind you, take one of your weekly runs and add 10% or less every couple of weeks. 

One of the things that I think this site offers as a valuable tool is the inspire feature.  I would like to see all of us add each other to thier friends list and every day or two drop by a couple of us and send a note of encouragement.  I know it helps me getting out of bed in the morning to do my workouts knowing that my friends will be checking in on me from time to time.  And if you notice someone slipping a bit, a nice prodding along doesn't hurt either!

I know some of you are fairly new to the site so if you don't know how this feature (or any other for that matter) works, let me know.

Hey guys.  I'd like to join in as well.

I am a 34 year old father of two living in Sarasota, FL.  I have a 7-1/2 year old boy and a 2 week old girl (yeah...whew).  My wife and I have been married for a little over 10 years now.  I own a company that designs and manufactures custom automation and robotic equipment.  http://www.rndautomation.com

I did several trirs and runs back when I was in HS and early college.  I then discoevred the joys of drinking and smoking and went down hill quick.  I entered college at 185lbs with 4% body fat.  I left at 240lbs with close to 35%BF.

I quit smoking about 6 years ago and started to run again.  I'm down to about 210-220 now (I'm 6' 4" not your typical triathlete) and would like to be sub 200.

Last year I did a few sprints and St. Anthony's Olympic.  I threw in some random 5ks and trail runs as well. 

Unfortunately around Oct I got struck with a string of injuries.  I first sprained my ankle pretty badly on a training run, then had a kidney stone that got stuck and had to have surgery (real bad news, remember to hydrate).  Finally, I just recently got over a real bad chest cold that hung on for weeks.  So I have been out of action for almost 2 months now.  Gained back about 15lbs during that time.

I let my Bronze membership lapse during that time but am going to get signed back up.

Running a business, recovering from injury and a new baby (hmmm should I run or get more than an hour's sleep tonight) and my challenges are clear. 2009 is all about a new start for me.  The base is there but I need to recover that fitness.

Hey Ken,

I'm Melissa and I would like to join your group. 

A little about me.. I'm a 22 year old med student in a small town in Missouri!  I started triathlons last year, and was quickly hooked.  I ran in 4 sprints and an oly, placing in my age group twice! I also ran in half-marathon in October and plan on two more, (april and may 09).

My new big adventure is training for Ironman Louisville 2009.  Some people tell me I'm crazy to try to do it while in med school, but I've never been one to turn down a challenge!  

I'm on BT as much as time allows, and could not have made it this far without the support from everybody!

Ken,

This looks like it might be a good group for me.

I’m Chip, a 50 year old father of two and live in Northwest Arkansas. I started getting serious about getting into shape on mid-2007. I’m 6’1” with a small frame but weighed 220, so all the weight was in my belly. I started running quite a bit but ran into an injury that put me on a bicycle for the first time in years. I absolutely loved it and ride whenever I can.

I started thinking about my first triathlon in September of this year and started running again, doing brick workouts, and swimming. I’ve got to say that swimming took all of the fun out of working out and I lost interest in the whole tri idea.

With the cold weather I’m off the outdoor bike and have focused on the weight room for the past month or so. I’m down to 190 now (185 when I’m riding a lot) and the triathlon keeps popping into my head as a way to meet like minded folks and have some fun. So with the new year I thought I’d give it one more try.

I’ve found an indoor lap pool here in town and am hoping to get my stroke together before heading to the lake again this summer. I’m a slow but steady runner and should be OK on the bike, but in the lake I’m pretty much a rock.

Chip

Ps.. I have no idea what the “inspire” feature is but if you could point it towards me I’d appreciate it.

Congratulations on your new daughter!!! I bet sleep is a rare commodity right now!

I understand what your saying about finding the time with a young family and a busy business to run.  My family owns a fairly large logistics company.  One of the motivations for joining this crazy sport was the end result of living healthy so I could enjoy my own family and be more productive at work.  One of the side benefits is the time management skills I have figured out to get it all in! 

I was planning on doing St. A's last year (my inlaws live in Winter Haven), but due to scheduling conflicts I had to back out, but some day I want to do that race.

Welcome to our group!

Hi Melissa and welcome!!! 

A lot of people said I was crazy when I signed up for Lake Placid, for differant reasons.  Mainly I had only done 2 sprints at the time.  I have no concept of what going to med school is like, but I am pretty sure there is never a perfect time to take on the challenge of ironman!  But if you don't try, you will always wonder "what if"!  You will do great!

Congratulations on your success last year!

Great to have you with us Chip! 

I share your love of swimming!   Fortunately I really enjoy triathlons, so I have learned to get myself to the pool and push through the workouts.  Maybe looking into a masters group or a triathlon club that has weekly swims will help if you can. 

The inspire feature is on the top right hand corner of your daily workout log.  Click on the inspire of your log and you will see the messages left for you, click the same button on someone elses blog and you can leave a message for them.  When you have an inspire it turns red!

All right guys! I'll leave this open for a little longer and hopefully we get to 8 of us, give or take.  Then we will get to work helping each of us reach our goals!  In the mean time if you have any questions or things you want to discuss, fire away!

I know the next week or so will have us all busy with the holidays (plus I have a couple of running races)! But after that, I would like us all to post our weekly workout plans and maybe a comment or two about how the previous weeks workouts went.  The good, the bad, and the ugly!  We are here to help get through the rough spots, and there will be plenty, and to celebrate the successes together!

Hi Sara! Welcome to our awesome group!

I see in your logs that you are planning on doing the musselman!  Awesome race! I don't live far from there, but I have never done the half, only the sprint.  This will be my last year for a while doing Lake Placid and one of the reasons is I want to do musselman next year.  There is a large contingent of BT folks there for that race, plus we have ran the aide station for both the sprint and the ITU pro race on Saturday!  Loads of fun!

Speaking of racing for beer, have you ever done the Boilermaker 15K in Utica?  Great race that ends at the Saranac Brewery.  Probably too close to Musselman for this coming year but if you get a chance someday you would probably enjoy it!

Great to have you Wayne!  Congrats on the 90 pounds lost, that is certainly an accomplishment.  If I was as tall as some of you guys I would be in great shape!  We will all work together on the swimming.  Unless you swam competitively as a kid, I think it is the hardest discipline of tri's to learn and become competant in.  Fortunately it is usually the shortest part, unfortunately it is the most intimidating!

Ok gang!  I have closed us down for now.  We have 8 plus me, which I think will be a good size group.

So what is everyone doing for the holidays?  For me, it is a pretty laid back as we do an extended family party Christmas Eve and another family gathering late Christmas day.  So I'll still get my trainer ride done in the morning, have a late breakfast and relax for a while.  The farthest I have to drive is 10 miles!

Definatly, I agree 100%.  Great to "meet" you!