southwestmba's group - full

Andy,

My name is Steve and live in Buffalo, NY.  I have three children, a daughter (13) and two boys (10, 5).  I ran my first tri, a sprint, in September with the goal of showing my children that if you put your mind to something then you can accomplish anything.  I lost 25 pounds and am down to 235.  I have recommitted myself to running several more triathlons this year and am currently considering joining Team in Training.  The local meeting is comming up in a week and I am thinking that I can use this experience to have my children see me do something that benefits others.  It culminates with an Olympic Tri in Philadelphia.

Prior to this week I have been limiting my training to running but am now back on the bike and will be swimming tomorrow.  The training has become a habit for me as I get up at 4:30 to make it happen.  I am now trying to focus on my nutrition because it has been awful and needs to change. For the new year I set a FEW goals for my self. Focus on:

Food

Exercise

Weight 

The reasons I selected your group is because I like the experience you have with a life changing experience as well as the thought of pushing oneself.  It reminds me of my Marine Corps days and the thrill that comes from kicking your own butt.

 Steve

Hey Andy,

 Me: I'm a 40 year old, 6'1" 228 pound, married father of 3 with a new business that has me working 6 days/70 hours a week.  

Early last year, soon after starting the business, I noticed that I started putting on (more) weight from becoming increasingly sedentary so I started running.  In August a buddy asked me on a Friday if I wanted to do a sprint tri that Sunday.  I said yes and 48 hours later I was a triathlete.  I started training a bit harder and did another sprint in October and took 15 minutes off my previous time.  I was encouraged by my progress so I've been working on building my base and get maybe 5-6 hours of training time in per week.  My training isn't very structured in that I try to workout every day in a short time window, usually in the mornings and train whatever is appropriate given the weather.  Sundays are my only day off so that's the only time do exercise for more than an hour, either a long run or ride.

This is my first stab ever at endurance sports.  I was a combat athlete (wrestling, jiu jitsu) for a long time but those disciplines were entirely anaerobic.  Explosive strength was what I've always been good at.  Moving fast: not so much.  

The only race I'm booked for thus far is a Oli in mid-March.  I'm sure I'll do 3-4 more sprints and another Oli later in the year.  I'd like to try to do a 70.3 late in the season but I want to be realistic about the time I'd be able to carve out to train appropriately.

My goals this year are broad and basic.  Ultimately I want to continue to improve my fitness and be a healthier person.  I have a responsibility to my family to be healthy so that's my main motivation.  I need to fix my nutrition and that goes beyond just eating better.  I have a bad habit of ignoring my hydration needs and eating before, during or after longer workouts.  I could care less about the # on the scale but I would like to get lighter and leaner so I can get a little faster, especially on the run.  I look forward to being a part of this group!

Hey Andy, this is Garfield Johnson from Nova Scotia, Canada.

I would like to join your mentorship group.

I am just about to celebrate my 43rd birthday, am married with 2 children, 10 and 13.

I participated in my first tri event on Aug 17, 2008 (sprint), with only about 5 weeks prep. Prior to that I had never ran any distance greater than 1/2 km without dying, never swam laps, and mountain biked a few times. And prior to the 5 weeks of training didn't even know anything about triathlons.

My biggest challenges are training in the off-season and improving my speed in all 3 disciplines.

I haven't done a lot of formal thinking about the sport I just know that I am hooked and want to participate in more races in the future.

I am also more interested in XTERRA events (didn't even know what that was until 2 weeks ago) but apparently there is not much happening in my area so may have to put that one on hold or organize something myself.

So, not sure what is next but at least this is a start.

Cheers for now,

Garfield

Hey folks,

Well I'm in West Palm Beach so training is year 'round down here.  BTW, I moved here from Philly; I miss that town a lot.

Running is the easiest thing to do here, and the thing I like least.  It's boring and I'm slow.  Plus, I've hardly run since tweaking my posterior tibial tendon on the right side in late November.  I am a clyde and a severe pronantor so I'm not shocked that I ended up getting hurt when I overdid running in Nov.  Ran 2 miles yesterday with little pain (though my heart rate soared!); gonna continue to take it easy for the next month and maybe run just 1x a week and see how the foot is coming along.  I'm also stretching and doing a couple other things to rehab this injury.

 Got a bike in November, a used '06 Specialized Allez Elite with aero bars and a Shimano flight deck, 105 group and a couple small upgrades.  Been riding mostly these days since the achy foot.  This is my first road bike and I'm beginning to feel more comfortable.  I'm fortunate in that my buddy who got me to do that first tri is a pretty accomplished cyclist.  I did my first 35 miler with him the other day and I felt pretty good.  I have another friend who was a former US Nat'l team member and cycle pro, so I have some tutoring available to me.  Right now I'm trying to get over the idea of spending $200 for a real bike fit.  

 My swim training has it's plusses and minuses.  Pool training is impossible because of my work schedule.  The good news is that we live 6 minutes from the beach so open water training is e-z.   The downside is the water can be rough in the winter, sometimes making ocean swims near impossible.  I scored a used QR wetsuit off ebay for $30 so training in chilly water (74, chilly for SoFla) is no biggie.  I'm part of a regular Sat. AM swim group so I have motivation to swim each week.   The other plus is that I have a neighbor who's a swim coach (he taught my kids to swim) who's offered to watch me swim and give me some coaching, gratis.

 Aside from this I do a little bit of weights, maybe an hour a week.  I have dumbells and a bench in the garage, plus a sandbag from my combat sports days.

 Pete Spleen

I have a Norco mountain bike. Used it on the Sprint as I didn't want to invest in anything else until I determined whether this sport was for me. Even left the knobby tires on for the race. I do not have a bike trainer (major bummer) and I am restricted to the indoors for the winter. Lots of messy weather here plus my lungs don't do so well in the cold.

I have a gym in my home which includes a pro lifting rack with upper and lower pulleys, rubber hex dumbbells between 5 and 40 pounds, a 300 pound olympic barbell and plate set, treadmill (incline stopped working), NordicTrac cross country ski machine, medicine balls, stability ball, bands, 45 degree back extension, and a rack that allows me to do chinups, dips, deep pushups, kneeups and pullups.

There is a public swimming pool near by (about 7 minutes drive) and they have lane swims scheduled at various times. Don't fair so well in the chlorinated water but put up with it for the few weeks before my sprint. Been avoiding it for the winter but the racing season is coming soon...

I have the Atlantic ocean an hour away in any direction and the temperatures are OK from mid June to mid September.

Hi Andy (and group ) - My name is Dave. I'm 46 years old and have a 19 year old daughter who just went off to college at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I also have a 14 year old son who is in the 8th grade. I'm divorced for 5 years and my son lives with me 50% of the time. I'm a Vice President with with a Fortune 500 National home builder. I'm a work aholic with a new years resolution to get in shape. I am 5'11 and weigh in at 205.  Several co-workers compete in triathalons and have recruited me to join them. I have never competed or even trained for a triathalon. This is a brand new experience. My goal is rather simple and that is just to finish a Sprint event this summer. I'm praying to get hooked, increase my times, do an Olympic, etc.  But first I just need to get started. I would love it if you became my mentor. You appear to have a similar background.  I generally take pretty good care of myself and eat a decent diet. I was running quite a bit in the past but suffered a stress fracture in my tibia almost a year ago. It has taken a very long time to heal and I'm just starting up the running again - slow and short distance. After the injury, I bought a road bike to try to keep in shape. I love it, but the Denver winters are hard to ride outside as I'm afraid of ice. I need to invest in an indoor trainer, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.  I feel very confident that I can train and gut it out on my own for the bike and run, but the swimming is my fear.  I've never swam laps in my live up until this weekend.  I've been in the pool twice and can swim 5 laps with resting after each one.  I'm already experiencing swimmers shoulder and have no clue how to prevent it. I found an article online on this website and hence registered on the site and am excited about this mentor program. I will start logging ASAP and would greatly appreciate joining your group, catching the fever and reaching my goals. Thank you... Dave

Okay just wrote a long post and went to spell check it and lost it.  Time to get myself and the kids off for the day.  So Andy I think your doing a great job.  It is motivating to know that someone is looking at what you are doing and it is a great quote that you found. Everyone keep up the good work and have a great weekend.  If anything is misspelled I apollogize but I am now paranoid.

Steve

Name is James, I'm 45 but will turn 46 year on Valentine’s day. I have 3 great kids Son,14, and two girls 13 and soon 12. We are a Lacrosse and soccer family, I coach two of my daughters teams and as a family we are  pretty active. My beautiful wife is running her first half marathon April and we try to run together at least once a week. Two years ago I ran my first (and only so far) Marathon and my biggest mistake was looking to accomplish this just once. I should have kept up the training but I still do several 5ks a year. Most of my times are in the 26:00-27:00 range.

I was motivated to go for the NYC Triathlon (Olympic) by several co-workers in order to raise funds for a Village we are building (Have built!) in Rwanda . I have caught the bug however and may do at least one or two more this year, I don’t want this to be another one and done.

I take very good care of myself, watch my diet. I am 6’3” 215, but plan to do the Tri at around 205 or less. I have a home Gym, including a Treadmill and Bike Trainer and a membership at the Y. The running I have down pat, I average 15-20 miles a week, the bike is ok, I have done 40k on my Mountain bike. I am hoping for a new Jamis or Trek bike for my birthday, so that should help. The swimming....ok I can swim, but clearly I have a long way to go to even THINK I am capable of doing it well; and I am not even talking about doing any of these all together yet. I have started a training log and weather will inhibit my training. I am a week into training and find the cross training more fun than I thought, but still hard.

On a personal side I run a Global Business unit for Electronic Broker Dealer, and I love my job. They are the people behind the Village and 20 of my colleagues are doing this event as well.

My goal is first to enjoy it, and finish it. While the NYC is an Oly, I would also like to do a Sprint event this before then.

I had one great Vice it would be wine, I am fairly avid collector and will not let it get in the way of my training. I look forward to being part of this group.

James

I just re-read this and I meant to say Weather will NOT  inhibit my training!  I also use my Polar Heart Monitor for most of my training, I think its a vital piece of equipment.

 Hey James, I've been in the wine biz for 20 years now.  I have a shop down here in FL.  I'm cutting way back in my consumption to try to cut some calories.  I'm dropping 2000+ calories a week in wine alone.  My guess is it's gonna have a big impact when I get on the scale.

Take this with a grain of salt but never got football myself. Seemed odd to call a sport football when the "ball" is not round and it only touches the feet of two people once in awhile during an entire game.

Cheers