Hello from Morgantown, West Virginia

Hello everyone, I just wanted to say hi and note how great it is to see such a vibrant community online for beginner triathletes!

Basically here is my story:

In the summer of 2007 I weighed about 350 pounds and was having a real hard time sleeping at night.  I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and tried several different treatment options which did not work for me, and got to the point where I was told I needed to lose weight or get surgery.  

I joined a weight loss program through my insurance in March of 2008 and have been steadily losing weight and getting healthier since.  As of this month I have lost a total of 140 pounds.

Last fall I decided to add swimming to my workout (which I had not done since I was a kid) so I decided to get into the pool and take a couple lessons.  One of the things I noticed in the pool was a chart on the edge with the distances for all the local triathlons.  The shortest one was a sprint and I kept thinking how nice it would be to try that.  I mention it to the guy giving me the swim lessons and it turns out he is a triathlete and really encouraged me to try it.  So a few weeks ago I bought a bike (another thing I haven't done since I was a kid) and asked him to write me up a training schedule. 

Currently I am doing 2 days each of running, cycling, and swimming, with one day off and 2 days of weight training each week.  The sprint I want to do is in August, though if I feel ready I might try another one earlier in the summer.

So I am hoping to meet newbies who are in a similar situation than me and also to pick up on a lot of advice and tips, I never realized how much depth there was to the sport, at times I am overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information. 

So once again hello everybody, nice to meet you!