mndiver's group-closed

Hey Bryan my name is Katie, and I am looking for some help to complete my first triathlon in March this year. I am a sophmore in high school turning 16 this February (I know I am kind of young compared to many of the other people on this website, but that is part of the reason why I am seeking help). I have been on a year round swim team for 9 years now (averaging about 7000 yards a day), and have participated on my school's cross country team (my dad is a coach) for 2 years (I am an okay runner, I guess). I have consistently been in the top 15 on my girl's team of around 40 and I ran a 10k this past Thanksgiving. My only concern is the biking. I do a little bit of biking here and there with my mom, who used to be a really good biker before she had kids, but it is the part of the tri that I am most worried about. I also do not know what triathlon to sign up for (one on a weekend in March near San Diego would be nice because my aunt who does marathons lives there and is really looking forward to seeing me complete my first tri). I am also kind of nervous about what to expect on race day. I thought you would be a great mentor because I am also into shot and discus, and I read about how you were into weightlifting after high school football. I would love to incorporate weightlifting into my tri training on a regular basis.

Thanks for your time,

Katie

Welcome Katie.  I would love to have the opportunity to help you in any way I can.  I will write more in the next day or so but wanted to welcome you to my mentor group for now.  Have a fun and safe New Years.

^{Welcome Pam.  I look forwrad to helping you out as much as I can.  As I told Kate I will write a little bit more later today.  Just wanted to welcome you to our mentor group.  Have a great New Years Day!}

Hello ladies.  I hope everything is going well.  I am going to assume we will have more join our group, but if not, I am totally fine with that also.  I had a mentor group the very first time BT did them and really enjoyed the experience.  One thing you should know right away is that I am a TERRIBLE speller.  I apologize if this bothers you but I have accepted it.  Only excuse I can come up with is after years and years of reading really poorly written essays and papers in school I have completely lost my grasp of the English language.  A few things I would like to see out of everyone in our group are as follows.

1.  Please use the "logs" section.  This will enable me to see what you are doing.  In addition it is a great training tool for you to track your progress. 

2.  Make some goals you want to achieve.  You both have said some general goals but lets see if we can get them a bit more solid.

Katie- I have a soon to be 15 year old daughter who loves to do tri's.  With your swimming and running background you could find yourself very successful in this venture.  You need to work on your bike FOR SURE.  I generally come out of the swim in the top 20% of the field, but it really does not matter if you lose it all on the bike.  Try to shoot for 50% of your training time to be on the bike.  You need to be able to ride hard AND come off comfortable enough to run.  As far as weight training goes, look into doing a lot of core work at this point.  If you are looking at a tri in March you really do not want to be doing much other lifting at this point.  Btw, I love the San Diego area.  Last time I was out there on vacation I had Chris Leito cruise by me while out for a run (Uber biker who got 2nd at Kona last year).

Pam- You sound so much like me.  Same background including the Personal Training stint.  You need to set goals.  More soecifically, you need to look at a race calendar and sign up for a race right now.  Get something on the schedule and you will find motivation real quick.  Pick a sprint tri in the area and commit to preparing for the race.

Have you both looked at any of the training plans BT offers?  They are actually quite good and I would reccomend them.  You really want to be working towards getting at LEAST 2 work-outs per week in each sport.  Throw out all time goals for now and just work on getting the minutes in.  Remember you are in a lifestyle now, not a fad.  Take your time getting used to the new demands and have fun.

I'll be waiting to see some more specific goals and look forwrad to seeing your work-out logs flourish.

Have a great day.

Welcome Amber, would love to have you in our group.  I will respond more later today.

^{Welcome Larry, glad to have you in our group.  I ask everyone to please use the logs on BT so we can see what you are doing for training and offer suggestions.  Also, please post one or two specific goals you would like to achieve for this training period.}

Hello my name is BiafraGirl / Ony and I am interested in joining your group.  Please let me know if that will be possible.

About me: 
 
Name:  BiafraGirl / Ony

Story: 
Decided to sign up for the triathlon sport in 2009, after the voices in my head were telling me I need to exercise, exercise, exercise.  After ignoring the voices for months, possibly years, one day, after climbing only 20 steps, with 2 rest platforms in between I thought I was going to pass out.  After that day, I signed up at a local gym.  However, I had been part of gyms on and off for over 15 years and needed find something that would finally stick, making me go regularly. 

With a milestone BD in 2011 (I also will be turning the big 40), I decided to train for a marathon, albeit I am not a fan of running.  In doing my research I came upon triathlons, and decided if I was going to go big, that was the way to go.  So before I had a training plan, and being a neophyte to all three sports, this former couch potato signed up for the latest scheduled sprint Marathon I could find in the NYC metro area.  In October 2009, I completed my first sprint triathlon and became hooked.  Registered to do my first Olympic in Summer of 2010, but after minor injuries, and a whole bunch of crazy minor coincidences, I felt the universe was telling me not to compete, and so I just kept running in NY Road Runner's races in prep for the marathon in 11/2011.

In celebration of my milestone BD in May, I have decided to do 1 major race every month until May 2012.  My major races will be a mixture of half and full mary's and triathlons, with some interesting challenges, fun runs interspersed in between.  I want to celebrate life and living, while pushing myself safely outside of the ordinary knowns in my life.  Depending on how this year goes, I will decide whether I should train to compete in my first Ironman in 2017 or sooner.

Family status:  Happily single, never been married, but would like to be one day when I find the "one".  No progeny, but a wonderful auntie to my precious 3 nephews and 2 nieces.

Training:  I am a build as you go kind of person, as I am self-training and still learning about my body.  However, my triathlon training has been a combination of mostly what I find here on beginnertriathlete.com and tri-newbies.com.  This year my focus will be a bike focused training regimen, as I feel I need to learn so much more about biking technique, in comparison to the other two sports.  I am still in the just put your foot to the metal and pedal mode.  I am also incorporating weight training this time around, my weight training program I am getting from bodybuilding.com.  Of course my training is further enhanced by the various online posts, mags, books, and people that I have consulted along this recreational triathlete’s journey.

In my first year 2009, I just focused on preparing for the sprint triathlon and found that it took me a long time, 7 months to learn, condition and compete.  I hadn't realized how bad the condition of my body had become.  I was never an athlete, but I thought I was active enough.  Ummmm that was all a figment of my imagination. 

After training all of 2009, and half of 2010, I had not reached my 60 - 70 lbs weight loss goals. I only lost 15 lbs in 18+ months, and that was in the first 3 months. I then forced myself to look at my nutrition and incorporate weight training.  Eating right (moving towards more clean eating) and weight training did the trick. And I lost another 15- 18 lbs in 8 weeks after starting weight training.  Now I need to put all the pieces together and still you know live life, work, family, date, shop, etc.  I have struggled with the time management needed to be a triathlete, as I am still learning about the athletic lifestyle, everything from proper rest, recovery, nutrition, training, stretching, supplements, gear, equipment, safety, gym, trainers, centers, etc. and while carrying on what would be considered a normal life.

2011 planned races from closest to furthest (more to come):

Jan:    22: NYRR 5-Boro Half Mary: Manhattan.  (Will run walk this)
Feb:   26: NYRR 4mil GridIron race
Aug:   08: Nautica NYC Olympic Triathlon
Nov:   06: ING NYC Marathon

Past races from most recent to furthest:

2010:
Oct:   Poland Spring 5mi, Norway 1.7 mi
Sep:  Fifth Ave 1 mi, Fitness Mind Body 4 mi
Aug:  Harlem 5K
Jul:    Did not compete - Nautica NYC Olympic Triathlon
Jun:   Hope & Possibility 5Mi, NY Mini 10K
May:  Healthy Kidney 10K
Mar:  Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K 

2009:
Oct:   Montauk Mighty Man – Sprint Triathlon
Sept:  Komen Race for the Cure 5K

Other:  Run mostly with RUNNYC Niketown on weekends, and in the warmer months do open water swims with CIBBOWS @ Brighton Beach (yes there are open water swims in NYC, all year round in fact).

Weight-loss goals:  I have already lost about 30 lbs, moving from a size 14 to a size 8.  I want to lose another 30-40 lbs, as I think that is what it would take to remove me into an athlete's body fat composition range.  But instead of looking at the scale, I have decided to let my thighs / abs determine my goal.  When these areas are sculpted, meaning I can flex and it is visible that I have flexed, then I have reached my goal.  Right now I can flex, tense up and no one could tell. And you can not only pinch an inch, but grab a tire around my waist.  My frame seems to be that of Halle Berry (or at least in my imagination it is), although a little bigger with larger curves.

Why I would be a good group member:  I tri, I tri, and tri and don’t give up; and will provide that same type of support to others.

Welcome Ony.  I see you have some pretty specific goals and definetly have some plans for future races.  I welcome you to our group and look forward to your input.  Congratulations on the weight loss.  As you may have read from my bio it is an area I have had some success with but the final pounds have eluded me.  I see you are planning on running a marathon next November.  This is a great goal and I think you will have a lot of fun going after it.  I also see a future goal of an Ironman.  My one suggestion is to not confuse marathon and IM training.  I have heard a lot of people say they could NEVER train for an IM after training for a marathon. They thought it would be too much.  Truth is, I actually found IM training to be easier on my body than marathon training.  Just something for you to keep in mind as you start to make check marks on your "list".

Larry-Looks like you have had a lot of success with weight loss also.  Hopefully I can glean something from all of you to get it figured out.  Also, you mentioned pool swimming as compared to open water swimming.  I would not worry about this a whole lot.  I train with a number of elite athletes and Kona qualifiers and very little open water swimming is done by them.  You want to get out and practice with your wetsuit and get a feel for it when you can, but it is not the end all be all.  Most important is getting the meters and miles in and working on TECHNIQUE over all.

Welcome Josh.  The plans on BT are really good and I would encourage their use.  I have about 20 books on triathlon and have done 2 different Ironman training plans.  One BT and another by Don Fink.  For this years IM I am planning on going right back to BT's plans. I think they are that good for a self coached athlete.  Glad to have you on board and we will talk more in the next few days.

Name: morrisel/ Erin

Story:  I will be starting my 2nd season of triathlons. I started training because I found myself in a town with few friends and needed something to occupy my time. I have completed 2 sprints and one Oly tri. All of those triathlons I competed using a mountain bike. So needless to say, my mental toughness has been challenged a bit.

Family status:  I am single but with a live-in boyfriend. One dog, one plant. I move somewhat often for work so I haven't accumulated much.

Training:  I am currently training for a half marathon. This year I plan to focus on my running as much as possible because I don't have a great bike and don't want to develop bad cycling habits.

This years races:  I'm doing the Disney half marathon this Saturday. I don't currently have any other races planned, but will be looking into doing a couple olys and maybe a HIM this year.

Weightloss goals:  I just want to be toned. Obviously the more I train, the more muscular I'll get and probably lose a couple pounds. But I just like food too much, so toned is my goal

Wow, one day away and we have 5 new people.  Everyone is more than welcome to join our group.  I think I will close it down now in order to hopefully be able to accomadate everyone and be able to help all those as much as possibley needed.  Please feel free to fire questions my way either through this thread or through "inspires".  I'll be checking through everyones logs on a regular basis and seeing what I can add to help out.  New Year everyone!! Lets make it a great one.

Thanks a lot for doing that Josh.  It is nice to be able to check up on others on a regular basis.  Also, everyone should feel free to offer help and advice to others.  This is a learning group and I am by no means the end all be all.  I do have everyones name in my log if it is easier for you to copy and paste from there also.  If you have questions on how to add anything to your home page I will do anything I can to help.  I am somewhat computer illiterate but have friends who can help.  Some people put a lot of time into their sites and are quite entertaining. (See Whizzzz in my friends for a great example)  Part of the mentoring process is not just to make you a better triathlete but also to get you accustumed to the BT site.  You will find it is a great community of extremely supportive people.  In addition you will get to know people through this site who you will meet at races leading to some friendships or at least comradarie.

Josh- No problem with having your friend join the group.  Just have him mention he is your friend when he writes something in our thread.

All-  How is everyone doing?  I am checking logs and making little suggestions or notations as I see them.  Some are slow to start but slow and steady is still going to make progress.  Please feel free to ask questions on this thread or through my blog.  Have a great night everyone.