Destination MoP is FULL (of motivation!)

Hi My name is Tom.

I started doing Tri's last year.  I am 51 and my wife 42.  This group may fit the bill perfectly for me/us.

We had an unexpected surprise afte we got back form our honeymoom being married in September 2007.  His name is Jake. he is going to be 3 in May.  My wife had run marathons for about 5 years but now is transitioning to triathlon this year.

We want to lead a balanced lifestyle not wanting to miss any time with our son Jake.  We involve him whenever we can.  We run with him in a jogger, go swimming together one training while the other watch Jake, etc.

I have had 6 knee surgeries including two major reconstructions.  I have also had two hernia surgeries one being very serious (paraesophagial hernia repair).  I am a clydesdale.  ia m 6'1" and 240 pounds.  Weight loss has always been a challenge but I'd like to make a permanent change this year and get down to around 210 pounds. 

Despite my challenges I completed 5 sprints, 1 Oly and 1 HIM in my first year last year without any injuries and knee held up well.

So far this year I have 1 Sprint, 1 OLY, 2 HIMs and 1 IM planned.  My wife is going to do the first tri (Oly, Rev3 in Knoxville) with me.

This group would seem to fit our ages as well as goals.

Let me know if I can be a part of this group.

Thanks

Tom

Welcome Tom (and your family!).  Love to have you and your wife (and Jake!) in the group.  Sounds like an exciting year you both have planned.  Any chance that HIM was/is the Rev3 in Cedar Point?  Sounds like it is up in your neck of the woods.

So 240 was my "Waterloo" weight 5 years ago and I haven't looked back.  My only advice is to just get on a slightly better trajectory.  I lost my first 20 quickly and gained most of it back before going with a much more balanced approach.  It's amazing how a few important changes can change things from a gain 1 or 2 lbs / month scenario to lose 1 or 2 lbs / month, especially when you're training for triathlons.  Really important given the distances you're working on not to starve yourself of the nutrition your body needs for training.

Your recovery from the injuries and surgery is fantastic.  Do you do alot of core and knee muscle work?  I'm in the midst of trying to keep my back "in line".  The past month has been a challenge.  Glad to hear your first year was injury free... let's keep it going!

Cheers,

Stu

Thanks for allowing us to join the group.   I am not sure if ambitious is the word as much as desire to get in shape and be good examples to Jake.  When I get to each starting line I think the saem thing.  Why am I doing this crazy stuff.

Stu

My first half was the Augusta Ironman.  My wife is going to do the Cedar Point Rev3 this year.  I cannot as I have another event planned a few weeks before in Iowa.

As far as the back.  I do understand.  I did forget to mention that I got hit by a car riding my bike in 1995.  It pushed my spine to the right and ripped cartilage in my sacariliac joint in my lower back.  I have had it go out a few times but doing pressups, planks, side glides and most of all stretching my hamstrings out has helped tremendously.  Also staying active has helped quite a bit.  I do not do much knee specific exercises as most of these sports strengthen the muscles around the knee and I do not want to put any more stress on it than I have to.  A few weeks ago I tried to push a 10 minute pace and ended up with a swollen knee and ice for a while so I need to be careful.

Hope that helps.  looking forward to working with everyone and getting to know all.

Thanks Again

Tom 

Welcome Jennifer!

We will do our best to help you stay focused!

Use the logs here on BT! It helps to stay motivated, when you can see your progress, and others can leave "inspires" for you.

Welcome Jennifer - so we've got two husband / wife tri teams with little ones!  Y'all are impressive!  Jennifer, the tri training will be a great relief to your knees.  Like you, I wasn't very fond of running when I started, but it's grown on me.  On a nice day, I even enjoy it now :-)  But the running is definitely tougher on your body, so mixing in the swimming and biking is not only more fun (for those of us who aren't natural born runners), but also more balanced training with the stress more spread around at least!

Caroline, meet Jake... no doubt you'll be passing each other on the jogging strollers soon!

Stu

Jennifer,

I didn't realize you are also new to BT... welcome!  Have you had a chance to look around much yet?  The training logs are great, lots of articles, training plans, gear reviews, and plenty of message boards with advice and support.  I've found it to be a wonderful community and resource.  So, any questions on how to use all these nifty things, just ask!

Thanks for all the welcoming words!

I'm actually not super new to BT - I started using it last summer to log nutrition & then in the fall I started using it to log workouts, but stopped using it to log nutrition (using something else). So created & imported plans & have used some of the logging tools, but I'm fairly new to the forums and actually engaging with BT. 

I realized this morning that I should have mentioned I got a bike in January, used it on a trainer & have only ridden outside 3 times so far... and I can't touch the ground while on the seat, so I have a hard time coming to a full stop. I'm still using regular pedals until I'm comfortable, but my husband & I find that the hardest thing to fit in - finding time to independently get to a decent path & have a sufficiently long ride.  Neither of us is very comfortable on our bikes yet & we live in the Baltimore-DC suburbs, so traffic is insane and we're reluctant to take to busy (& fast) roads yet.

Jennifer

Tom, Jake is the best reason of all for doing this crazy stuff :-)  (Can I also say that at age 51, I can't imagine having a 3 year old again - more power to you guys)

Anyway, the other reason I asked about Cedar Point is that my brother in law did the HIM there last year and he's aiming for it to be his first IM.  I was thinking about going up for it and potentially even enter the HIM myself since my plans for next month's HIM were derailed.  Anyway, he really enjoyed the event and his family had a blast at the park while he was slogging through the course.  Sounds like you all enjoy traveling around to different events. 

Just reading about your accident made my back wince in pain.  Ack.  Yep on all the back exercises.  Post 50, I guess our goal is just to slow down the deterioration, eh?  My PT gave me the knee exercises do to along with the tri training and it has helped keep my knee issues from a few years back at bay for now, so I'm sold on them.  It could also be that I wouldn't have had any issues.  Hard to say, but it's an ingrained part of the routine now.  In any case, I've been convinced of the need to spend more time stretching and warming up than I did in my younger days :-)

Stu

Oh gawd, I feel for you in DC/Balt... that traffic is indeed insane.  No rush on the pedals... do you have the cages?  They're a nice compromise until you're more comfortable.  I finally went clipless (such a strange term) last Fall.  Honestly, I'm still getting used to it.  I biked just with cages for 3 years.  Since I'm not exactly knocking on the door for a podium finish, safety came first (plus not having to change shoes for the run made my 2nd transition time pretty speedy!).  Then there's always the fact that I'm cheap ;-)  $200 for the pedals and shoes put it off for awhile!

If you can figure out how to get one long ride in on the weekends, that, along with the trainer rides ought to do you well.  Hard to get it in during the work week if you have to travel I imagine.

Speaking of biking... I'm off to a spin class.  Have a great day everyone!  Hopefully our January folks will stop by soon and introduce themselves!

Stu

It's great to see some new faces.  I'm back from Disney and will post a new info page when I get a chance.

-Andrea

Welcome back Andrea!

Tom- I was thinking the same thing as Stu, when I read about your cycling accident. I could feel my back starting to spasm.

Jennifer- No rush on the clipless. I got mine for Christmas, and still don't have the nerve to actually put them on the bike. Every time I start to feel guilty about it, I remind myself that this is all for fun. If going clipless is going to take away the fun, there's no rush.

Have a great day everyone! I'm swamped at work, but will check in later.

When I got my first set of clipless in 2009 I found that the best thing to do was to schedule a ride with a bunch of "real" cyclist and before you even get started clip yourself in and take a spin around the parking lot to show all of them that you know what you are doing. Then pull up to the rest of the cyclist who are waiting for you, stop, try to unclip and just fall over.  Get it out of the way early to break the ice.  LOL

Have A great day Everyone.

Tom

Nicely done, Tom ;-)  My first ride went so smoothly with them that when I pulled up at the first stop sign on my second ride (at a busy intersection), I went straight over.  Much laughter was had by all. Boy that is an awful feeling when you realize there's not a darn thing you can do.

NAME: Christine – 35 yo
 
STORY:  Growing up I always participated in sports, never really had a consistant commitment to an active lifestyle until 2008. In the summer of 2008 my sister asked me to sign up for a local 5K, I was looking for a way to loose some of the extra weight I had gained with my now 5yo, so I was in. I trained for three months and struggled through my first 5K. Once I finished that, I started to get the running bug, and I decided to attempt a 10K the following year. Halfway into the 10K training, I decided that a HM was in the cards, so we planned one in Vegas 2009, with a side of a “vacation”. It was evident at that juncture, to keep me on task with my training; I needed a bigger goal on the horizon.  The trouble at that point, was HM and M are two completely different animals and I wasn’t ready for a full marathon. I had an injury to my left quad and took most of Dec-February off from running. I had my C-Dale tuned up and put it on a trainer for the winter, as we had planned to run a relay in NY the upcoming spring and I needed to stay in shape. One of my friends suggested I tri to tri… so I signed up for the Norway Triathlon last spring, and I had a great time (even though it poured during the run). I managed the second sprint my first year (struggled with the ocean swim)…but had a great bike, and a descent run. I completed my first marathon in October.  I enjoy the multisport training; it is much easier on my body then running all the time.

FAMILY STATUS: Married with 3 children, 15yo, 13yo, & 5yo. Husband is supportive enough to tag along with training & racing. J Some may say he has the bug too, although he swore never to run a marathon again.

TRI EXPERIENCE (if any): Norway Triathlon ’10, Tri for A Cure ’10 (both sprint distance)

CURRENT TRAINING: Following the ½ Ironman plan on BT, although it will be tough with my schedule to keep to the amount of training.

PLANNED RACES FOR 2011:  Norway Triathlon (sprint), Ragnar Northwest Passage, Pumpkinman ½ IM, Maine Marathon. Looking for an Oly distance to fit in my plan…

WEIGHT LOSS GOALS (if any): The scale is my nemesis. I’d like to be 10 lbs lighter by the time I get to the ½ IM.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE MENTOR GROUP WILL PROVIDE FOR YOU and WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE GROUP: Help with the commitment to training and garnering inspiration from others. I also have lots of little questions that I think a mentor with some experience will be able to help me with given I am attempting a ½ IM without several tri’s under my belt. I'm hopeful to provide the same level of support and inspiration to the group.

I too fell over my first time in clipless pedals infront of a group gathering to ride, it.was.awesome.

NAME: Andrea
 
STORY: I swam competitively in my youth and at college.  I was always pretty much MOP at swimming (which is pretty good for Tri-swimming.)  I'm 41 years old with a desk job.  I did a stint of Master's swimming about 10 years ago, but lost motivation since it's pretty much non-existant in my part of my state. 

Other than that, I've been pretty inactive until early 2010 when I got myself a treadmill for my 40th birthday.  I committed to walking and eventually decided to try running, which lead me to Couch to 5K.  Running is new to me, other than soccer as a child.  I had trouble with the heat last summer (TM is upstairs in my un-airconditioned house) and continued run/walk intervals rather than moving on to continuous running.  I did a 3.5 mile race in May 2010 and a 5K in Sept 2010.  I walked portions of each, but was happy to participate.  I continued on run/walking 3 days a week, when life allowed, and playing around with the intervals I used. 

In Jan 2011, I joined this group and got more consistant with my running.  Mid-Jan I did my first indoor Tri.  Mid-Feb I did my second.  These gave me something to train for, which I find motivates me to be consistant.  Early March I dropped my walk breaks and added a 4th day to my running week.  Mid March I RAN my first 5K!  This group has helped keep me accountable.

FAMILY STATUS: married with a 6yr old son

TRI EXPERIENCE (if any): 2 indoor tris

CURRENT TRAINING: 4 days running, swim when I can, need to get bike out (have hybrid bike with no plan to upgrade right now). Future plans=3-4 days running, 2-3 bike, 1-2 swim

PLANNED RACES FOR 2011: Some 5Ks, a 5 mile probably on 7/4, some of weekly Mini-tri series (1/4mile swim, 8K trail bike, 5K trail run), a women's only sprint on 9/11

WEIGHT LOSS GOALS (if any): I've lost 30lbs since Jan 2010, with additional activity and more careful eating.  Need to lose 60+ more.  I go to WW meetings, but don't consistantly track my points.  Getting below 170 would move me to the overweight category rather than obese.  That's a long term goal.  For this spring, I'd like to get into the 180s.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE MENTOR GROUP WILL PROVIDE FOR YOU and WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE GROUP:  I hope that the group will give me a place to ask question and share successes and failures.  I can give the point of view of a slow overweight newbie.  I can help with questions about swimming as I also coached age group (youth) swimming for some time.

Welcome Christine!

Okay, I'm totally impressed with these healthy families in here!  I'm definitely showing this to my wife tonight... hehehe... [practicing ducking moves now].  I found the step up to a HIM a big step from the OLY.  Lots of new things come into serious play such as nutrition, and really smart pacing so you don't blow up on the run (like I did!).  The January group has a woman who is also aiming for her first HIM without a bunch of experience, so you'll find some camaraderie there for sure (we're still waiting for her tri report from Monday - starting to get just a little concerned).

Back to work for now, but wanted to say hi and thanks for the great background info!

Stu

P.S.  I think we need to add first clipless falls to the bio request!

I want to join!

NAME: Steve
 
STORY: I'm on day one of a new lifestyle.  Looks like I mirror Stu's story a bit.  I was a soccer player and swimmer in my high school days.  I mountain biked throughout my college carrier, so road bikes are new to me.  Last real training was a 5k about 5 years ago.  I'm now 44 years old an sitting at 240 lbs. 

FAMILY STATUS: Married for 17 years and my kids are 15 and 12.  I also am hoping to get my 15 year old daughter to join me.  She's a swimmer and I've been getting her out on some bike rides, but she is highly averse to running.  We'll see!?

TRI EXPERIENCE (if any): None

CURRENT TRAINING: Recently I've been biking 8-12 miles on the weekends and looking to start the 'Couch to Sprint' training.  Plan to take it one day at a time.

PLANNED RACES FOR 2011:  I have my eye on a Sprint on 9/17.  Cane Creek Triathlon


WEIGHT LOSS GOALS (if any): Yes.  My primary goal is to just get off the couch, but will take all the weight loss I can get.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE MENTOR GROUP WILL PROVIDE FOR YOU and WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE GROUP: Looking for anwers to all the questions I don't have yet as triathalon is all new to me.  I will be an active participant.

-Steve

Hi everyone,

For the new people, I've been in Stu and Heidi's winter training group.  It's great to have some new faces join the new group.  I hope you'll get as much out of the group as I have. 

To introduce myself:

NAME: Rachel
 
STORY: About a year ago my husband told me that he'd always wanted to do a triathlon before his 30th birthday, and he'd found one in june 2010 that was about a week before the big day.  I was trying to get fit for a new job and so thought that training for something would be good, so joined in.  We did a charity sprint, which looking back was a really informal event, but a great introduction.  I didn't intend to do another one - it was definitely a one off for me...  But then I randomly met someone through walking my dog who was in the local triathlon club.  She was planning to do a "mini" triathlon (shorter than a sprint), and asked if I wanted to go along with her.  I thought it would be fun to do a more "offficial" tri, and it was really short, so I figured I could manage it.  And that one got me hooked.  My husband and I joined the local club and started swim training with them in September.  I've been running with them at the track sessions since June.  And from January 2011 I started a "proper" training plan. I don't have any kids, unlike almost everyone in the group, but my juggling is that I work shifts and it's challenging sometimes to fit everything around work.  But I'm gradually embracing the challenge, particularly with the support of the group...

FAMILY STATUS: As I said above, I'm married but no kids.  My husband also does triathlons and we do some training together, but we have very different strengths and weaknesses, so we tend to train separately for the sessions that matter.

TRI EXPERIENCE (if any): Sprint and mini in 2010.  Completed my first sprint of 2011 yesterday (race report to follow).

CURRENT TRAINING: 2x per week swim and cycle (or at least I try), 3x per week running, as it needs the most work.

PLANNED RACES FOR 2011: My 'A' race is Cleveland Steelman in July, which is a HIM.  I've got another sprint and an OLY before then to build up, and another OLY afterwards.  I'm also doing a half marathon and my first marathon later in the year (which is part of the reason for all the run training).

WEIGHT LOSS GOALS (if any): I set a weight loss goal on 1st January of 75kg by the end of May.  I was 86kg at the time.  Currently sitting at 78.6kg, so well on the way.  Mostly because of all the training, but also I've got a much better control of my portion sizes...

WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE MENTOR GROUP WILL PROVIDE FOR YOU and WHAT WILL YOU BRING TO THE GROUP: I've found the winter group has really helped motivate me to keep training.  It's nice to know other people are looking at my training log and I really appreciate the inspires.  It's also really helped me to set monthly goals and stick to them (or realise they're the wrong goals).  I hope that I join in with the group and encourage people.  I'm still very new to triathlon, but have some very experienced friends and coaches running the sessions I go to, so when I have anything to contribute I do try.

Welcome back Andrea!  Pretty cool looking at all you've accomplished thus far in 2011 and the season has just begun :-)

Welcome Steve (and boy does your situation sound familiar!) and welcome back Rach (looking forward to that race report!).

Dang... have to keep this short at work ;-)  More later!

Now for my race report (also in my race log here):

First sprint of the year.  There was a quote from an elite triathlete in a magazine I was reading last week that said "the first race of the year always hurts the most, so it's good to get it over with".

It was a beautiful day for it.  Weather in the high 60s with a bit of wind, so not too hot, but warm enough.

On a personal note, I landed up starting at exactly the same time as Kevin (my husband), and we didn't know who was going to be faster, which kept things interesting...

The swim started okay.  Was a 400yd pool swim.  I didn't like the way they did it - 4 people in each lane with a 5 second interval between each.  It meant that there was one guy who was really frustrated at trying to pass everyone because he was super quick, and then I got stuck behind the other two.  Just goes to show that noone put the right swim times in...  But I was fairly pleased with my swim.  Got out of the pool feeling fresh and ran (properly ran) to transition.

T1 went well.  Didn't get myself knotted up in anything and was fairly quick, although I've identified a couple of bits I can do without.

The bike was an interesting experience.  I passed a bunch of people, but a bunch of people also passed me, and because it was laps and everyone started at different times you didn't know who was ahead of you and who was behind.  It was fairly flat except for one really steep but short hill.  We'd cycled it a few days ago to get to know it, so I knew what was coming.  Because it was windy and flat I spent a lot of time down on my aero bars, which is good except that I haven't spent that much time on them in training because they were scaring me until recently (you think clipless peddles are bad, try them AND aero bars...).  However, I got down a lot, and when I wanted access to the brakes was on the drops instead, which I think really helped.  Emphasised a training need though.  Bike went well, but I was pushing really hard all the way along.  Remembered to change down a couple of gears and spin for the last couple of hundred yards of the bike.

T2 was fast - getting the hang of the shoe change, although my legs felt horrible.

The run started off feeling horrible.  My legs just felt like lead for the first mile.  It was 3 laps, and normally I would expect to be feeling better by the end of the first lap, but it just kept going.  The 2nd lap was okay, but the 3rd one I really felt fatigued and was having trouble keeping my pace up.  Slowed down a bit, but kept myself going by aiming for the woman just ahead of me who'd been running the same distance in front for the whole time.  She made up a bit of distance on me, but that kept me going to the finish line.

Final official time was 1hr 18min 40sec.  That's 50min faster than my sprint last year!  There are a bunch of differences, but basically I'm really pleased that my winter training has given me a great base for the year.

My swim and bike times were fast (for me), but I was most pleased with my run time.  It felt really hard work, but I kept to my projected time, which means all the training is paying off. And the guys from the tri club who I consider to be fast were only about 6 min ahead of me!

And the best part of all was that Kevin crossed the line 3 sec after me, so I beat him!  I don't consider myself to be a competitive person, but he's made himself the only person I compete with.  The reason is that last year (when I'd done loads more training than him) I was faster than him in both tri's, which prompted him to say "there cannot be a world where you are faster than me".  This year we've both been training loads, and he's a much better runner than me, so we were both expecting him to beat me.  However, it turns out my bike section was sufficiently good to make up the difference...  I think a time will come when he's faster than me (he should be - he's younger, and 6'7", so has all the leverage he could need), but I'm enjoying it while he's not!

Things I learned:

1) I need to put more thought into my bike training.  I've been going out for a lot of bike rides, but not really thinking about what I'm doing.  I've realised that dull though it is, I need to spend a bit more time on the trainer and really get used to being on the aero bars.  It's a completely different position and works very different muscles, so I can't expect to just hunker down when I need to and find the power there.

2) My stretching and swissball exercises are important.  I had spinal surgery a long time ago, and everytime I go to my physio for any problem it turns out it's related to my lower back.  I've been doing daily stretching and core exercises for a while which have really helped.  However, the last couple of weeks I've been a bit lax about it, and I really felt it on the run.  I had a massage afterwards, and the guy commented on how tight my lower back and glutes were, and that was why my legs felt so leaden for the run.  So stretch, stretch, stretch...

Final result, in my age category I was 18th out of 31.  So MoP here I come!