Aloha from a Noobie!

Aloha BTers! I found this site a few days ago as I was questing through the 'net looking for someplace to hang my tri-suit during my indoctrination into this wonderful three-disciplined lifestyle.

First, a little about me. I live in Hawaii on the island on Oahu and have been here for nearly 16 years. I am 40 years old, 6'5" and currently tip the scales at about 255 lbs. Yes, I'm a true Clydesdale if ever there was one. If I were to guess I'd estimate my body fat to be somewhere around 15-18% which for me is entirely to high and uncomfortable. I've been an on-again-off-again fitness participant most of my life. Most of this involvement has been in the weight room with little interest in endurance sports other than occassional spurts of running as required for fat elimination. I am by no means a gazelle but I have been able to get my 10k times to under 45 mins, however... that was much prior to the big "Four-Oh".

What brings me to triathlon? Well, a few years ago my good friend challenged me to participate in The Great Aloha Run which is an annual charity run held in Honolulu with a distance of about 8.15 miles. This challenge came during one of my periods of physical disregard and I welcomed the reason to start training again. So, I began running. Unfortunately my knees didn't appreciate the idea of carrying my large frame and began to get sore. In order to keep up on my training I decided to pull out the $1500 Bianchi coat rack from my bedroom and use it to supplement my endurance training on alternate days. The bike (Bianchi Giro) is quite nice and was only about 2 years old at the time.

Biking was great! I really enjoyed riding around Diamond Head and the world class views my island home provides. Shortly, my training ride became a nice 25 miler from Honolulu to Hawaii Kai and back. During one of my rides I stopped in at a very friendly bike shop (Island Triathlon & Bike) to get a quick adjustment. While I was there I saw a display offering Athletes HI, a free event publication for my area. I grabbed a copy and took it home. The next day while browsing through the magazine I saw something I'd never seen before, an advertisement for a sprint distance tri! Wow! You mean I don't have to be inhuman to try a tri? Hmmm... the spriint event consisted of a 500m swim, 12.4 mile bike and a 5k run. Well, the bike and run would be no problem since I was already covering twice the required distance in my regular training. The only obstacle was the swim. I spoke to a friend at work who informed me that 500m wasn't far at all and was conveniently measured and marked with a bouy at Ala Moana Beach Park. For those that don't know Ala Moana Beach Park is about as close as you can get to a 1K long salt water swimming pool. There is a huge reef that eliminates any waves long before they reach sand. This is a fantastic place for fitness swimming and allows for a 2K down and back. Well, I ventured to the beach park to find out if I could even manage the 500m distance without the aid of a lifeguard. Thankfully, I managed. It wasn't pretty or fast, but I managed.

I began incorporating swims into my weekly training and even attended a few free swim classes in order to learn better body position and stroke technique (this was after I was passed by an older gentleman who entered the water when I did and exited before I could finish. The trouble was that he swam 2K and I only swam 1k). 2 weeks of swim drills made an unbelivable difference. I was prevously covering my 1k course in about 35 mins. After attending 2 pool training sessions I returned to the beach. I couldn't believe it when I got out of the water a full 10 mins faster than I had before attending the classes! Wow! Before long I was covering the entire 2k course in about 45-50 minutes! I Felt great! I looked great! I was loving it!

I chose a local and small sprint-tri as my inagural event and was looking foward to it very much. About a month before the event I asked a friend at work if he was going to enter and he told me that registration had already closed! What? I checked online and found that he spoke the truth. I was crushed.

I kept training but lost my focus. Shortly after this I rekindled a previous relationship which eventually led to my marriage to my wonderful wife last Feb. With the new relationship (which created a Brady Bunch in our home... 5 kids total) my training tapered off and eventually deminished completely for about 14 months. I kept thinking back about how much I enjoyed my running, biking and swimming and the terrific feeling of health I enjoyed while training. So Daw-Gonnit! No one else is going to get me off my butt! Know one else is going to ride my bike! Know one else if going to take away these flabby love-handles! Since no one else is going to do it... I guess I WILL!

That brings us to present day. Currently I am running one short run (3k) and one long run (6k) per week. I am trying to work my way up to a weekly 25 mile bike ride on the weekend and eventually manage a 2nd shorter ride during the week. Swimming is a bit out of the way for me but I can manage a weekend swim but I also hope to fit in a weekday swim as well. I'm still finding my way into a comfortable routine. If I've learned one thing whether it has to do with diet or training. No matter how inconvenient, intrusive, no matter the level of sacrifice involved... it has to be tolerable or I won't keep up with it for long. Therefore, I will work on balancing my job, wife, kids and all they require while trying to steal away for a regular training routine. I'm sure eventually the family will become accustom to my training (as will I) and will know when during the week I won't be available.

The Kalaeloa Sprint Triathlon is coming up on December 3 and I'd really like to tackle it as my first real event. My only goal would be to gain as much experience as I can by participating in the race atmosphere and really see the nuts and bolts of it all in action. Aside from that I only hope to finish all three legs with no regard what-so-ever to the clock. The next event on my calander would be The Great Aloha Run mentioned above and then the Lanikai Triathlon which is the original sprint distance event I was aiming for 2 years ago. Finally, I'd like to cap off the season with the Honolulu Triathlon which would be my first attempt at an Oly. I feel that by late May '06 I should be able to complete the Olympic distances as long as I stay true to my training.

Anyway, that's me. I'll be lurking around and may even toss a question or share an experience or two along the way. Thanks for taking the time to read my blather and thanks in advance for all the guidance and inspiration I'm sure I'll find here on a regular basis.

Aloha!
Wookie