huskyboy's Group - FULL

Welcome to BT Troy! Start logging those workouts, and I look forward to helping you reach your goals!

 -Rob

Welcome Mark! Sounds like you're already doing some good training. That's great that you found a tri-club to join - having people to train and race with is always good for motivation. Start logging your workouts here at BT - it's a great way to keep track of your progress, and I look forward to seeing you meet your goals!

-Rob

Welcome Bob, Kiran, and Mats! You guys all have some great goals, and congratulations on the progress you have made so far.

So it looks like the group is now full. Feel free to add each other to your logs and to leave "inspire me" notes and comments for each other. One of the best parts of this community is the motivation to be gained from knowing that other people are checking up on you and care about how you are doing.

I am available pretty much any time for any questions, comments, concerns, etc. Feel free to leave me inspire me notes or private messages, or post to this thread for more general and open discussions.  Also, let me know if you have any questions on how any of the features of BT work.

Someone on another thread made a good point that I think is worth repeating here - don't be intimidated by the logs - just click on "edit today's log" and put in the time and/or distance of your workouts, along with a few comments about how you felt, how it went, or whatever. You don't have to fill in all the detailed ratings about weight, nutrition, or anything else if you don't want to (although it can be fun to graph your weight and see your progress over time).

Again, welcome to everyone and I look forward to supporting you all!

-Rob

Look for a sprint distance triathlon. Sprint distance races usually range anywhere from a 400 to 800 meter swim, around a 20k bike, and a 5k run. From what you describe of your background, the bike will be a piece of cake, but the swimming and running will be more difficult.

The swimming will come with practice - the real trick is to SLOW DOWN. Most people (including myself) had that initial experience of gasping for breath after that first lap or two, but once you learn to slow down and not fight the water, it gets easier. If available, look into some local swimming classes or coaching, or consider getting one of the Total Immersion books or DVD's. Form is very important when swimming, much more important than strength or stamina.

So that leaves the running - you said the most you've done is about a mile, so we'll work from there. Try some run/walking - this is what I did when I started - I would run for 4 minutes or so, then walk a minute, then repeat. Run/walking will let you cover more distance, and eventually the walk "breaks" get shorter and farther between, and eventually disappear.  Some even start with one minute running/two minutes walking, and build from there.

You may want to check out some of the sprint distance training plans here on BT. A lot of people have had good success using these kinds of plans.

So that would be my initial advice - pick an early-season sprint for next year, then see how it's going and if you'll want to do some more sprints next summer or maybe even bump up to an olympic distance (1500M/40k/10k).

Yeah, I think I would stay away from any kind of crash, starvation type diet. It's a tough balance when you're training for triathlon and wanting to lose a good amount of weight. You need to fuel and replenish your body for your workouts, but also want to run a caloric deficit to drop the pounds. I would bet that any workouts would be miserable on 450 calories a day. 

One thing to consider is your goals - are you looking to drop some quick pounds, or looking to develop a long-term healthy, active lifestyle? If you're just looking to drop some quick weight, than a diet might work for you, but there may be a serious rebound.  On the other hand, if you are looking to make a long term change, then you don't need to do any drastic "dieting".  Many would suggest that thinking of what you are doing as "dieting" works against you, since the idea of a diet is that it's short term and usually involves deprivation or some kind of non-sustainable plan of eating (like all that Atkins crap).  Weight watchers seems relatively balanced compared to a lot of other plans, and I have seen it help some people.

I think the common factor that makes some plans work is making you be conscious of what you are eating. The vast majority of people don't really think about their food choices and quantities, and end up consuming way too much. Drives me nuts to see people hitting the drive through at Dunkin Donuts for a "snack" which consists of a giant latte and a muffin which hits them with well over a thousand calories.

What worked for me was to do SOME calorie restriction but also to make some long term changes in how and what I ate. Toss out the simple sugars, simple carbs, unhealthy fats, processed foods, and fast foods, and focus on fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein, healthy fats, and so on. Focus on eating throughout the day if possible, with lots of small meals.  People at my work joke about how I'm always eating, which is pretty true, but what I'm eating is a piece of fruit, some almonds, a granola bar, or other such things.

On a typical day (when not doing long distance training), my eating looks something like this: banana before morning workout (5:30), big bowl of cereal (raising bran or cheerios usually) after the workout (6:30), banana and oj when I get to work (7:30), small bag of almonds and raisins or dried apricots (8:30-9), granola bar - nature valley, not the chocolate chip/smores types (10), carrot sticks (11), cheese stick, banana, pear (noon), fruit for mid-afternoon snack (2:30), maybe some wheat thins or more almonds or whatever's around when I get home (4:30), then a regular dinner (such as grilled chicken/broccoli/brown rice, pasta with chicken sausage and focaccia bread, pork chops with peas and mashed sweet potatoes). I drink a lot of water also.

I didn't change it all overnight, just started making some slow changes, replacing a candy bar with a banana, things like that.  If you are training steadily, and making some healthy changes to your diet, the weight will drop. It becomes kind of addicting, and starts to reinforce itself - the excitement of seeing a few more pounds comes off provides good motivation to not eat some junk while you're sitting at work.

Good to see another diet coke addict! With the new year I am trying to cut that down - probably not the worse thing in the world, but water would definitely be better for hydration.

Snacks for me usually involve a piece of fruit, some nuts, or a granola bar.

About 1/4 cup, or a good handfull of them. 100g seems like a pretty big serving - almost a 1/4 pound?