Shermbelle's Group Full and training our a$$es off

Hey Mike, your in, welcome.

Cool your doing a non-branded IM for your first. I will be curious to follow your progress along as I know the non-branded don't get the hype around here that the branded do. Good luck in your training and fire off any questions you have along the way. I will keep tabs on your logs and do my best to motivate.

Hi Michael,

I would like to join your group.  I am 27 years old, married (newlywed!), no children, and I have been on BT since March of '05, but have mostly been a very casual tri-er.  I've only done sprints, and have never been consistent or serious with my training, my life has generally been too rocky (graduate student, I moved 1-2 times every year, research, teaching, etc).  I did sprints because I could just do them and finish without much training and they were fun.

But this year has brought a lot of changes, and everything has settled down a bit.  I got married, gained 5 pounds immediately, and realized that finally, I will not be moving in the near future, and I'm at the point in my degree where I have nothign to do but work on my thesis.  And so I have time to train and it helps me stay sane, allowing me to think about something other than my research. 

I decided a few months ago that I was really going to get on this tri thing, and actually train consistently and see where that would take me.  I'm focusing on running first, I used to be pretty fast years ago and I'd like to be again.  I've been running fairly consistently for 2 months, and I'm shooting for a sub-2:10 half mary in April, maybe a sub-2hr in September.  I'd like to phase in more biking and swimming as I get more fit.  I have never been good about getting on my bike, and I'm a decent swimmer so I don't need as much work there.

I am hoping for camaraderie, encouragement, and advice from someone who has been through a lot of racing and training, and it sounds like you're it! 

Next year, I'm hoping to do 2 half marys, a couple of sprints, and an olympic.  For the first time, I really want this, and I want to stay that way.  And I wont' be upset if I lose some weight too (10 lbs max), but it's not really a main goal.

Thanks for doing this! 

Lisa 

Welcome Lisa, you're in

Great to see you're motivated to train and see what happens. I know the feeling of "wow there is 5 pounds." I was around high 180's last spring, training great and then summer hit. My wife is a teacher so she was off, our son was 18 months and getting around so it made it easy to travel and be gone and of course while your gone you eat like crap. Bam next thing I knew following my Iron Distance in Sept by Nov I was above 205 and thinking what happened.

We will keep you motivated to hit those goals on the half marys this next year.

Nole40 you are in, welcome.

I too am a midwestern (Michigan) and did Steelhead last year and will possibly be doing it again so we will have plenty to chat about.

I would definatly say running is my strength. I just took up swimming a year ago and have been biking maybe 2.5 years but nothing serious til last year when I started training for IM.

Welcome to the group.

Definatly have room for you Brian

Congrats on making the descision to have a healthy lifestyle and then going insane and signing up for IMAZ

My first time advice is soak up as much as you can. I started last year not knowing a thing about swimming and never biked more than 100 miles in a week much less one day.

Start practicing your nutrition now in just your day to day workouts. If you get up early to run or bike, find out what will work with your stomach early in the morning. Find out what you need to eat for breakfast to have a good workout and start the experimenting now.

Good Luck

Lexus, welcome to the crew.

Like the attitude of wanting to step it up a notch or three. Half marathon is a great distance and  a very abtainable goal if you are willing to work for it. We will do anything we can to help.

Group update

2 Mikes, Chris, Brian, Lisa, Alexis

Room for 2 more I would say. We seem to have  a pretty good group going with a nice mix of strengths and weaknesses where we should be able to help each other out a lot.

This is going to be a fun group!

Chris, yes, I'm a Wolverine, I was there for graduate school.  I'm technically still a student, but since getting married in June I have come out East to live with my husband and finish up my dissertation from here.  I don't know what it is about there...I mean, I grew up in San Diego, one of the best places to live ever, but I still am attached to the Midwest.  As well as California, of course.

Michael, it's not exactly warm here in CT either, but the people do not seem as nice, so Midwest wins .  There's something nice and folksy out there that I like.

Lisa 

Once we pick up a couple of more, I will put together a list of everyones goals and let everyone motivate each other

Wow, Brian I just read your bio again and your daughters are FAST in the pool.  Hopefully they'll be able to help you out!  (And as for an Illini mixing with a Wolverine, for the purposes of this group let's just say go Big Ten? )

My husband did IMAZ in April, he really enjoyed it, and he couldn't swim worth a darn before he started triathloning.  So, it's totally possible to pick up the swim in a fairly short time!  He did a HIM in '06 where his swim for the HIM was longer than his swim for the IM.  Kinda funny. 

Today we are getting a huge snowdump in the Northeast, which may force me to alter my training plans for the day...Driving in fresh snow to the pool is probably not smart, but I can probably still run, or if all else fails, hop on the trainer.

Hope everyone is having a great day.

Lisa 

I live in Michigan but definatley not a Wolverine, Spartan or any other Big Ten Fan.( North Carolina Baby, Go Heels!!)

Sounds like we may have a new joiner, I just sent back a PM.

And stop with the rubbing it in of running in shorts and a tshirt. Tomorrows high is 23 and we aren't even to winter yet.