Hello from the Great White North

I'm new to the endurance game and the individual sport thing so tri is a really interesting adventure for me.  I played high school and college football and was always training for short bursts of huge power.  This is very hard on the body and required a "physique" that was quite different than that of a triathlete. 

Initially I wasn't hooked on triathlon, I began running to lose weight and was not in love as most big athletes will appreciate.  At the time I didn't realize it but the best thing that happened to me was a severe foot sprain while playing ice hockey (go figure, Canadians eh!).  The only real training I could do was swimming and fortunately my parents had enrolled me in lessons from the time I was quite young so it was no big deal, just endurance.  I could swim 50m and then I needed a break, a considerable break.  However, I stuck with it and slowly built my endurance in the pool.  When I was finally able to start running again I didn't want to give up the swimming and put 2 and 2 together.  "All I need is a bike and I can do this triathlon thing everybody keeps talking about." 

Since I began really training for triathlon in January I've gone from 320 pounds down to just under 300 pounds but have also gained some muscles in places I didn't realize existed.  At this point I can swim 2.1km without rest in 51 mins, I cycled in the Rocky Mountains on a 108 km route (64ish miles) and can run 10k (6 miles) without walking.

But by far the best part of doing triathlons has been the people. I know I'm not going to win so I don't see the other athletes as competitors, rather they're along a journey WITH me.  Hopefully, tri is a sport I can do well into my golden years, plus if I hang around long enough I can probably qualify for Kona in the 70+ category!!!

Thanks to everyone in the clyde forum who has been so amazing and inspirational, we can do it.... just a little slower