Hey everyone

Brother ... I've been exactly where you are so let me give you a bit of advice from one shrinking clyde to another ....

1. Believe in yourself, you can do it, no doubt.  If I can, you can

2. follow a gradual building program that suits where you are and fits your schedule.  don't increase your times/distances too fast.  A mistake I made was going too far/too long too fast. 

3. Find someone or a group you may be able to train with.  Makes it a lot more fun.  There are others out there at your current level

4. Stick with it.  Believe it or not, training does become enjoyable.

5. Use this site as a resource of information and encouragement.  You can get both.

Good luck and have fun.

Bruce

Thanks guys, I have already picked out a couple of sprint tri’s for later this year one in August and one in October, I have not registered for either yet but that will change in the next week or two... I am very lucky that I have a couple of great people around me that are helping me with swimming and slowing me down as I go along when it goes to riding and running again. Last night was what I felt was my first real workout since getting back after it. 30 minutes in the pool followed by 30 minutes of walk/run. The walk/run workouts are slowly starting to become more run than walk and that is a great thing.

Bruce

Thanks for the insight, I know I that I will be fighting what my friends and I call “The Wizards of Self-Doubt”. I have won many battles against them in the past years but they have won many battles in the past 12 months so I am slowly starting to take the fight to them. Right now they are popping up when my alarm clock goes off at 5:15am and try to convince me to go back to bed instead of the gym. This week they have won 3 of the 5 days.  LOL I have to remember that its baby steps, I want to be back where I was before I blew up my back so badly that I can taste it. I will always have that struggle with me to do one more lap in the pool, run to that next mail box in my run or grab one more mile on the bike before I shut it down. The plan for me right now is focus on core strength and mechanics of running and swimming.

There is so far not really a group but I have friends that are well beyond my abilities but they are more than willing to "slum it with me" on occasion. My running buddy is my pup Lucky unless it’s raining he is always eager to go for a run with me. If tis raining he will go but you can tell he would rather not.  Now if I could find a Tri that would let me take Lucky with me for the run part I would be set. LOL

Thanks guys for a great website I am doing tons of reading and learning a lot

Luke

Last piece of advice .... it is okay if the alarm clock wins once in a while.  Sometimes it's just not your day to train.  Get up the next day and get after it. 

Brce

Good point but if the alarm clock wins then I have to do my swim with whatever evening workout I am supposed to be doing. Normally Monday Wednesday Friday are my swim AM and run PM days. Tuesday Thursday is normally core in the morning and ride in the or climb in the evening