Still Tri-ing

I was sort in in your position - super athletic up until I was married in my late 20's and then it just slowly slipped away for 20+ years and put on some 60+ lbs. Oh sure I made attempts but they never lasted or I got injured. Finally a couple of years ago I finally made it work. The key for me patience - no quick fix - just consistent easy training and real life style changes.

Given your athletic history in the past - I'm willing to bet that you will make some of the same mistakes I made over recent years - over train. Our minds want to think we are in our 20's & 30’s but our bodies just can't do that – especially given all that weight we are carrying. The single most important thing you can do is avoid injury – they simply take so long to recover from compared to our youth. Over the last four years I got injured twice that set me back 4 months each time and all that weight came right back since I never address the root issues – life style eating, sleeping, and exercises changes.

Given the knee and hips - you will want to start focusing on low impact aerobic to begin to build a base. Ideas would be easy swimming or elliptical training (elliptical training is how I lost my first 25 lbs. so I'm a huge believer in it due to the almost no impact) combined with brisk walking. Slowly transition to light jog/walk style as your endurance improves - the key is avoiding pain especially in those areas you have injured before. Yea, when we were younger we would just do it and bang - you are in shape in no time – and we lived by the “no-pain-no-gain” rule, but those days are long gone. From when I got serious - elliptical 5+ days/week consistently - I just last weekend did my first sprint tri - that took me 18 months and closing on 35lbs lost. I was near the bottom of the overall times - but I did not care - my goal was to finish and not be in any real pain - so to me my time was a huge success. Heck afterwards, I went and spent a couple of hours of weed-whacking on my property. I felt really good.

For a bike, I fixed up my old 1983 college mountain bike, and started using that. I did not drop a load on a new bike or even bother with a lower cost used road bike – it was more a blast to my youth and all the trail riding I did on it and it gave me a goal – to finish with a heavy old fixed up bike. So use things that were important to you in the past to help keep you motivated as you begin this journey. And that is the key – this will be a long process and no quick fix - so anything you can find that will help keep you motivated is a positive.

I was never a swimmer in my youth, so I just recently starting getting some coaching from the local High School on swimming – my youngest son recently started swimming in the club program so I joined and now hit that pool couple of times a week early mornings – already I am seeing improvement in my swimming compared to trying to just swim on my own. The great thing about swimming is having all that weight does not put the kinds of stress that running does and it really helps with endurance.

It will really help if your spouse or someone is also involved in this process with you. Having someone encourage you helps big time on those days you simply would otherwise say – “I’m too busy to workout”. Also helps to work together on changing eating lifestyle. My wife was a huge encouragement to me and we really changed our eating – trying many different healthy foods. She also got me back into playing tennis like we did in our youth, and going on hikes and other outside activities.

One of the things I did five years ago was step up for my oldest sons scout troop to become scoutmaster and taking the scouts on campouts was another motivation factor for me to want to make the required life style changes.

So congrats on starting this journey – don’t get caught up in all the gear stuff – right now you want to focus on the engine and keep going without injury. Take your time and do it right and it will stick.

Then - once you finally get that first tri-sprint under your belt - then all that gear starts looking so nice and the fun begins.

Thanks Tyab and congrats on the sprint tri.

So much of what you said made sense and confirmed the basics of what I was thinking. I know what you mean about going too hard initially. That has set me back on several attempts in the past. I've started walking and jogging very short distances. I plan to increase the running distance slowly and may be not even run a full 5K until the race. Plus I'm incorporating some weight training into my routine. From what I've read weight training is great for older athletes such as myself. I'll take your suggestion and start swimming too (always was my best event).

As for the gear, yep, almost as soon as I started losing weight I was on the Trek website constructing my new tri-bike. Had to slap myself out of that one. I have my old road bike sitting on the wall in the garage. Hasn't been riden in 17 years and is in need of some maintenance. Once I am at the point of considering a tri I'll cough up the money to perform the necessary work to bring it up to par. Until that time I'll just ride my mountain bike.

Thanks again. It's great to hear someone else has blazed a path before me.

Cheers,

NealeinMI

Edited by NealeinMI 2014-06-03 4:58 PM

NealeinMI,

I have never done a Tri but I was in very good shape in the 90s. I was active duty Marine Corps for about six years and use to do a lot of running. I have only done a couple of half marathons since and I hav e just been gaining weight like crazy ever since. I now am 38 years old and also weigh 255lbs. Lucky for me I do not have any health issues at all just an addiction to sugar and fatty foods! Anyway I am on this site to help organize my workout routines and eventually (i don't know when) do a triathlon.

thought I would send a quick note since we are at the same weight today and bot hare motivated! lol

Javier

HijoDmaite,

I can tell you my best effort of getting back into shape was when I was 37. My wife and I did the Body for Life Challenge through Muscle Media Magazine and EAS Supplements. I dropped nearly 40lbs over 12 weeks. Unfortunately my motivation was to win the contest. So when I didn't win my body for life became "body for six months". Luckily I have several motivators this time and none have victory at their center. As I mentioned in my initial post, my son is running now and I want to be able to run with him. Also I've had a couple of health concerns in the past year. The main one is my blood pressure. It was up to 140/92. I've always been 120/80 day in and day out. Such a simple thing, but a huge motivator for me.

For the first time I have desire and motivation at the same time.

Good luck with your journey.

Cheers,

NealeinMI

HijoDmaite,

I can tell you my best effort of getting back into shape was when I was 37. My wife and I did the Body for Life Challenge through Muscle Media Magazine and EAS Supplements. I dropped nearly 40lbs over 12 weeks. Unfortunately my motivation was to win the contest. So when I didn't win my body for life became "body for six months". Luckily I have several motivators this time and none have victory at their center. As I mentioned in my initial post, my son is running now and I want to be able to run with him. Also I've had a couple of health concerns in the past year. The main one is my blood pressure. It was up to 140/92. I've always been 120/80 day in and day out. Such a simple thing, but a huge motivator for me.

For the first time I have desire and motivation at the same time.

Good luck with your journey.

Cheers,

NealeinMI