willie05's Group - Closed

Hi Bob,

I'd like to join your group. Your story really resonated with me. Somehow you've managed to incorporate training in with your busy life including family and a career. Something I've tried to do unsuccessfully in the past, so I'd love to learn how you did it. I'm a true beginner who needs to lose some weight and get in shape for the upcoming roller derby bout season. So in addition to biking, swimming and running, I'll be doing some skating too.

Annie

Hey Annie!

Welcome to the group!  I'm definitely looking forward to having a good group of folks this year, it can be a lot of fun - and motivating!

Good luck with the roller derby - that's really cool!  Medusa Ann, in my friends list, is also planning on doing that.

One thing I found over this past year was that once I made training for triathlons my main focus and weightloss secondary, it made losing weight easier!  Sounds odd, but by focusing on the training, and keeping consistent, the weight had to come off.  Plus once I lost the weight, I kept on training for the races, so my weight didn't climb back up like it had done in past years once I hit my weight goal.

Just lurking to quickly say...Bob will be a great mentor!!!! He was a member of my last mentor group and knows his stuff! Very upbeat and encouraging as well!!! You'll love him!!!!

Hey Mark!

Welcome to our small, but growing group!  The 1st paragraph pretty much sums up my year for 2007!  I'll look forward to sharing stories and learning from each other as we all get more into the triathlons over the coming months!

Bob

Bob, you got room in here for a runner?

Name: El Flaco-- Jase

Story: I have been a runner since HS. I have always enjoyed running. I race on a local team here in the Wichita area. A couple of my teammates are also into triathlons. After much prodding they talked me into getting a road bike. I purchased my bike in Nov. '05. And started training for a Century Ride held in Aug.  After the first time on the bike I was hooked. I loved being on my bike almost as much as I loved running. After the ride in Aug. the guys decided I needed to give triathlons a try.  So I did my first tri in April of '06. In 2006 I think I did about 6 or 7 triathlons. I even qualified for USAT Age-Group Nationals. It was held in KC. So I went and had a horrible experience. I wasn't trained for an oly distance open water swim. In 2007 I had no "A" triathlon I just did all of the ones I could get into. I think what keeps bringing me back is my competitive fire. I love to pass and beat people! I am a very competitive person. I actually gave up racing motocross to start racing in triathlons!

Family Status: I just recently married the love of my life. Dec 15 to be exact. We have dated since April of '97.  We have a 2 yr old daughter. My wife is very understanding and supportive. Some days she is the reason I actually get out the door to train. "What your not going to run tonight? I don't want to here it when so and so beat you in the race!" She is awesome!

Current Training: I ran the Dallas Whiterock Marathon in early Dec. so my training right now is basically nothing.  I'm taking a little break to let my body and mind relax. It seems like I have been on full throttle since early spring. Feels good to take a break but I know I can't relax very long or the competition will pass me by.

2007 Races: I actually raced less this year than I have in the past. I run about every running race in the area. I think I participated in 4 or 5 triathlons. I can't remember the exact amount. I would have to look it up. My main goal for 2007 was to go under three hours in the marathon. I came close running a 3:04 in Dallas.

2008 Goals: My tentative plans are to focus on The Redman Triathlon in Sept. It is an iron distance event. I plan on racing Ironman Kansas 70.3 in June as a tune up for Redman! Other than that I'm not going to plan on much as I believe that is a couple big races. Having only completed one oly distance event I think I will be taking a big step to these distances. I'm sure I won't be able to pass up running in the local running races!

Needs: Aren't we all a little needy? All I'm looking for is a little camaraderie and people to share triathlon experiences with. I have some knowledge when it comes to running so I would be happy to share what I know. It's always neat to log on and see that somebody has inspired you! I decided to join a group so I could meet people and pick up and pass on some encouragement along the way!

Lookin' forward to being in your group and getting to know some other TRIATHLETES!

Jase

Maybe he went away for the holidays? Here's hoping anyway.We've got a good size group going now and I think I'm finally not the only female. Are we supposed to add each other to our friends list? I think I read that somewhere. Did anyone do this last time that knows?

Annie

Hey everyone - sorry I was out of touch there for a few days!  It's a crazy time of year for work - which has now settled down, so that limited me somewhat to doing much posting in December.  Then the internet connection was giving us trouble, so I wasn't able to post from home, but that's fixed now. 

Looks like we have a really good group, so we'll should be able to have lots of discussion and learning from each other.

My own training went right down the tubes that last week.  Unfortunately I gave in to all the candy and cookies that kept making their way into our home.  So it's time for me to get back on track!

One topic I thought about last night while walking the puppies was what are the obstacles that you need to overcome to train and race?   It seems that there are a couple types - your own mental obstacles to get started and keep going, and the practical aspects (i.e. time, location, etc).

The decision to start training and keep at it after a few weeks (if you haven't done any training in a while) may be the toughest.  That's where the encouragement from family and friends and from everyone here at BT really helps.  I get what I would call lukewarm support from home, so the BT crowd really helped me last year, and continues to!

The time constraint is also important.  I wouldn't get any training done if I tried in the evenings, so I do all my training early morning and at lunch time.  I got into a pretty good routine of swimming or running in the mornings (and sometimes biking), and biking at lunchtime.  Now with winter I haven't gotten back into a good routine yet, but that will definitely come next week!  So that is my number one constraint right now.

What are all your training plans over the coming weeks? 

And a little off topic - Any good Holiday stories??  Our number one present to our daughters was tickets to the Hannah Montana concert next Friday!   Wish me luck!

I should have said welcome to everyone who's joined!  I'm looking forward to all of our conversations! 

We have a great group, so I went ahead and closed it.  In general these groups work great in two ways.  The first is through this forum where we can all post questions and general talk about training or anything else, and we can all give each other advice from our own experience and what we've learned from others.

You'll learn a lot not just from this forum, but from the other groups, and the Triathlon Talk threads.  I've gotten great advice from there.  And I also learned pretty early on that I wasn't the only one looking for advice!

The other way is through the inspires.  That's where you go have a look at each other's logs and hit the inspire link to give encouragement or ask questions specifically to that person.  One hint I would give on those is if you reply to an inspire that someone left you, use the blog button rather than reply.  That will put your response back in their log and make it easier for them to see.

I would also encourage you to use your training log if you haven't started already.  That's the best way for all of us to see what you're up to and encourage you, but more than that, use it to keep track of your own progress.

To make it easy to see each other's logs, you can go ahead add us all to your friends list.  That will create the links in your log so you can go straight to anyone else's log you've added.  To do that, go the control panel icon (the one that looks like a gear), not the word "control panel", and hit the Friends tab.

So our group is:

willie05 - Bob

annievi - Annie

mdodd - Mark

El Flaco - Jase

snowriderinfl - Steven

squishybelly - Squishy (love that username!)

rjdorman - Bob

kweber - Karl

nhbuckeye

wswope

Good luck to everyone!

Regarding eating first thing, I've heard a lot from both sides of this.  Personally I don't eat before I train in the morning, unless I'm going to go for an hour or more.  However I do eat and drink immediately afterwards.   People do it this way, and others eat first.  I think everyone has different needs and you need to see what works best for you.  Since your sluggish first thing, you should definitely try eating first and see if that helps.   I time my mid-morning snack (protein bar) about an hour before any training at lunch.  I absolutely need that or else I feel terrible at  that time.

No matter what you do before a workout, it's very important to eat and replenish yourself after a workout.  If your trying to lose weight, don't worry about adding calories at this time, you need the carbs and protein after a workout to repair and build strength.

I agree - open water swimming can be a real bear.  The only thing that helps with that is to practice it as much as you can - go jump in Lake Ontario all summer!  I don't do much around here, but I travel some for work, so I got in practice on some trips.  But then it's a whole new game once you have legs and arms all around you fighting for the same spot!  I just try to take it easy and remember my technique.  Definitely takes getting used to.

The best training I've done for improving my speed is intervals or strides.  I do at least one run a week that is filled with those, but definitely not every run.  I saw a great improvement in my times and how I recovered after runs once I started mixing those in.