Looking for some Triathlete friends!

FitGoofy

I'm just getting back into a healthy routing and have lost about 6 lbs before. I did sprint Triathlons for about the past 5 years and this year after my wife and I had a beautiful baby as well as two stressful years of work projects, I was down to doing one mini triathlon that I really didn't even train for. I have had a carbon road bike for about 4 years now which I absolutely love, but every time I look at it lately I feel like I'm neglecting the poor thing. haha

Looking for some triathlon friends that are either preparing for their first triathlon or training to continue the sport. I've only done sprint triathlons, I'm an above average swimmer, a strong biker, and a terribly slow runner. In general I race for my own accomplishments and not to place. I try to pass up as many people on the bike as I can because I know they'll pass me back up in the run.

Feel free to add me or talk about any kind of training or general triathlon info on here. I'm in Central Illinois and I'm hoping to get in at least 2 or three triathlons next season.

lemurcat12

Hi, welcome! I'm in Chicago. Between 2004 and 2007 I did 2-3 triathlons per year (mostly Olympic, as I'm better at longer distances where it's about finishing, not speed), plus various other running races (running was my first thing although I've never been super fast), and then for some reason I got burned out, fell out of it, went through some personal stuff and then had a few extremely stressful work years and managed to get terribly out of shape and gain lots of weight which I blame largely on going from being very active to sedentary.

I've spent the last several months losing and doing a good bit of biking and running and now I'm really excited to get back to training for some triathlons next year, of all distances from sprint to (maybe? I hope, but might be crazy) a half ironman.

I've been having some trouble balancing running and biking and haven't even tried to work in the swimming yet--winter project!--so I'm interested to read about everyone's training schedules.

I do play around with different plans at BeginnerTriathlete, but haven't managed to regularly follow one yet, in part because I've been focusing on training for a couple of half marathons (doing Naperville in about a week).

smc0170

You sound a lot like me! Northern Indiana here, and in the same boat with my speed in races. I'll shoot you a friend request.

FitGoofy

Yeah I need to find my way back to a pool. Especially with Winter coming around I need to join the Y so I have a pool to go to each day. I think I'm going to set my bike up on the trainer in the basement so I don't have the excuse that the spin bike is set to my wife's size.

Any area Tri's that either of you like? The Tri the Illini is fun in Champaign as is the Door County Tri in Door County Wisconsin. The door county one is probably my favorite. One thousand racers and the best ran race that I've participated in.

Hats off to you lemurcat12 for aspiring to a half iron! I think I would top out at an Olympic, but I admire people that can push further!

lemurcat12

The first Olympic triathlon I did was Lake Zurich, which I really liked. It's a much more manageable size than Chicago (but what isn't), has a pretty easy course (which could be a bad thing for some, but made it a great starter race), and a really fun swim across the lake. I'm not sure if they've changed it at all, and they don't seem to have the information for '15 up yet, but I know someone who did '14 and it sounded pretty similar to what I remembered, so I might do that one. I've heard other good things about Door County, though, so that one is also on my list and they might be right around the same time.

GWSGregS

Hello. I did a couple Sprints this year as a challenge from my sister. I'm hoping to do an Olympic or two next year as I'm never going to be fast, but I do seem to be stubborn.

My last race was in September, so after recovering on the couch for 6 weeks, I'm excited to get going again.

Just joined the group and looking for some like minded people to connect with also.

FitGoofy

lemurcat12 wrote: »

I've heard other good things about Door County, though, so that one is also on my list and they might be right around the same time.

Yeah that one fills up fast and is only a Sprint or Half Ironman, but is very scenic. The sprint is completely flat, but the Half Iron gets hilly because you're all over door county. A great long weekend trip though!