fat smoker to triathlete

Just wanted to thank everyone for the compliments. Never get enough of those.

Also wanted to answer a few questions and add a few more comments.

I had been a smoker for about 25 years since i was around 16. It was very hard to build up the cardio strength to be able to run and i think doing a combination of swimming running and biking has made it better than doing just one. Hard to explain but I believe the biking and swimming made me a better runner and the running made me a better biker.

I mentioned the importance of setting goals and really should expand on that a little. I worked with both long term and short term goals. The short term goals like eat right today and bike 50 or 100 miles this week should be helping you reach your long term goal of finishing a triathlon. Its much easier to stay on track when you have specific goals for both long and short term. Originally my goal when I started was to get down to 220 lbs from 270 and I set short terms goals of losing 5 lbs every two weeks. Some times I missed the short term goals but the really kept me focused day to day. You also have to be willing to adjust your goals. It became apparent that I would lose more than the 50 lbs so I adjusted that to 185 (still not there by the way) and had set goals of running several 5k's over the fall holiday season but my injury changed that plan so I changed that goal to set some swimming goals.

Some people have said I am inspiration and that is very humbling. If my example encourages someone to make a possitve healthy change in their life than I would feel blessed. I don't think what I did was all that amazing. What I mean is I just did what I had to do to save or prolong my own life. Once I realized that it became easy to make better choices.

I do sometimes look for inspiration and usually find it in my wife. If I need more inspiration especially on the days I don't feel like getting up at 4:30 am to go to the pool or spend 3 hours on a nice Sunday afternoon training on my bike I think of people like Sarah Reinertsen or Team Hoyt and all my silly excuses melt away. If you've never heard of them, look them up on youtube. Now THEY are inspirational.