Hi everyone!
My name is Brooke and I'm just shy of 40.

My first sprint tri is two weeks from today, the Spa Girl Tri on May 10, 2014.

I have been obese to varying degrees my entire life. In February of 2013, the super morbidly obese version of me decided to turn things around. At that time my osteoarthritis was so severe and I was so out of shape that everything hurt all the time and I could barely walk without major pain. I started swimming to keep pressure off my joints and eventually hired a personal trainer. When I mentioned to him that I wished there was some event I could do for endurance he suggested I look into sprint triathlons. I bought my bike as a reward for losing 100 lbs last August and ended up registering for the Spa Girl Tri with a friend (who has since backed out). My ortho doctor gave me the thumbs up on the condition that I don't run. I started training in earnest in January and have shifted my focus from weight loss to becoming a triathlete. The weight loss is a great side benefit! I swim a mile to a mile and a half 3 times a week, have trimmed my 400 meter time to 9 minutes, and am walking a 15-minute mile pretty regularly. When I bought my bike I couldn't get my legs to do two rotations of the pedals and now I am comfortable doing 13 mies in an hour. It'll never get me to Kona but I am proud not only of my progress but of the people in my life who are making the same kind of changes.

My trainer and I are competing in the Couples Tri in Austin on July 13, 2014. I have another friend who is going to be my partner in 2015. Other than that I'll be biking the Rock N Roll Marathon in San Antonio on December 7, 2014. I think this season I will only have the 2 events because after the Couples Tri I will be water-grounded by my doctor while I get some knee injections. I am hoping that by next year I can move on to Olympic Distances.

Feel free to friend me, especially if you would like to help a slow, fat newbie that has fallen in love wth multisport.

45 year old, I've done tri's in the past and have let myself go. Time to get back into it. Goal is a 1/2 IM for next year. I'm concerned about my weight and the strain it's putting on ankles, knees and hips as I always have some pain in there. I'm tipping 260, and at 5'9", I don't have many places to carry it. Will be easing into this again.

I'm starting up on Endomondo, feel free to friend me.

https://www.endomondo.com/profile/16359800

Thanks,

Jim.

Hi All

Name: Richard
Age: 40
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Been doing triathlons since 2011 but never really lost enough weight through all the training and have plateaued this last couple of years.

I concentrated on cycling racing this year (2014) but too heavy to be truly competitive on anything but the flats - when the roads start going up I start going back. Because of the cycling my first triathlon of the season is only next month (Oly) and then I'll do another couple (Sprints) in September to round the season off.

Next year the plan is to go long. Already signed up for HIM Mallorca in May 2015 which will be my 3rd half distance race and will probably do another more local HIM before going long in September 2015 at IM Mallorca. The distances in the IM don't phase me - I've done the IM swim distance in coached sessions plenty of times. The concentration on cycling this year means the cycle doesn't seem too hard either. I hate running though but I've 6 marathons done last year and am doing another in October. What scares me is trying to do them and all the training required at my current weight and seeing pictures of a fat me coming down the finishing line looking out of place among the mainly leaner athletes.

I was 125kg when I first started training and am now 108.6kg (6ft 4). Still a long way to go and I hope to hit 85kg by next September ready to toe the line of my first IM.

My name is Marty, 49 years old, new to MFP. My endurance sport history isn't the best, but I sure tried like hell. I haven't entered a race in over 7 years due to making poor lifestyle choices and being in a bad marriage (STBD). I've had my share of injuries (7 foot/ankle surgeries) and THIS time I will not be in a hurry to jump into the Ironman distance. Last time I tried to get ahead of myself because I wanted my mother to see me finish my first IM - she was slowly dying of old age. Unfortunately, she's gone now but my IM dream lives on. IM will always be there. I've got a **it load of weight to lose, and I hope to knock it off slowly and safely. Hopefully my foot health won't betray me so I can make my dreams come true. My IM goal isn't until 2019. That will give me plenty of time to build my cardio base, lose weight (duh!), gain strength and flexiblity, improve my swimming DRAMATICALLY, get some desperately needed speed, and get some badly needed race experience along the way.

For now, my plan is to hit my daily food and exercise goals. I'm strength training 6 days/week and walking (with a small percentage of jogging thrown in) and/or cycling/spinning 7 days a week. I wish I could afford a pool membership, but I can't afford it right now. I do have a Halo swim trainer and I plan on mixing it into my training plan this week.

I have a long road ahead of me and I pray that my foot health will be good enough to achieve all my goals.

Feel free to add me as a friend and offer any suggestions you may have for me.

Godspeed, everyone.

Hello! I'm Anna -- mother of two living in Virginia. I completed my first tri last week! It was a sprint, and my times weren't great, but I fell in love. So wonderful training hard and accomplishing such sport. Looking forward to more races and getting to know you all.

Good luck to you!

Hello Every One I'm Daun
I'm 50 years Old and right around 300Lbs
I'm training to do my first Tri in Oct this year, I feel very confident, in the Swim, gaining confidence in the bike, the run is my weakest by far, the best time I have been able to do in the 5k at this point is 47 minutes doing a run walk. I still have a couple of months to go so hopefully it will all go well. I also like the way it has been motivating me and I'm losing weight at the same time so very happy and enjoying the training at this time.

Hi, I'm Nate. I have been around tri's since the early 90's. I used to do international distance and then went down to sprints as the kids came along. This year I only did tri's as a team member as my kids joined in with me. The kids are now teens and I am making some lifestyle changes which will free up some time.

I am committing to doing a half ironman distance tri a year from now and a full ironman distance race two years from now. I live in the north so I have winter training to deal with, so a little extra planning.

If anyone is looking at a similar schedule I would love to be able to exchange ideas and encouragement.

Hi Everyone! I am originally a runner and have ran a million 5Ks PR 22:09 and 2 half marathons PR 1:51...was having some joint issues with hips and knees everytime I would try to train harder and was suggested by my physical therapist to swim 3x a week and biking would help as well. Accidently stumbled across a great deal on a tri bike about 6 months ago so knew I couldn't pass it up and people would ask me when was my first tri I would laugh and say not for me...

Well I did my first tri yesterday at the Galloway Captiva Triathlon 9/15/14 and finished in 1:08:41 which actually qualifies me to start with the elite group for the next one! I am HOOKED. God is good!

I know a lot of things I can improve on to bring that time down. I am a much better swimmer than I swam as I started on the front line but the far outside and had to swim over people to turn around the buoy and ended up swimming way farther then I should of It's a learning process! And the best part??? I am not hurting (besides expected muscle soreness) that I was able to complete my swim workout the next day and will run today. Looking forward to any tips you guys can offer as well

Welcome to the world of triathlon. Good to know you're hooked ;-)

Hi Everyone,
I just found this group today. I'm a triathlete and my longest to race date is a half Ironman (70.3). My first Ironman will be October 2015 in Louisville, KY. Great to 'meet' you!

I'm 53, an auditor. I started my quest in 2010, lost from a high of 343 to 216 by 2012. Since then, I have regained 40 pounds. So, it's time for a new quest: I will lose to my ideal weight of 190 and run a Sprint Triathlon in June of 2015. I could use a few MFP friends to encourage/be encouraged in meeting our goals.

Back in the spring I weighed somewhere around 325lbs and decided to make a change.
I started running/walking (even the Running was more a walk with a bounce) daily for a few weeks and the knees started to give out as I started increasing my intervals. Eventually I gave up running and soon found the bike. Over the course of the Summer and Fall I rode 2-3 times a week while eating better and Logging everything here on MFP and have lost a 130 lbs so far. I currently work with a bike coach 1 night a week and have a KK Rock and Roll trainer at home that I use another 2-3 nights a week. My Outdoor cycling season ended with a 75k ride up the Niagara escarpment and back again which was a major accomplishment for me as my first Ride of the Season ended at 5km and the legs gave out when I jumped of the bike at the end. That was 5km to 75km in about 8-10 weeks.

So Now I sit at 195 and have another 20-30 lbs to go. My weight loss is still pretty consistent around 2lbs a week So I am confident I will reach my Goal by the time the outdoor season gets back into swing.

Back to that Goal I set of being in the August 29, 2015 Triathlon. The time is now to start getting all the pieces in order. I am really here looking for as much information on what I need to do to Succeed. I have not decided on a distance yet and figure that will be one of my tasks over the winter as I train. Be it Sprint or Try-a-Tri I want my goal to be realistic and finish even if that means crawling across the finish line as the sun is setting and my wife and kids are the only ones left standing at the finish line.

So lets all turn the page and join me as I start the next chapter, I am excited to see how this ends up. Add me please I can use all the support I can get

Hi Everyone, Dave here from Dublin.
Doing triathlons for about 12 years... 2011 was the peak where i did every distance possible in the same year.
Twins arrived in 2013 making a family of 3 into 5 and life was turned upside down. Feels like we are getting a bit of normality back now so i have some races planned for this year and a target of losing the 25lbs i picked up in the past 3 years.
I had worried i would ever get properly fit again because i just couldnt lose the weight. MFP has given me hope and optimism back!
Let me know if ye need any advice on coming to ireland to holiday / train / race... or ironman tips. I can recommend some truly breathtaking races, and some great pubs too

Hi, all. Bob here, a 47-year-old suburbanite dad in southern Massachusetts. I'm something of an accidental triathlete. After years of dedicated couch potatodom, I got some urging from Mrs. Bob and started running in August 2006. I trained for, and completed, the Boston Marathon in 2007. I say "completed" and not "ran" because my knees pretty much exploded around mile 17. After recovering, and starting to train again, it became apparent that I needed something else to do besides just running.

I knew swimming and biking were both good forms of exercise with much lower impact than running, so in 2008 I began doing triathlon. Sprints, nothing more. The thing is, I've never been much of a swimmer and I'm still not. So much so that open-water swimming, even in a completely still lake or pond, engendered full-on panic attacks. In July 2012, I had to bail right at the start of a lake tri, and it sent me into a tailspin that had me pretty much abandon any and all training while gaining over 30 lbs.

In the summer of 2013, I worked with a coach who specializes in helping people like me get over stuff like that. In September 2013, I completed my first non-panicked open-water swim. I'm still glacially slow in the water, but it's at least a bit less traumatic than it used to be.

All else being equal, I'd probably be a dedicated duathlete. I'm much more comfortable on the bike than in the water, and more comfortable still running. Alas, duathlons are still hard to come by, and I'd like to become a more proficient swimmer anyway, since that's something you can do pretty much forever.

I'm still riding my 2008 Cervelo P2SL -- the last of the aluminum Cervelos -- and hoping to complete at least two open-water sprint tris this season, with some degree of aplomb. At 5'6" and 150 lbs., I could probably weigh a bit less and perform better, but time will tell if I can get back to what we'll call race weight. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Hello all. I have struggled with my weight all of my adult life. I started running 4 years ago taking it very slowly and still losing some time to typical injuries. Lost about 50 pounds through that and completed my first half marathon in 2014.

Suffered a job loss in late 2013 and was not working for over a year and I found about 30 of the pounds I had lost. I finally found a new gig in late 2014. Only down side is the gig is in NorCal and the family is in Oklahoma. Have been commuting for about 6 months now where I work for 5-6 weeks, then return home for 10-14 days. A far less than ideal situation for my family, but it is what we have to do to pay the bills right now.

When I am in NorCal, I fill my free time with training and reading. I started on MFP about 3 months ago and everything finally makes sense for losing weight. Between MFP and triathlon training, I have managed to lose 40 pounds so far, I want to lose another 15.

I am very much a tri noob. I did a Sprint in 2013 and had a good time. I also did a Duathlon in 2014, but was not in a good place mentally or physically so I did not enjoy it much. I am currently training for an Olympic at the end of August and my motto is very much "Complete" instead of "Compete". I swim as well as a well-rounded manhole cover, but I enjoy the bike and run and will not let my weakness in swimming keep me out of the tri.

I am very budget restricted so my horse is a hand-me-down road bike a friend bought online. When he upgraded, he gave me this and it is an upgrade over what I had, nothing. Not much fun doing a tri on a borrowed bike. I posted a ramble in the 'Does your bike have a name?' thread about naming her this morning.

I found this group yesterday and especially enjoyed the Rules. Hope everyone is having a great season and I will probably be posting some queries in the weeks leading up to my Olympic.