Hi everyone!

I'm Shuntae, 31 years old, and live in MD. I am a runner, but registered for my first sprint tri next August...been waffling about it for over a year, figured it was time to woman up and commit. The swim will be my weakest event, so I really plan to start working on it next month. Looking to take some classes to get my comfort and confidence level up, and then from there I will work on the distance part. Pretty sure I've gone crazy, but I'm really excited for this challenge.

Look forward to chatting with y'all.

Hi Shuntae. Did you sign up for the Iron Girl in Columbia? I tried to but didn't get tot he website soon enough.

Yep, that's the one...it's my first and I am SO NERVOUS!

Hi everyone!

I'm Shuntae, 31 years old, and live in MD. I am a runner, but registered for my first sprint tri next August...been waffling about it for over a year, figured it was time to woman up and commit. The swim will be my weakest event, so I really plan to start working on it next month. Looking to take some classes to get my comfort and confidence level up, and then from there I will work on the distance part. Pretty sure I've gone crazy, but I'm really excited for this challenge.

Look forward to chatting with y'all.

Hi Shuntae. Did you sign up for the Iron Girl in Columbia? I tried to but didn't get tot he website soon enough.

Yep, that's the one...it's my first and I am SO NERVOUS!

Since I couldn't get in to the Iron Girl I signed up for the Celebration Triathlon also in Columbia, MD. I plan on taking some swim classes at my local Y to get my stroke technique down and then I will try for distance too. If you aren't aware (and if you live in the Baltimore area) the Baltimore Area Triathlon club (http://baltimoretriathlon.org/) offers classes on open water swimming and they sponsor training rides and runs during the season. Feel free to friend me. We can keep each other motivated as we train.

Hi, my name Kirk and live in Iowa,

I have done1 or 2 triathlons each year for the last several years. A long time ago I swam in college and have been active in the sport ever since. Swimming definitely is my strong event. Both my bike and run need some work. I have found whenever I increase my run mileage I get hurt. I coach swimming for one of the local triathlon clubs and have found I really enjoy doing it. I love watching the group improve over the year. I do the HY-Vee Tri each year and have a goal to finish in the top 10 for my age group next summer. To do this I am going to have to drop a few pounds and focus on my run and bike.

Any advice or support would be appreciated. I am excited to have found this group.

Name: Heather
Age: 41
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

I did my first 3 duathlons this summer and I'm completely hooked. Have been a runner for a long time but just started racing in 2009 with a couple 1/2 marathons, a few 5K/10Ks, and a 35 mile hike. Then a friend talked me into a road bike in 2010, I did 2 full marathons and basically used the road bike for cross training. In 2011, I tried a bike road race, a criterium, did another marathon, and the duathlons.

Also each of those 3 years I did one of my favorite races and my first multi-sport event. In conjunction with the Pittsburgh Triathlon we also have an adventure race which substitutes kayaking for the swim portion. The first year on the out-and-back run course, I thought OMG I'm never doing this again! Then I won my age group because the first 2 women in my age group were 1st and 3rd overall for the women, knocking them out of the age group awards. It may have been a win by default, but it was still a win and I had to go back to defend my title the next year LOL This year I came in 6th overall for the women, 11 minutes behind the 1st place finisher but only 2.5 minues behind the 2nd place finisher. I'm striving to give the woman who wins every year a run for her money next year

Hello all!
I'm a swimmer, tolerate biking and hate running - opposite to most people... Did my first (very hilly) half ironman last year and booked in for another in a few weeks, prefer long distance events but rather limited by my complete lack of running ability. Also did a 2500km ish bike ride earlier this year and training for a 10km lake swim - much easier than running 10km!

There is an ultraman race out here that has a 10km swim on day 1. Its a goal for sometime in the future (5+ years out). The idea of swimming for that long is mind boggling to me.

Name: Fiona
Location: Edinburgh, UK

Hello everybody! I got into Triathlons about 4 years ago when I met my boyfriend, who'd already done 2 Ironmans at that point. Since then I've done several Sprints, duathlons and a couple of Standard/Olys. Then I entered Ironman Austria this year and it was while training for that that i got onto MFP to try and help me eat the right amount and right kind of food. I finished Austria and found it a great experience, but training took up a lot of time. I've just entered a marathon for next April, and then my focus over next summer will be to do some of the local races, and see how I get on against my club-mates!

Hi, I've been noodling around MFP for a while, but never introduced myself.

I'm Joe from good ol' St Louis. I've been doing long course athletics (running and triathlons) for about 5 or 6 years now. When I reached 250 pounds, something inside me said, "That's it, I've had enough." So I started walking. As I got better, I started running - just a little. That improved, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know I was doing running races and local sprint tri's.

I still struggle with my weight and my diet. Although I've been down to 170, I'm now back up to 190, and am trying to find that mojo to get down again. The workout ethic is there, it's the flippin' diet ethic I can't control.

In the last 5 years, I've done everything from 5k's to ironman distance races. I'm slow. Always and forever a BOP. I've finished two races dead last. In both cases, they had to keep the course open for me. But it doesn't stop me from trying. The joke amongst my tri friends is that my one and only athletic skill is my Homer Simpson-like ability to take a beating and keep on going.

My favorite distance is HIM. It's long and hard enough to really occupy my time - training and racing - but not long enough to make me hate doing it. I enjoy hills, even though at my size I'm not supposed to. It's the challenge of the rascals.

What I like most about triathlon is the constant changing. Nothing is ever the same. I don't use training programs, I just train how I want. So I can mix it up to keep the burnout at bay. This may not be the best way to PR, but it's a great way to keep training fun. For me, anyway. I'm lucky enough to live in an area with 2 tri clubs, and separate swimming, biking, running, AND triathlon stores. The tri store even has a 15 spot computrainer room. WAHOO!!! So I have endless resources at my disposal. I have a ton of tri friends nearby, so there's always somebody to go for a workout with. Unfortunately, most of my tri friends are stud athletes, and I'm the guy they call when they need a Z1 easy day. Sometimes they don't quite grasp the difficulties with being a large sized triathlete. Still, it's a great problem to have.

That's my life. What's yours?

Hi, I'm 35 from Rotherham UK

I'm shooting for my first Ironman this year in Wales, this will be my first multisport event, i'm a runner have completed marathons since the age of 13 and had the teenage knee injury to accompany it, I love running so its going to be hard to keep focused on all three disciplines but I needed the challenge and I know I can do this! My first ever race was a marathon actually took me 13 years to drop the distance down and pick up running speed but when I did I then managed my so far personal marathon best with a 3 hr 27 min finish but thats not the end of the marathon story - I know I can run under 3 hours on that possibly next year now though its definitely ironman as the concentration point this year. Swimming is my worst element, but its coming together nicely so I know if i can finish the swim then I'll be fine, I road bike raced when recovering from running injuries and have some decent speed when I want to so its all on - come on 16th.

Love to have more mfp friends with similar goals :-)

Which I have a question. What's a good pair of swimming shorts. I've been to D1ck's Sporting Goods, and another local sporting gods store and I mention Triathlon and their faces get that deer in the headlights look.

Not sure if there are slight differences in females vs males, but I used a pair of bike shorts from performance bicycles(online) for the sprint tri I completed last fall called century shorts. The padding is light, enough for the 15 mile bike ride, but not so much the run was uncomfortable. I have also recently bought quest cycling shorts from pearl izumi. I haven't swam in them yet, but the padding is just a but more than the century shorts, and I have seen several online reviews saying they were used by triathlons for the swim. I have found amazon.com to have great selections and prices. Hope this helps!

Just I follow up. I did order a Pearl Izumi Select Jammer from Amazon. I've been happy with it so far...the 5 or 6 times I've swam, biked, ran with it. I have had good luck with Pearl Izumi's stuff in the past.

I'm Kim, a married working mother of two. I rowed crew in college and starting swimming masters swimming after college due to a back injury. Now I bike and run too, but swimming is still my favorite. Running is still quite difficult (and slow) for me. I am doing a half marathon in mid-March, mostly so that then in the summer when I do a tri, 10k won't seem like that much! I have done one or two tris most summers (mostly sprints, a few Olympics) except for last summer when I did not do any. I joined mfp to lose 10 lbs I gained while on medicine (still on; its a lifelong condition) for my thyroid issues. I'm trying to eat more protein and fewer carbs, and noticing that doing so does make me feel more full and less likely to eat four muffins at once.

Hi All,

Andy, 38 from the UK.

Always struggled with my weight, no where near as heavy as I used to be but not nearly as light as I'd like to be ;-)

Did my first triathlon in 2006 as a bet with a work colleague. Loved it, it was a sprint, went home and entered an Ironman ( as you do ). I did my first Ironman race in September of 2007, and have done countless other shorter triathlons.

Had an amazing year - became a dad and an author.

This May I will face my biggest challenge yet at Ironman Lanzarote - it will be hot and hilly, two things that I don't do well. Hopefully I'll be in one piece when I take on my second Ironman distance event of the year, The Outlaw, 5 weeks later.

If anyone is interested I keep a blog: www.ironholgs.wordpress.com

Good luck to everyone for the 2012 season, race hard and race safe :-)

Cheers,
Andy

Hello! I'm new to this site. I am training for a long distance tri this summer and hope to shed another 20 pounds so that I can have less weight to bring on the course with me! I look forward to hearing about your journey and supporting your successes.

What's your race? Is it your first at that distance?

Hello all! I'm Mikayla and I just signed up for my first triathlon (sprint) to take place August 19, 2012. I am super pumped to start training! Doing a tri is on the bucket list and what better time to start than now. I've trained for half marathons before and loved working towards the race and pushing myself to get better and better. I think a tri will be fun because of the variety of activities. I get bored of running easily and really enjoy swimming and biking. The distances are 500m swim, 15.5mi bike, and 5k run. I'm in okay shape right now so I feel like 22 weeks of training will tune (and hopefully tone ;-) ) me right up!

Hi I'm Scott. I live just outside Houston, TX. Picked up triathlon on a dare about 2 years ago and I'm hooked. I prefer half iron distance from what I've tried so far. This year I'm registered for 2 Olys, 1 sprint and 1 half iron at the moment. Hopefully some funds will free themselves up to pay for more entry fees. Right now I'm looking at getting to my first sub 2:30 Oly the end of April.

Hi everyone! I'm a Marathon runner turned Triathlete. I have had surgery on both feet and just can't do 26.2 right now. So, I got a bike and started cycling with a local group. Naturally this lead into my first tri. I did a sprint 3 weeks ago. I'm not the best swimmer, but I did great for a newbie. I'd love some new tri friends and advice. I'd like to see what everyone else is eating and what your work outs look like. Please add me as a friend! Thanks!!