Bob's intro

[bicyclepastor]

Hello to all who might read this:

I started training for a triathlon earlier this year and just did my first sprint triathlon last weekend. I had a blast and hope to do two or three next year. This year I took a Sunday off, but will look for Saturday tri's in the future for the most part.

Since January 2009 I have lost about 80 lbs. I come from a somewhat athletic background, playing college football and powerlifting for many years. I wanted a chance for my kids to see me train, follow through and compete and triathlon seemed like a good challenge. I have always biked but added swim training and running to the mix. I definitely need to get better in all aspects as a Clydesdale competitor. My body is pretty beaten up from the years of athletic events, but with the lost weight, and more on the way, I hope to tri for many years to come.

It was a bit of a challenge to find places to do the open water swim, but ended up at Kensington for the most part. Running is the toughest on my body, and during my first tri I did not hydrate enough on the bike, as it was pouring raining so I was more concerned with keeping my bike upright. So I experienced calf cramps and that led to a SLOW run. Oh well, there is always next year.

Looking forward to learning a lot on this site.

[Damon]

Hi Bob! It's good to have you here. Sounds like we might be seeing you every so often as most of us train at Kensington pretty regularly. In fact, Wednesday evenings we typically meet for a bike ride and sometimes a short run afterward. 6pm at the lower east boat launch parking lot. Perhaps we will see you there.

Damon

[Eric]

Welcome Bob to the multisport and congratulations on your first triathlon. It really is such an addiction and is a great lifestyle filled with great people. There are a lot of very experienced triathletes on this forum and I know that everyone of them will be more than happy to provide you with what has worked or not worked for them throughout their training and racing.

When is your next race?

Trout lake in the Island Lake State Park area adjacent to Kensington Metroparks is an excellent place to practice open water swimming. A lot of triathletes train there.

As for learning about hydration and nutrition, this is a continuing learning process for all triathletes, and is a discipline that is not discussed in as much detail as swim, bike, and run.

With respect to running, running is tough for a lot of people for a variety of reasons: impact, whether or not you have the right shoes, potential overstriding, but this can all be worked on over time.

Once again, welcome to triathlon and the forum.

Eric

[jared]

Hi Bob, Congratulations on your first triathlon and on the weight loss. That's awesome!

I'm sure coming from an athletic background you've been able to pick this up pretty well but feel free to ask any questions you might have. There's a lot to learn with triathlons.

As I'm sure you've found, most of the triathlons are held on Sundays but you still do have some good non-Sunday options. Most noteably is the Running Fit sprint tri series that's held at Kensington on Wednesday's in June, July, and August. Since you've finished your first tri, making a goal to do the whole series of 3 might be a good choice.

There are groups of us that have various trainings and events, as Damon mentioned, so keep an eye on the "Events" forum and we'll keep you up to date. There's also a pretty good group of us that formed Detroit Iron Triathlon, a triathlon group that raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and other various charities. We hold some great events if you'd like to mingle with other triathletes.

Welcome!

[bicyclepastor]

Thanks, guys, for the nice introduction and the information about training places, races, ect. The Wednesday night summer series sounds like a winner and I will definitely check it out. I will return to Blue Water next year as I am not pleased with my time and want to challenge myself there again. I definitely could have posted a better time if I was more prepared, like for the rocks that greet you when you leave the water(which probably cost me a minute), getting better with transitions (almost six minutes overall), and hydrating (which cost me ten minutes on the run).

The evening rides at Kensington sound like something I would be interested in. What sort of pace do you keep? Right now I am happy if I can sustain a 15-18 mph pace and I know that is slow. I have a three mile course in my neighborhood and I ride on Hines quite a bit because it is close. And the swim tip about Island Lake is appreciated. My swim technique blows and I was just thankful I did not get harpooned out there


My next race will probably be next year. Even with the weight loss years of lifting heavy things, eating what I wanted and doing mostly anaerobic activity means that even with the 80lb loss I was still 280 lbs on race day! I want to be closer to 235-250 for next season.

Thanks again for the info. Detroit Iron sounds like something I would be interested in as well. Hope to see you out on the road.

Peace.

[jared]

Yes, spoken like a true athlete. It doesn't matter what your time is out there. You set a time and then you do everything you can to beat that time the next race. That's the great thing about endurance events like triathlon!

Transitions and nutrition always come with more experience, especially if you try to figure out what you can do better.

The Wednesday night rides vary in pace depending on who's there. You may have someone out there going your pace or you might not on any given Wednesday. Here's the way I look at it as I've been known to not stay up with the group. I have the choice to ride by myself at another location or meet up with the group and ride with them for a little while and then ride by myself. I'll see people around the course that I know and meet up with everyone before and after the ride. Overall it works out pretty well.

Don't worry if you can't keep up with certain people right now. Go out and ride your pace. Whether I'm riding with the group or riding by myself, however, I always find myself more motivated to go meet up with the group at Kensington then riding by myself.

When was the last time you were powerlifting? For weight loss and good triathlon training should have weight lifting in it. Now we're not doing the clean and jerk with 250 pounds but we're incorporating weights. As you build muscle, it helps out your metabolism. Check out the Winter weight-lifting program if you want something more triathlon specific.


We're kind of at the end of our season with Detroit Iron right now. We're putting together some more information (including more work on the website) and we'll be holding an informational meeting in the next couple of months. I'll let you know when.

[jared]

Also, you might want to check out Team In Training Michigan. That's where most of us got our start in triathlons. They provide coaches (including an excellent swim coach), a plan, and a race venue that's paid for (think sun and fun). You raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as part of it. There's a lot of support and a lot of great people.

I know Bridget (works for TnT) is on here. Maybe she can give you some more information about the next informational meeting... Bridget?

[bicyclepastor]

Jared:

Thanks for the response and the links. I will check them out. I am still lifting, but differently and the article looks good. My main problem is that often my ego drives me to lift the heaviest thing I can find, which is really dumb, as I tore my pec about six years ago, but I am learning! And, of course, an idiodic aversion to stretching properly!

I will try the Wednesday bike ride. Thanks for the info. I will not be there next Wednesday as the family is making our annual trip to do the Mackanac Bridge Walk, but the week after I will be there to lumber around the park!

[jared]

This is turning into quite the thread!

Before I started training for triathlons, I was just lifting weights for 3 years. I wasn't a power lifter but I know what you're talking about with the ego. When you're going in and lifting for functional power and not killing yourself with weight (so you can go out and run the next day) then you have someone putting up a fair amount of weight looking at you like you're weak. I just ended up making a decision. Do I want to focus on weight lifting or focus on triathlons...

Check out the details of the Wednesday Kensington ride. I think they're meeting at 6:00 now. I'll check.