I grew up in a sedentary family. In my teens and thru' my 20s I sailed, golfed, chased girls. Eventually golf was dropped, then cashing girls as I settled into marriage. I kept up the sailing into my 30s then decided to get into running. After numerous races up to Half-marathon distance, someone suggested I get into multisport. So I got a bike. My strength is the bike - I like doing TTs (40K (PB 55.23 at age 50, 26:20 on out & back 20K at age 56) and occasionally jump into a duathlon once in awhile on little/no running.

I was the smallest guy in my high school as a senior including all other grades. Just for an idea I was 115 lbs at 5'6" when I started lifting in college. Cut out as much cardio as I could in order to gain weight. Years later I ended up winning a lot of BB competitions and qualified to go to the NPC National level. My offseason weight at my peak was 190 lbs and I would just about have a stroke walking from the squat rack to the water fountain. My humor in that day when asked if I did cardio was, "Run? Run from what?"

It was being very heavy muscular for my small frame that I got a warning from a doctor after an EKG (post competition retirement) that said I was a heart beat away from death. That's when I picked up cycling. I still lift, but got addicted to cycling in 2004 and I am down to 164 lbs. Can't run because of some other issues with my feet and not interested in swimming, but for some really odd reason I like sitting in a 5 to 6 hour course down in aero spinning a steady state. So that's why I camp out here at ST trying to pick up a few tips and tricks for improving in cycling those type of courses.

I guess my strength, even though I started out looking anemic, was strength training. I don't think I will ever be a decent cyclist, but still have a lot of fun training in it.

My background is very VERY different from everyone else's. I was a ballerina growing up - aspiring professional until a serious foot injury at 14. I then did lots of high school girl things (cheerleader, etc). I was recruited for track my senior year of high school - I was VERY long-legged, skinny, and fast (only one of those remains today) - but never ended up running an event because our coach quit before the first meet, so the team wasn't allowed to continue. I kept dancing recreationally during all of this time. I never played any real sports because I was afraid of balls and never saw myself as "athletic". I did ride my bike a lot growing up and in college as a means of transportation.

One of my friends in law school convinced me to do a super sprint with her on a whim in like 2003. I was DFL out of the water, passed tons of people on my 1980's Nishiki kids road bike, then had them all run past me again. It took a decade before I did another race, but totally got hooked the second go 'round.

My strength is definitely cycling. Shorter and local events i'm usually in the top couple of women on the bike, in IM events i'm usually top 10-15%. I'm an awful swimmer, despite my beautiful pointed toes and remarkable ankle flexibility in the water. No one can figure out why, since I have decent technique. Mediocre runner (MOP), usually due to undertraining - I don't like to run anything longer than 400m, which is not ideal for long-course training! The three together consistently lands me BOFOP. If I could ever get my s* together and do a consistent run block, I would likely be in a position to podium/KQ.

Did 1 year of XC/Track in high school as as a sophmore w/o any previous sports background, PR: 23min 5k, 6:14 mile. Realized I sucked and stopped running after that.
Picked it up again in college for some reason competing in NAIA for a small school. PR's include 10K:36:30, 5k:17, Half: 1:19. Training was roughly ~40miles a week with 2-3 intense sessions.

Started Tri's almost 4 years ago now, and in the middle of college.
I'm 24 right now, graduated from college not too long ago, I frequently run olympic 10k's off the bike ~6min flat pace, Have yet to execute a proper 70.3 run, but aiming for ~6:15/mile.

However, despite a running background, my bike is the strength by far. I've held 337watts for 20mins ~320 FTP at 143lbs. I usually come off the bike FFOP.
I've only started riding the time I started Tri's, as well as swimming. However, I'm not as lucky as a swimmer, I swim ~18,000-20,000 meters weekly but on a good day I can only maintain 1:35/100m repeats with 10second rest. My run hasn't moved much since college, but at the same time the most I haven't really increased volume or intensity from college, but plan to this season to really focus on the run again.

Pre-HS I played basketball and baseball and dabbled in BMX racing. I got my first road bike in 8th grade and rode a lot. HS it was XC, basketball and track. I did my first tri at age 15. I did not run competively in college but continued to run well through my mid 20s when injuries started to limit me. Gradually my strength became the bike, at least by Tri standards. I never was built ideally as a distance runner. Over the years I've done TTs, Cyclocross and a few Mtn bike races.

Currently at 46 I still do well on the bike and my swim is ok when I work at it but my run is very poor.

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Formerly DrD