Hello slowtwitchers!
Long time lurker, first time poster - and as part of connecting with folks here I thought I'd share a little bit about my background and interest in triathlon. It's a little long, perhaps, though I see that there is a pattern of long-form communication in the ST community so here goes :)
Sport was a major part of my life from the age of 5 through college, to include varsity sports in high school (tennis+cross country) and NCAA Division II competition (tennis) in college. After that, I got away from sport and athletic competition for about 12 years as I worked full-time, completed my masters and doctoral programs, and began a family with my wife and two daughters who are now 8 and 10.
Needing to make significant life change in late 2018, in part connected with unhealthy life patterns including work addiction and other forms, I decided to go for one of my bucket-list goals (run a marathon) and got busy with the 7 weeks I had left to train before the first race I could find in December 2018. The race was a success in a number of ways, including helping me run through my life challenges instead of run from, and I wanted to keep going with some form of training everyday - so I added bicycling to my workout routine, and then after becoming interested in triathlon I added swimming, too. April 2019 was my first triathlon (olympic distance @ St. Anthony's in St. Petersburg, FL) and I continued with daily triathlon training and competition since then - I ran another marathon in July and a couple more triathlons (Ft. DeSoto + Miami Man 70.3) in 2019, doing fairly well for a rookie.
As most did, I had a full schedule planned for the 2020 season, but even with the challenges of so many races cancelled or postponed this year I shifted my daily training to focus on technique across swimming, biking, and running - and time will tell but I think my form and fitness has progressed well. (Certainly the shift has helped me focus my mind on resilience and longer-term life goals). Now, I'm stoked to be racing the GFT 2/3 distance in about 2.5 weeks and then the Panama City 70.3 two weeks after - building to a competition schedule next year that will include my first full-distance race.
I've been applying the research methods I learned in my doctoral program to triathlon and endurance sports, diving in to as many good books, podcasts, articles, and forum posts (including lurking on SlowTwitch!) as I can - and applying it to progress my mind and body. In terms of training and plans, I started with 80/20 Running and 80/20 Triathlon, and then progressed to Matt Dixon's plan in Fast-Track Triathlete - and now have recently begun analyzing my training sessions (individually and as a whole) with TrainingPeaks after reading Triathlon 2.0. Swim-wise I've been following the material from Tower 26 (Gerry Rodrigues), finding him through research before I knew he coached Matt Dixon), and have his book on my shelf but haven't dove in just yet. If you have bike-specific coaches I'd love to hear about that, and I hope to find something like the content that Matt and Gerry put out - that's available both publicly (like their podcasts) and also via subscription. (And speaking of cycling assistance, I'll be posting a request for constructive critique of my aero position shortly - all feedback is welcome!).
In terms of giving back, I'm blessed to have a student-led triathlon club at the university where I work and this year have become their sponsor/advisor in the hopes of cultivating the triathlon community locally. In these ways and others, endurance sports, and specifically triathlon, have supported key life-changes in these last couple years and a re-centering on what matters for me in life. I'm looking forward to learning more about everyone's triathlon journey, and hope to contribute in some small ways to the SlowTwitch community.
This is probably a little long for an introduction, but long-form writing has also been part of my professional career so please forgive me!
-Travis
Long time lurker, first time poster - and as part of connecting with folks here I thought I'd share a little bit about my background and interest in triathlon. It's a little long, perhaps, though I see that there is a pattern of long-form communication in the ST community so here goes :)
Sport was a major part of my life from the age of 5 through college, to include varsity sports in high school (tennis+cross country) and NCAA Division II competition (tennis) in college. After that, I got away from sport and athletic competition for about 12 years as I worked full-time, completed my masters and doctoral programs, and began a family with my wife and two daughters who are now 8 and 10.
Needing to make significant life change in late 2018, in part connected with unhealthy life patterns including work addiction and other forms, I decided to go for one of my bucket-list goals (run a marathon) and got busy with the 7 weeks I had left to train before the first race I could find in December 2018. The race was a success in a number of ways, including helping me run through my life challenges instead of run from, and I wanted to keep going with some form of training everyday - so I added bicycling to my workout routine, and then after becoming interested in triathlon I added swimming, too. April 2019 was my first triathlon (olympic distance @ St. Anthony's in St. Petersburg, FL) and I continued with daily triathlon training and competition since then - I ran another marathon in July and a couple more triathlons (Ft. DeSoto + Miami Man 70.3) in 2019, doing fairly well for a rookie.
As most did, I had a full schedule planned for the 2020 season, but even with the challenges of so many races cancelled or postponed this year I shifted my daily training to focus on technique across swimming, biking, and running - and time will tell but I think my form and fitness has progressed well. (Certainly the shift has helped me focus my mind on resilience and longer-term life goals). Now, I'm stoked to be racing the GFT 2/3 distance in about 2.5 weeks and then the Panama City 70.3 two weeks after - building to a competition schedule next year that will include my first full-distance race.
I've been applying the research methods I learned in my doctoral program to triathlon and endurance sports, diving in to as many good books, podcasts, articles, and forum posts (including lurking on SlowTwitch!) as I can - and applying it to progress my mind and body. In terms of training and plans, I started with 80/20 Running and 80/20 Triathlon, and then progressed to Matt Dixon's plan in Fast-Track Triathlete - and now have recently begun analyzing my training sessions (individually and as a whole) with TrainingPeaks after reading Triathlon 2.0. Swim-wise I've been following the material from Tower 26 (Gerry Rodrigues), finding him through research before I knew he coached Matt Dixon), and have his book on my shelf but haven't dove in just yet. If you have bike-specific coaches I'd love to hear about that, and I hope to find something like the content that Matt and Gerry put out - that's available both publicly (like their podcasts) and also via subscription. (And speaking of cycling assistance, I'll be posting a request for constructive critique of my aero position shortly - all feedback is welcome!).
In terms of giving back, I'm blessed to have a student-led triathlon club at the university where I work and this year have become their sponsor/advisor in the hopes of cultivating the triathlon community locally. In these ways and others, endurance sports, and specifically triathlon, have supported key life-changes in these last couple years and a re-centering on what matters for me in life. I'm looking forward to learning more about everyone's triathlon journey, and hope to contribute in some small ways to the SlowTwitch community.
This is probably a little long for an introduction, but long-form writing has also been part of my professional career so please forgive me!
-Travis