▶▶▶ Weight Management for Triathletes (Ironman)

Friday, October 22, 2010

Weight Management for Triathletes (Ironman)

Weight Management for Triathletes (Ironman) Review

I am a firm believer in the programs and techniques in this book which have yielded unbelievable results for me in a very short period of time. Here is my story...

I am an athlete who originally got into the sport of triathlon within the last two years (2009) to try to keep a little fit and to keep my weight at a reasonable level. So you know, I have struggled with my weight since my late-20s, and by 2001 had allowed weight to increase to 260 pounds (I am 5' 11" - average frame). I had all the common physical and emotional weight related problems you can imagine. In 2003, at the height of the low-carb diet era, I took the unconventional route of simply eating right and exercising on a regular basis and lost about 65 pounds in about 30 weeks or so. To maintain my fitness, I took up cycling in 2004 which tended to be effective at times and ineffective at others, therefore my weight would yo-yo plus / minus 10 pounds over the past several years. I couldn't figure out what the missing formula was to getting that yo-yo effect under control -after all, I worked out and was eating OK (so I thought).

Earlier this year (March-April 2010), I was training for a 1/2 marathon and was running pretty consistently to prepare myself for a good race, and began to notice a painful spot on the bone on my right ankle. Not understanding the signs of a stress reaction, I pushed through the race at a fairly good pace and continued to train for a few more weeks before it became a full-blown stress fracture (May 2010). As I had already pre-paid almost my entire race season, including two 1/2 Ironman races, it was a devastating blow. This not only impacted my training in a major way, but also my ability to manage my weight through fitness and heavy doses of training. Something had to change to have even a chance of completing the Rev3 Cedar Point 1/2 Ironman by Sept 12!

I picked up Weight Management for Triathletes from Amazon in July 2010 after losing a waging war on my weight through swimming and cycling only over the summer. With less than two months from the Sept 12 1/2 Ironman, and still just running less than 10 miles a week in PT, I put my weight loss ambitions into full swing. I read this book completely in about 5 days and everything just clicked for me. The few simple techniques were really easy to implement and my weight loss was in full bloom. My weight goal was to be 175 pounds by Sept. 12 (from 187 on Aug. 9) which was a desired weight drop of 12 pounds in a single month - an ambitious goal by any stretch.

I implemented the recommended techniques that I knew would work for my lifestyle and weight started to fall off - rapidly! I weighed in daily and kept seeing consistent drops throughout the four short weeks from when I started the plan. Here is the best part... The morning before the race on Sept. 11, I weighed in at 171 pounds - a 16 pound weight loss in just over 4 weeks!! Wow. As a result, I had a really good race at Rev3 Cedar Point which would not have been possible without the inspiration, techniques, and coaching that I received before Weight Management for Triathletes.

These aren't short term results either as the techniques I have now are much more instinctive to me and so easy to keep to maintain. I realized that I was training to keep eating vs. eating to keep training. If you are anything like me and have big goals in Triathlon (or life!) but know you need to get eating under control, this is a great place to get things started right.

Good luck and share your success story too!