Hey Jim,

After taking about 12 years off of any relatively hard physical activity after graduate school and beginning to weigh in at a frightening 170+ pounds, I started exercising regularly again on my own in October of 2004. Shortly thereafter, I decided that I wanted to try triathlon. This was simply to have a goal to work towards, something out ahead of me that I could focus my efforts on in order to keep moving ahead. I trained on my own for 4 months and thought that I was making progress. I had lost about 5 pounds; I could swim for almost 30 minutes, I could ride almost 9 miles in 30 minutes all out, and I could plod along at a "reasonable" 10+ minute per mile pace for almost 4 miles!

I decided that if I was serious about completing a triathlon, even a sprint, I needed some direction. I needed a coach, so I came to you in February of 2005. My first sprint triathlon was scheduled for May 2005. If you remember, it took me almost 17 minutes to swim that 400 meters. I was walking during that 5K run by the end of the first third, and I managed to run to the finish only to avoid having my picture taken with someone that I considered to look much more out of shape than I did. But, by sticking to the training plan that you set up, and working hard, my focus and my fitness got better.
That summer, I finished the Pittsburgh Triathlon (an olympic distance) and the North Park triathlon (another sprint), and I signed up to do a Half-Ironman distance race , and I felt like I was making definite progress. By August, after following your training schedule I was down to about 155 pounds and getting a bit faster. By October, I managed to pull off a finish in the Soma Half-Ironman at almost 7 hours.

Over the winter, after a month off from racing/training, I decided that I could do better, and I came back to see you. I set as my initial goal to do the Soma Half Ironman again, but I wanted to take an hour off. You challenged me with the training plans that you set up. You encouraged me to push myself, and the work was paying off. I took almost 15 minutes off my time at the Pittsburgh Tri in August and 6 minutes off of my time in the sprint distance North Park tri. My training plans continued to challenge me, and you continued to encourage me. In October of 2006, I ran a 5K race at your urging and surprised myself by placing third in my age group. At the end of that month, I completed the Soma Half-Ironman for the second time. My goal was to take an hour off, and I managed to take off 72 minutes. It felt so great to accomplish this.

Now, I am following the training plan to prepare for Ironman Arizona. The race is in 90 days, and my determination is high. While my work schedule is pretty demanding, and my training schedule is challenging, I feel like I am continuing to make progress towards being able to complete this race. I have the confidence, and I have a coach to thank for helping me get this far.

In sum, I can look at my results as follows:

After 12 years "off" from regular exercise
2 years of training
20+ pounds lighter
4+ MPH faster on the bike over 30 minutes
2+ minutes faster per mile over 5K run
4+ minutes faster per 1000 meter swim
14 minutes faster in the Pittsburgh Tri (Olympic distance)
6 minutes faster in the North Park Tri (sprint distance)
72 minutes faster in the Soma Half-Ironman
Prepped and ready to finish Ironman Arizona in 90 days!

Thanks, Jim.

David Betts

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