About Me

So I suppose you might want to know a little about me if your going to read about my blog.  I feel like I'm writing a personal ad.

My name is Brant.  I'm currently 36 years old, married and have two awesome girls.
I've never been overly athletic.  Growing up I played hockey since I was about 4 years until I was about 13.  I loved hockey and while I wasn't great, I was wasn't bad either.  I played various other sports growing up as well.  Soccer for a few years and softball in my middle and high school years.

While I was never strong or really even had endurance I wasn't fat or out of shape.  Like most people I didn't begin gaining weight until I graduated college and got a desk job.

When I met my wife I was probably in the 260-270 lb range.  I really didn't do anything for exercise. 
My wife decided she wanted to get back into shape shortly after we got married and started running again.  She's one that likes the validation of races.  We have been all over the Midwest, from Chicago to St. Louis, Duluth, MN and everywhere in between.  I saw how these races made her feel and secretly wished I could do something to give me the same feeling.  The problem was I hated running. 

Fast forward to 2008 when a new co-worker happened to be really into bicycling.  He talked a lot about the races he did and RAGBRAI.  I started thinking why couldn't I do RAGBRAI?  I liked to bike.  I had plenty of time to train and get ready.  I bought a bike the fall of 2008 and began riding.  Once it got to cold to ride I joined the local gym and took spin lessons.  I actually began watching my diet and by the time RAGBRAI came around I had gotten down to 230 lbs.  I was feeling and looking pretty good.

In 2010 I started to fall back into my old habits.  I didn't ride much and gained a lot of my weight back.  My wife was also pregnant with our first child.  I guess I could blame it on that.  ;) 
In 2011 and 2012 I rode as much as I could but I still was not careful with my eating.  So while I had enough fitness to bike all day I was still overweight. 

Which leads me to today and why a Triathlon?  More on that tomorrow...