Ironman winner pic

I think you will be surprised by how good your body can look when training and racing an ironman. Here is last years winner. I honestly love the look my body has during race season, I prefer it over a bodybuilders body any day just because an endurance athlete looks more natural. However, like you said I have a bias opinion.

It's a lot harder than you think to become "skinny" - far from inevitable. Most of the skinny triathletes you see not only have a genetic predisposition toward "skinniness," but they've spent years training aerobically to look that way.

I'm 6' and was a 205 lb bodybuilder type (was very lean to begin with) before I got into this sport 18 months ago. I had some of your same fears about becoming too skinny. Those fears proved to be unfounded - I dropped to 190 pretty easily but beyond that it became nearly impossible to lose more muscle without a concerted semi-starvation regimen. I hover around 180-185 now, and I'm STILL not skinny by any means, and wish I COULD get thinner so I could be faster. Here's a recent race pic.

With your extensive strength training experience, I think you'll find that you'll still have more muscle (and strength) than you know what to do with, even after months and years of sustained aerobic training.

I have a very different perspective now than I did 18 months ago. I look back at how I used to look and how big I was, and I think I looked kinda funny. What does anyone need all that muscle for? Unless you play football or move pianos for a living, it's just not real practical.

Good luck in your training!

There's a great ad on TV that shows an image of a bodybuilder flexing which fades into the image of Lance Armstrong flexing his arms on his bike - the tag line says "redefine power". I think it's a car commercial though.

I think the "look" side of triathlon is great. It's not quite as twiggy as the marathon-build thanks to the miles of swimming that triathletes put in building up their upper bodies.

A balanced physique is key I believe. Too lean and you actually lose performance through loss of power but also through weakened immune system and higher risk of injury.

I am 5'9 and started at 175lbs before starting triathlons. I went down to about 135 lbs and that was too much. I was good and light but for an age grouper, that was not beneficial for my performance. I was eating healthy but not enough. Today I'm back up to 145-148 lbs and that's a more comfortable weight which I'll try to maintain. I can still grab a little bit of flab on the sides of my belly but I'm still lean.

I saw the Bachelor (Andy Baldwin) at Wildflower and that guy does not have your typical Ironman build - not at all. He's got some ferocious guns!

Living proof that you can maintain some bulk and still compete in triathlon.

Thanks for the response guys!

Great to hear that many of you out there are going through what I am going to go through and your response is comforting. I cant see myself ever being a twig since I have never been one before but we will see. For now to avoid over training and because its summer I will leave weights out of the training and maybe pick it up again in the winter who knows. As for my estimated weight I am not going to attempt to get that low but I am worried about running with all my weight so I am trying to get down to 200ish so I can actually train right. I have comitted to running an iron man and will do anything and everything it takes for me to get there so I guess we will just see what happens on the other end.

I will keep you posted with the progress. I just bought a new bike (cervelo soloist) so im mostly biking.

Thanks again for the responses.

-Jason

I bought a mountain bike 2 years ago. I didnt buy a very expensive one just an entry level bike with front suspension and disk brakes because i wasnt sure how much i would use it. Then I fell in love with biking and that bike wasnt good enough for me any more. I wasnt going to make that mistake twice. I love the soloist, forget porsche it feels like a lambo :p

Mat I think you got something on your face! ;)

Jason,
Look at your body, and imagine being 80-100 pounds overweight, and so out of shape, that walking 3 miles leaves you exhausted.....

My wife has lost 115 pounds, and I've lost 80. Here are some pics:
Before
After

My wife and I still see ourselves as 'fat', and it's hard to see where we came from.

Of course, having the triathlon body can be a plus... When the Bear is chasing you, it's easier to run away!!! ;)

Here are some thoughts that Kona_expat wrote once. Chime in Sheila with any further thoughts!

Thanks for the comments guys. I have committed to training for a triathlon now regardless of the body image involved in it. I will readress this after I complete an iron man to see exactly where I sit.

A little less then a month after my initial post I am down to 209 lbs from being up in the 230s and already I am getting comments about how much better I look. Which puzzles me because I was never out of shape as a body builder. None the less I guess a smaller frame is just more appealing to the average person. No one ever understood bodybuilding and I wonder if anyone will understand the extreme element of triathlons either.

--I want to race in at least one race this summer just cant decide if I should do a sprint or keep it easy with a tryit triathlon. I dont think im ready for a olympic distance... although im not sure what feeling ready would be like.

well, I do weightlifting and powerlifting myself. Trust me, you will be surprised how much it will help you. You just don't do it as much as you did before. But you will definitely have advantages from weightlifting over that other triathletes might not have. E. g. my recovery times are phenominally low. I get out of the pool after a hard race swim for IM and my heartbeat already is so far down that I am completely recovered (I haven't even entered T1 yet). Furthermore, as soon as you stop lifting so much you will see the bulk will go down by itself as you will train aerobically more than anaerobically. Keep up the weightlifting you will need it and you will see all your fast twitch muscles will help you being much faster in things than you might expect (you will probably be a strong swimmer!). And by the way: some eyecandy during the race is never bad :p

Not sure what I was looking at? I usually get a little dizzy after the swim so I was probably just out of it.

The clothes, shoes and such are from other people competiting. Since the transition was about 1/4 from the water people put their shoes near the beach so their feet would be killing them. I am doing another tri this weekend. Just a Sprint but I feel in much better condition for this one.

-MC