We have 2 people in our group who are only a week to a few weeks into their training for doing a sprint triathlon, so if you want to join us and can run or bike at all you'll have people to partner with on your training. A couple others have not been training since their first tri last October, but will be starting up again this week. Plenty of beginners here.

Some of us are looking to do the Redondo Beach Triathlon June 11th as a season opener. It was my first tri last year, partially because it's where I live, but also because it's one of the shortest races you'll ever find, making it a good one to start with. It has a 1/2 mile swim, 6 mile bike and 2 mile run. If you want to start racing sooner there are races in April and May also.

As to when we meet, well it's fairly informal. I usually meet with a couple people near Santa Monica College for a long bike ride Saturday mornings and in the South Bay on Sunday mornings.

Usually once a week or so I link up with someone to go running in the late afternoon or early evening during the week after work. Some get together for running on weekends as well.

On Tuesday and Thursday nights I swim in a Master's swim program at Mira Costa High School's pool. You can either do the formal interval workout or just do lap swimming.

I make all my training sessions open to whoever wants to join me.

Where do you live? If you are near the South Bay, West LA area, or even Orange County, I should be able to get you going with a few training partners at your level.

Email me at doug.cgs@verizon.net and I'll send you our next group training email.

Doug

Update: Still welcoming new training partners!

It's been just over 6 months since I made the original post above looking for training partners. There have been quite a few people who have emailed me to join our little group of triathletes in the Los Angeles area. Out of that large group, almost a dozen have participated in our loosely organized training sessions. But we are still open to anyone else who wants to join in.

As this thing has evolved, we mostly have people from the South Bay and West LA areas who tend to train together one to three times per week. Additionally, we have others all around the metropolitan area including Orange County, the Inland Empire, etc. So if you live too far from the coastal zone to train with us, there are others looking for training partners who you may be able to link up with through our group. Think of this as a sort of training partner co-op. Besides, sooner or later you will want to do some ocean swimming with a group, and you can do that with us whenever you feel like it.

Let me give you an idea of what we are doing currently. Usually we do a group ride of 2 to 3 or more hours on Saturday or Sunday morning. There is almost always a group starting from Santa Monica and/or Redondo Beach. Also on the weekend, we try to make one day a swim/ride brick or a ride/run brick. The week before a sprint tri we will usually do a time trial on the actual course.

During the week we try to get in a group ride in the early evening for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or do some intervals, and on another day sometimes do an ocean swim practice.

Several of us have joined the same Master's Swim program held at the Mira Costa High School pool in Manhattan Beach on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30 to 8:30 PM. Others swim at Santa Monica College.

Although we do run together sometimes, most of our group training is on the bike, in the water or a brick.

We have all levels of triathletes; from those still gearing up for their first sprint tri, to some who have a couple years experience. Our ages range from the early 20's to over 50, and about an equal number of men and women. Although we are not a formal enough group to be called a club, and no one goes around claiming to be a coach, we do learn a lot from each other's experience.

We have had people complete this year in the UCLA IronBruin Reverse Triathlon, the Redondo Beach Triathlon and even one who did the Brazil Ironman. We have people preparing for the Pendleton Tri (Olympic distance), the Los Angeles Tri (Olympic distance), the Carlsbad Tri (sprint), the Santa Barbara Tri (sprint), the Malibu Tri (sprint) and the Hermosa Beach Tri (sprint). We also have a couple people, including myself, who have done some of the Playa del Run Aquathons (1,000m swim & 5K run, no bike), and plan to do more of them.

The emphasis here is on having people to train with as a motivational tool. It's a lot easier to drag your butt out of bed on a weekend morning if you know your buddies are expecting you.

I normally send out a group email around mid-week with the various options for group training in different areas, plus an overview of how the training went the previous week. We also send out race reports about the triathlons and other events we participate in telling about our own personal experiences and adventures trying to get from start to finish line.

So if you want to join the fun, email me at dougboswell@verizon.net, and I will add you to the group emails and hopefully you will find a new way to stay motivated and improve yourself.

Doug
Redondo Beach, CA
dougboswell@verizon.net