Did you play HS sports?

Training
22

Played soccer until freshmen year of high school when my parents convinced me to switch to american football. I hated it and quit after a year once I got over the peer pressure.

More relevantly, I swam competitively from 6-17. Didn’t do any team sports in college but was pretty active climbing, hiking, skiing, and drinking with the outdoors club. One of whom got me to try a triathlon; I was reasonably good at it despite not having swum in 5ish years. A different outdoors club friend got me into road racing.

23

This is similar to my life story. I played world of Warcraft and Yu-Go-Oh in high school. Dropped out after a month of cross country, I figured cardio and running were not in my genes.

It wasn’t until last year that I started getting into cycling to connect with my dad since he’s getting older into his mid 50’s. And now I love it!

24

It wasn’t a high school sport per se but I raced motocross pretty seriously throughout my high school years and beyond.

Ultimately, kids, a business, and local tracks shutting down caused me to hang up my boots.

Then I got fat.

So in 2010, I got a bike to start commuting on.

Then I discovered Strava and the segments and stats tickled my competitive spirit and I never looked back.

In hindsight, I wish I would’ve had the same interest in building fitness/endurance during my moto days as I do now in my 40s.

25

Played basketball, baseball, soccer through 6th grade and then basketball year round until halfway through 2nd year of college at a US D2 school. Our high school trainer was/is pretty well respected nationally in the US and our weight training program no doubt contributed to immediate speed on the bike.

26

High School basketball (I’m tall). Rode BMX from age 12-17 then saw a Ciocc SLX with Record in a magazine and that was a wrap. Sold the BMX bike and got a road bike. Walked away from cycling at different points in my life, but have always returned eventually…kinda makes sense as I was that kid that thought riding across the country sounded awesome when I was like 10yrs old. It’s just always spoken to me…

27

Ran cross country, track and swam during high school. Then got lazy in college and through most of my 20s. Wanted to get back in shape but didn’t want to run, so I bought a bike. The rest they say, is history

28

Competitive nordic skiing (skating and classic). throughout HS and University. Taken advantage and carried the VO2max strengths to the bike.

29

Football; basketball, track in HS. Division 1 college football as an offensive lineman (I’m smaller now :relaxed:). Was a slimmer 295ish then started running after college to slim down. Didn’t find cycling/multi-sport until late 20s (I’m 50).

30

In high school, water polo and swimming. Outside of school, I played soccer.

I picked up cycling in college to cross train for water polo by borrowing a teammate’s “mountain bike”, really just a cruiser with straight bars (this was well before shocks). Jumped on the saddle one Sunday and did a 40mi ride on pavement (mostly beach paths, so mostly concrete). I liked it, borrowed his bike a couple more weekends before buying a Specialized Rockhopper Comp in 1988 and I began getting on the dirt and rode and raced that thing into the ground before getting a new bike.

Eventually, college ended, I added 40+lbs, and then decided to start training again in 1996. Started swimming again, started running, and I got back on the mountain bike. For some reason, I have no idea why or where I got the idea, I decided to do the Catalina Triathlon and did so on my mtb, which wasn’t a bad choice considering the terrible “pavement” conditions descending from Wriggly Mansion then. Ended up chatting with a guy after who invited me to lunch with a group, and he got me into Tri. He and I are still connected on Strava though I haven’t seen him in many, many years.

Eventually, I got a Tri bike, decided to my first century (Solvang) on it followed the next day by my first marathon (Los Angeles, a total coincidence they were the same weekend). And then I was hooked with countless open water swim races and triathlons and marathons to follow.

I didn’t get a road bike until 2014, followed by a gravel bike in 2018. And a few months ago I sold my Tri bike (my third) and doing eight IM so now I’m wholly converted.

By the way, I believe the best training and preparation for mass swim starts and wave starts is water polo :grin: That’s true for both defensive and well offensive reasons, not to mention head up sighting.

This went a bit beyond HS but I think the trajectory shows a connection back to the start, maybe. The twice day pool workouts, plus weights, with early morning starts helped lay the ground for the future training, which in a way came naturally (including early morning before work training and after work training), not to mention the dual solitude and camaraderie that is swimming. Anyway…

31

Me too! Big WoW nerd for years - completely took over my life. I played video games from when I was 7 to about 20… (my father ran an animation company so i was surrounded by PC nerds my whole life).

I was bigger, but not massive and definitely unfit. Took up running to lose weight and stop smoking. Started cycling to escape constant injuries I got from running… and now here we are - I. am. obsessed.

32

Nothing makes me feel older than people talking about spending their HS years playing a game that I feel like just came out 10 years ago. :rofl:

33

Took me a while to cop that HS was High School… anyway, played loose head prop in Rugby as I was always “big boned”. Also played football (soccer) socially, mainly 5 a side. I always followed pro-cycling, but never did it competitively.

Decided 11 or so years at 124ish* kg to do something about my weight. Started walking, joined a local tug o’war team (you’d think it’d suit someone heavier, but that is extremely wrong!), started running and cycling to lose weight for that. Was enjoying the exercise to lose weight to make teams more than the sport. That lead to Triathlon…

Did that for a few years, but my swim was really a limiter, and I didn’t have the time or inclination to focus on it. Kinda kept up running as well for a few years before focussing on the bike. Run niggles took a toll.

In terms of cycling. Tried MTB a couple of seasons, but it wasn’t for me. Focussed on the road, and done a bit of everything. Got a gravel bike and love that, but this season I’ve been racing vets/ masters and loving it.

Joined TR back in 2015 (I think), because of family life balance rather than going to turbo classes. I’ve been happy with my progress trusting the plans - really when I’ve gone off plan is when I haven’t really got stronger. I probably did a bit too much diet on the bike for example, as well as consistency in actually FTFP (which I really think is a lot of peoples actual problem when they are negative about the product/ plans).

COVID/ Remote and now blended working has really helped my consistency, and I love AT and especially AI FTP. I love just answering the survey, and letting the machine do it’s thing. One less thing on my cognitive load.

*got down to 70kg, crept up a bit, currently addressing that and back down to 74kg, as I’ve a climby gravel event as my A race. . Difference is this time actually growing FTP rather than static. But still struggle not to diet on the bike inside, but a lot better outside.Racing has gone well anyway, even in and around mid 70’s kg (2 wins this season)

34

I was a long distance runner as well. I ran cross country and track in HS and college. I started cycling in my 20s after my knees and hips were unhappy with all the running.

35

That’s essentially what happened to me in high school except with EverQuest. By the time WoW came out there was no way I was going to touch it. Still won’t touch games that don’t have a definitive end (though Civ6 games can last a looong time…).

36

Baseball, basketball, (American) football every year since I was about 8. Continued all three through high school and then 1 year year of football in college. 4 years in the military got me into running and powerlifting, continued powerlifting for a bit after my service and hit my heaviest weight of 235 pounds, then got big into running, mostly 10k and half marathons and slimmed down to my current weight of 185lbs. First and only marathon got a stress fracture in my foot and couldn’t run for months so I hopped on the bike. This was 2019 and I’ve never looked back. Pretty much all cycling these days, racing CX and road.

37

American football. Defensive end. As far as I am concerned, football is the greatest sport in the world and nothing will ever compare. I had a great stint in the WFA. National Champion, All-American First Team, team captain. The sport takes a huge toll on the body; you can’t play football forever. After seven seasons and four surgeries, I retired.

Also did rugby, lacrosse, and throwing (hammer and disc). I’m done with all of those now. My knee is so bad that cycling is just about the only thing I can do these days. I can’t run and honestly can’t walk that well either. I snowboard for fun. And I still lift, a mix of power and oly, but I don’t compete.

I picked up (gravel) cycling as a way to stay in shape during grad school. My first year on a bike was pure comedy. I was such an anaerobic athlete I couldn’t keep a steady cadence to save my life. I would ram the pedals down a half turn, glide, ram the pedals down, glide, etc. Fortunately my cardio was in tip top shape from rugby. In the words of a former teammate: there’s no shape like rugby shape. And you’re never in rugby shape.

I rode my beater MTB into the ground on the local gravel rail trails, listening to lectures on my phone. I kept riding longer and longer and ended up a self-supported ultra-endurance cyclist. Go figure. There’s just something immensely satisfying about riding an inhuman distance, on your own, under your own power.

Entered my gravel race in the Fall of 2020. Finished Unbound XL in 2022. At 205 lbs I was probably one of the heaviest XL finishers. Still rockin’ that lineman bod. :sweat_smile:

38

Rugby IS distance running. :wink: I get exhausted just thinking about it.

39

I played Football(reciever) and ran track(hurdler) all the way through high school and college. I gained a little weight after college and always loved riding bikes, stopped by a bike shop bought a bike started riding with the group rides, lost the bad weight and then started racing. Got obsessed with bikes and here we are.

40

HS being High School meaning teenage years?

None.

41

My main focus was alpine ski racing from an early age through college. We used cycling as one way to gain aerobic fitness prior to the season. We also ran, lifted and did various plyometrics but, we did ride quite a bit. None of it competitive for me. In HS I hated cycling and running long distance but, tolerated it to be fit for ski racing. Once in college (late 80’s) mountain biking really took off and dominated my cycling vs. road and that is where I fell in love with the bike.