H.E.A.T. & Get Out N Play

Good morning!

I've been searching around online today for activity groups as I'm thinking more and more of how much benefit I could get out of having a group of friends with similar goals.  And I came across a couple things that I thought you guys might enjoy.

First of all, I came across a group that I had previously seen at my triathlons, Hartford Extended Area Triathletes or H.E.A.T.  This is a group that you can join of mainly triathletes.  The main goal of any of these types of groups is simply to help & support each other with your goals, whether it be advice on how to maintain nutrition, how to focus a training workout, or even just motivation to get out and train day-to-day.  If you check out the website, you'll see forums with long lists of reviews for local or national events.  I read a bunch of their forum topics about experiences at the Ironman Lake Placid race and it was refreshing to see that other local individuals have similar goals.  For those with smaller goals, there are plenty of posts about local sprint triathlons, 5k runs, and such; plenty of variety for people of any level.  This would be the type of group that I'd like to join to get help with workout ideas, some advice for techniques or nutrition, motivation, and friends to join on some of the longer workout goals.  I'll be looking around at some other similar groups, but something of this sort would be incredibly helpful to maintain motivation.

While I was fiddling around on the H.E.A.T. site, I came across something called "Get Out N Play."  Much like Brian Bohrer from Wilmington, NC who I've talked about before, Aubrey Fleszar who runs Get Out N Play is a personal trainer who simply loves fitness and nutrition so much that she's made a career out of helping others meet their own fitness goals. Aubrey is a USA Triathlon Certified Coach and also attended the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.  If you look at her website, you will notice she also has a blog, which covers not only some of her own adventures (check out her entry for August 20th, 2009 - some great photos of what seems to have been a great trip to Mt. Eisenhower in NH), but focuses on a lot of recipes and ideas for holistic nutrition.  Now I personally had no idea what "holistic nutrition" was at first, so for people like myself, do not fear.  I found this website to help explain.  As you may guess from the term "holistic" itself, holistic nutrition looks at helping the entire body and person as opposed to say a specific ailment or "part of the whole."  It's an intriguing idea and I'll certainly be giving a couple of these recipes a try. 

If you're interested at all in the nutrition or even getting ideas for your own personal fitness goals, I strongly suggest sending Aubrey a message.  There's a message center under "contact us" on the Get Out N Play website.  There's no time like the present to get started on making your life happier and healthier.

For those who are already "fit," if you're looking for either a way to step up the level or even just some motivation on reaching that next big goal (I'm certainly going to be looking for some on my way to the Ironman), feel free to talk to Aubrey or the guys and girls at H.E.A.T.  Heck, even contact me.  There are ALWAYS people around you with similar goals.  You've just got to know where to look and I'm just doing my best to make that search easier.

I'll be back later today with my typical post after I get over to the gym.

Ciao!