Becoming a Triathlete After Retirement - Linda Brooks

In episode 33, Jill and Chris talk with Linda Brooks, a woman who became active after she retired from her work as a medical transcriptionist and who now competes in triathlons.

She started running in 2011 and has a group of friends that call themselves the 50+ Posse. She gets up early in the morning to workout.

Around 2015 she started bicycling. She was active in the Slow Roll bicycling group in Cleveland that meets every Monday at different locations to ride through the city for about ten miles. It is good for beginner bike riders because the group rides slowly. Other cities also have Slow Roll bicycle clubs. She also rides with the Black Girls Do Ride bicycle group.

Linda retired in December 2015 and started swim lessons in January. She progressed quickly and was swimming the length of pool by May. By winter, she had already logged in 100 swimming miles. Now she swims for two hours, once she's in the pool.

Although she has had lupus for 16 years, she doesn't "claim it." Linda changed her diet to avoid foods the doctors said would trigger joint pain, took the medications that they prescribed for her and became very active.

Her first triathlon experience was in January 2018 at the Twilight Tri in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. She enjoys indoor cycling at the Cycle Bar in Hudson.

Motto for the biking groups that she belongs to is "No One Left Behind."

Links mentioned in this episode:

Black Girls Do Bike https://www.blackgirlsdobike.com/

Slow Roll Cleveland http://slowrollcleveland.com

Black Girls Run https://blackgirlsrun.com/

Member of Cleveland Triathlon Club. She trains with them.

She uses the runkeeper phone app: https://runkeeper.com/

The Great Ride movie is about the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail and the C & O bicycle trail that features members of the Black Girls Do Bike group.

Maps and info about Bike riding in NE Ohio, Cleveland and Akron : http://www.bikecleveland.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Bike-CLE-spreads_bleed-no-marks.pdf

NE Ohio Bike trails: https://www.ohiobikeways.net/neregionlist.htm Akron: https://www.ohiobikeways.net/akron.htm
Cleveland: https://www.ohiobikeways.net/cleveland.htm