My name is Ted Dickey (see photo), I live in Chaska…Joe "Triathlator" Kandiko and I are pretty close friends and have been for many years and it was thru his influence that I originally became interested in triathlon. Best thing I ever did. Fun to do and fun to train for, which is one of the reasons I am sending this t....; I know you like a story (this will be short) with a little bit of background to it. I recently found out you are adding the Train-Smarter.com site to your MN Tri news site and wanted to give you a glimpse into what is actually behind the site as well as the guy that developed it, Todd Shea.
I met Todd 10 years ago at the local Chaska Community Center where we both used to do the early (oh dark thirty) workout deal. We'd bs a little back and forth when we'd meet up somewhere in the complex. The we started to run together every once in a while, then that increased. We had no real goals back then but to drop a few pounds and be healthy. One day towards the middle of June in 2000 we were working out when I mentioned to him that I noticed people in the club were getting ready for something, the activity was almost like electricity and I asked someone what was going on.."Oh there is a triathlon in Waconia this Sunday and people are getting ready for it" I was told. What the heck was that I wondered. Anyway Todd lived in Waconia and decided to drop down and check it out. Well the following Monday back he came all excited about "the triathlon"...then he said those magic words "lets do it next year, we have a whole year to train for it" and thus started what both of us became hooked on, the workouts, the t-shirts, the whole deal. It took us a year but we did it, as a matter of fact at the last minute we signed up for Manitou as a practice for Waconia, and showed up that day with the wind howling and the trees swaying and both of us thinking "what the heck have we gotton ourselves into" but with our trusty Mountain Bikes (with kick stands!), waterski suits for warmth and bald running shoes experienced for the first time the joy and addiction of coming over the finish line. Hooked is the perfect word.
While we were training for this Todd always had in the back of his mind trying to find some way of keeping track on a daily basis other than on a sheet of paper what he was doing. Being a developer he thought this thru for a long time, all he really wanted was something basic to keep track of workouts and times on. Something he could go back to later for reference to track his progress and plan future goals and develop an actual workout plan. It took him a couple years of trial and error but what came into being was what is now known as Train-Smarter.com. We used this log just the two of us for a while, then we got others to try it out. They liked it too, so it sort of grew as it went on, very informal type thing, just a log and it was nice and served a great purpose.
It needs to be noted here that out here in Chaska its a pretty small area or was back then, but the interest in triathlon was just starting to grow and we became a sort of Tri group, included in the group that seemed to form was myself, Todd, Joe Kandiko, Tim Thoma, and Gary Bork. It was thru working out with one another and using the Train-Smarter Log that we not only met our fitness goals but it fostered a kinship in all of us that even to this day we are all still a pretty tightly knit group, we of course get together a lot during the season, but all meet at pre-season and post-season do's to just re-live the highlites and admire t-shirts and hardware. Very Very fun and just the best group of guys, very supportive and very enjoyable to be around.
In a nutshell … I guess what I am saying is that the choice to feature Train-Smarter.com on the site was a great one, it will not only foster continued interest in the sport of triathlon but all multi-sport, but most importantly it will help others achieve goals, act as a support system, and form friendships with others that will last a lifetime, a healthy one at that! - TD
