Pittsburgh Triathlon Club

Success at Bike-A-Thon

chad — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:16:28 +0000

Thanks to all the PTC members who came out to our first Bike-A-Thon Saturday, January 14, 2011. At first many planned to share the four hour time slot—the spirit and enthusiasm was so high most members rode for two or more hours solo!! Some of this included taking breaks to chat with other members or refuel with tasty bagels and cream cheese from the Bagel Factory, or sip on hot coffee donated by Dunkin Donuts! Not only did the club raise health and fitness levels, but we also collected over 20 HUGE bags of donated clothes, which were distributed to local charities throughout the Pittsburgh area including Goodwill and Community Human Services, a non-profit organization with a mission to enhance people’s lives and strengthen communities by delivering comprehensive services that maximize the health and well-being of those it serves in South Oakland and the greater Pittsburgh area, http://www.chscorp.org/.

It was amazing to see many PTC members ride farther than they had ever ridden before—what an accomplishment, and for so many good reasons including charity and wellness! Special THANK YOU goes out to Pro Bikes for all their help and allowing us to use their cycling studio!!! It was a great time—thanks to all that contributed.

Don’t forget to log ALL these and other miles for the USAT National Club Challenge! Participants log their miles swimming, biking and running over the course of December through February. There are some awesome prizes for the club that finishes first in their Division each month and overall! For more information visit the club challenge site. If you haven’t signed up yet, email the club at pittsburghtriathlonclub@gmail.com with your name, age and USAT member number. You can also email Bergin Smith at bergin.smith@gmail.com or Kamden Hoffmann at Kamden30@yahoo.com for more information.
Stay tuned for next month’s run-a-thon…more details to follow shortly!

2012 PTC Winter Triathlon Workshop

jill — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:33:02 +0000

The Pittsburgh Triathlon Club and Friends of the Riverfront would like to invite you to their 2012 Winter Triathlon Workshop at REI Settlers Ridge on Sunday, January 29th from 2-5pm.

Are you wondering how to train during the winter months? Whether you are a seasoned professional or looking to do your very first triathlon, you will not want to miss The Pittsburgh Triathlon Club’s Winter training Workshop!

Special presentations from: Dr. Suzanne Atkinson – Level 2 USAT coach, Chad Holderbaum – USA Triathlon Coach & Top 100 Ironman Hawaii Triathlete and an endurance athlete’s guide to nutrition by Beth Shutt, Registered Dietitian!

Don’t miss this exciting workshop brought to you by REI , Friends of the Riverfront and the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club.

Also, don’t forget to register for the GNC Pittsburgh Triathlon & Adventure Race presented by PNC being held on Sunday, July 29th, 2012.

And if you are a PTC Member, check the Members Only Section of this site for the PTC Only Discount Code!!!

Hope to see everyone there!!!!

REI Pittsburgh – Settlers Ridge

600 Settlers Ridge Center Drive

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15205

(412) 747-1180

PTC ROCKS 100 x 100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jill — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:37:29 +0000

Quoting our President, Chad Holderbaum “What an awesome morning at the PTC 10K swim challenge. Great work everybody. I believe we raised $300+ for the GPAC swim team not to mention all the canned goods for the food bank! Very proud of this club! Oh, and don’t forget to log your swim yardage on the USAT NCC website.”
Special THANK YOU goes out to Suzanne Atkinson for all her help and the Greater Pittsburgh Aquatics Club for allowing us to use their pool!!!
An awesome time was had by all!!!!
This is what the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club is ALL ABOUT!!!! Stay tuned for next month’s ride…………more details to follow shortly!!!!!!!!!!!!!

USAT National Club Challenge!

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:13:21 +0000

The Pittsburgh Triathlon Club is signed up for the USAT National Club Challenge! Each club signs up 75 members (we can have more than one club if we have more than 75 participants). Participants log their miles swimming, biking and running over the course of December through February. There are some awesome prizes for the club that finishes first in their Division each month and overall! For more information visit the club challenge site. To get started, email the club at pittsburghtriathlonclub _at_ gmail.com with your name, age and USAT member number.

Current Standings:

KONA PARTY!!!!!

jill — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:00:54 +0000

Aloha Pittsburgh Tri Club Members:

Come celebrate another successful year of triathlon in Pittsburgh at our annual Kona Viewing party on Saturday, October 8, 2011, 4:00 pm at Top Gear Bicycle Shop. The PTC has four club members racing at the big show so please come out and show your support as our athletes take on the big island. Come cheer on our President, Chad Holderbaum, Chris Nocera, Beth Shutt, Kim Schwabenbauer, Jeremy and Jocelyn Cornman and Joe Vallese!!!!!

We’ll be grilling burgers and hot dogs among other goodies for all PTC members that join us. Please RSVP via the E-vite you were sent last week so we can get an accurate head count.

We will have multiple TVs streaming the live video feed from Hawaii.

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@pittsburghtriathlonclub.com

Mahalo,
Jill Schapiro
PTC Vice President

PTC Update – September

chad — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:29:53 +0000

First and foremost, I wanted to thank you all on another successful year! If you made it out to the Pittsburgh Triathlon late July, you got to see in person what the club is all about. Our mission continues to help foster the growth of multisport in the Greater Pittsburgh Area, by supplying an open, supportive, educational and healthy competitive environment, and bringing together triathletes of all skill levels, and capabilities. As the Triathlon season begins to wind down, I wanted to quickly update you all on some of the ongoing and upcoming activities that are going on within the club!

At our August Triathlon club meeting, Sarah Schreiber was elected Club Secretary. Sarah’s role will be an integral part of the club in the future as we continue to grow! If you see Sarah please be sure to welcome her into this new role.

Our next PTC Club meeting will occur this Sunday beginning at 1:00 PM at Top Gear Bicycle Shop in Wexford. Our meetings typically last around an hour and this is a great place to meet fellow Triathletes in the Pittsburgh area. Also, be sure to keep an eye on the PTC Website Calendar as the colder months begin to roll in for our organized group bike trainer and Computrainer sessions.

As a reminder, our open water swims will continue as long as we have daylight and as long as the weather cooperates. Please be sure to check out the Forum on our website for more information and water conditions as we do not announce whether or not the swim is “on” until the day of the swim. Kamden Hoffman, our PTC Training Coordinator, is also in the process of setting up the next PTC group run on Thursday, September 15th. The run will start at the Over The Bar Cafe on the Southside. All abilities are welcome and there will be multiple distances with happy hour to follow! For information regarding the run, please visit http://pittsburghtriathlonclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=533. Some of the other upcoming events where we have PTC members participating in are the Portage Lakes Triathlon, Savageman, Ironman Wisconsin, Rev 3 Half Iron at Cedar Point, Crooked Creek Triathlon, The Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Vegas, The Nations Triathlon….the list goes on and on! If you have a race coming up and would like to see if any other PTC members are going to be at the race, simply visit the PTC Athlete Race Calendar at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsG_QYTCtlqrdEhiWjYzaF9LREo0YXFGVjdJeEZWR0E&hl=en_US&authkey=CL6twv4P or visit our Facebook site or the Forum.

We are also in the planning stage for our 2nd Annual Ironman World Championship Kona Viewing Party! The party will occur on October 8th so please mark you calendars. Once the meeting location / time details are finalized, we will be sure to relay that information to you all.

Over the month of August we also saw the club grow to 224 members! We began the year with a goal of growing the club to 200 and as you can see, we far exceeded our expectations! We will open 2012 membership enrollment most likely in December of this year. If you are not yet a member of the club, you can join today at a pro-rated rate which will get you membership through the remainder of 2011 as well as membership in 2012. If you joined the club late in the year for 2011, we plan to send you all a discount code for next year. We will send out an email to all all late season members also in December with additional details. To join the club simply visit http://www.active.com/triathlon-membership/pittsburgh-pa/pittsburgh-triathlon-club-annual-membership-2011 .

One more thing I’d like to mention is the upcoming Pittsburgh Great Race. The PTC has again partnered with Running for Laptops!!! If you are running the Great Race, why not also run for a great cause! As part of the team you will receive a Free Brooks running shirt and you get to see the students receive their laptops at the post-pre race student reception. For additional details, please visit either www.runningforlaptops.org or visit http://pittsburghtriathlonclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=516 for details about the charity and fundraising details.

We hope to see you all on Sunday and thanks again for making the PTC the premier triathlon club in Pittsburgh!!!

Regards,
Chad Holderbaum
Pittsburgh Triathlon Club President

Did you know that the PTC has a Facebook page? If you’re on Facebook, be sure to become a member today by visiting the following URL! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_90501125746

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The PTC would like to continue to thank all of our sponsors for their support!

Top Gear Bicycle Shop
Xterra Wetsuits
Rudy Project
E-Gel
Beaker Concepts
Infinit Nutrition
BikeTek
Dr. Webb Chiropractic
DeNovo Chiropractic
Fleet Feet Pittsburgh
Human Vortex Training
Coach Chad Multisport Coaching
Fuel Your Passion
Cornman Multisport Coaching
Steel City Endurance
The Athlete’s Eutrophia
MoJo Running of Pittsburgh

July Update From the PTC

chad — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:15:30 +0000

Hello again Pittsburgh area triathletes. We have some exciting news to report on now that our hometown Triathlon is just a couple days away. First and foremost, I’d like to mention that the PTC has grown to over 200 strong and continues to grow by the day. Simply amazing!

Second, I wanted to make mention of some of the upcoming events and races that are occurring over the next couple of weeks.

Our next Open Water Swim will occur this Friday evening at 6:15 p.m. (water conditions permitting). The club will meet at the Three Rivers Rowing Association dock on Washington’s Landing/Herr’s Island. 300 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

WTAE Channel 4 News will be on the scene and will be doing a short news segment on our club and the growth of triathlon in the city of Pittsburgh. This is fantastic news for our club and for our sport! The broadcast will air through the weekend leading up to the Pittsburgh Triathlon which takes place on Sunday. If you are interested in being part of the broadcast, we ask that you wear your PTC gear and apparel to the open water swim. They would also like to film a group of PTC athletes running and cycling, so if you’d also like to be part of that (which will occur either before or after the OWS), please bring your running and cycling gear with you as well!

As most of you already know, this weekend is the SOLD OUT Pittsburgh Triathlon and according to our latest head count, the PTC has over 100 club members competing in the race! The PTC will be providing free beverages (water / gatorade) to all PTC club members through out the weekend. We will also have a tent setup at the Expo on Saturday which runs from 10am – 2pm. There will be a 45-60 minute triathlon informative clinic starting at 1:00pm, so come on out and get all your triathlon questions answered by Coach Chad (yes that’s me)! Immediately after the race, we plan to celebrate our accomplishments with a cook out and BBQ! We also have free PTC water bottles to hand out to all club members and free PTC t-shirts for the first 100 members that stop by the expo on Saturday.

The other BIG local race that is right around the corner is the Janney North Park triathlon which is directed by one of our very own club members, Matt Meehan. The race takes place at the North Park Swimming Pool on August 7th. To register for the race, simply visit the following URL. http://www.ymcaofpittsburgh.org/locations/baierl-family-ymca/

Matt is a good friend of the club and is a pioneer to the sport of triathlon here in Pittsburgh. His first triathlon was actually the 1983 North Park Triathlon and he has been competing across the globe ever since. Matt could not agree more that this is an exciting time for the sport. One reason for this excitement is the growth of the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club. There have been other triathlon clubs in this area in the past but never anything near the size of what the PTC is. Last year, the North Park Tri saw 398 athletes cross the finish line. In the hope of attracting more top athletes to the race, the North Park Tri will now be rewarding the top athletes with prize money. As always, the race is a good one for the novice triathlete due to it being a pool swim and the run being contested on the trails, which provide some relief from the heat. We hope to see you all this coming weekend at the Pittsburgh Triathlon and again on August 7th. If you have any questions about the North Park race, feel free to contact Matt by email at (meehanma@upmc.edu). Also, if you can’t compete, they’re always looking for volunteers! Also, if you have a kid between the age of 7-15, have them give triathlon a try on August 6th. Click here for more information. http://www.pittsburghhabitat.org/tri/race-info.html

I wish you all the best in your training and racing as the season begins to wind down. If you have any questions or can think of ways to make OUR club better, we’d love to hear what you have to say.

Regards,
Chad Holderbaum
Pittsburgh Triathlon Club President

Did you know that the PTC has a Facebook page? If you’re on Facebook, be sure to become a member today by visiting the following URL! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_90501125746

TIME CHANGE!!!!! 1 PM

jill — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:12:23 +0000

The Pittsburgh Triathlon Club is proud to present a FREE pre-race information session with our own President, Elite Triathlete and USA Triathlon Coach, Chad Holderbaum of Coach Chad Multisport.

Please join us in front of the PTC Tent during the Pittsburgh Triathlon Expo on Saturday, July 30th at 1:00 pm.

Coach Chad will give a brief overview of the race course to participants, an overview of commonly violated rules as well as tips and tricks to racing your fastest triathlon ever!

The session will last approximately 30-40 minutes and will conclude with a Q&A session where you can ask Coach Chad about anything and everything from race nutrition to overcoming your fear of the Allegheny River. We look forward to seeing you all and be sure not to miss this great opportunity to ask Coach Chad all of your pre-race questions.

FREE PreRace Info Session

jill — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:33:03 +0000

The Pittsburgh Triathlon Club is proud to present a FREE pre-race information session with our own President, Elite Triathlete and USA Triathlon Coach, Chad Holderbaum of Coach Chad Multisport.

Please join us in front of the PTC Tent during the Pittsburgh Triathlon Expo on Saturday, July 30th at 11:00 am.

Coach Chad will give a brief overview of the race course to participants, an overview of commonly violated rules as well as tips and tricks to racing your fastest triathlon ever!

PTC Update

chad — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:28:03 +0000

Hello Pittsburgh area triathletes. It’s hard to believe it is already July but the good news is, we still have plenty of racing yet to come! I’ll keep this email brief as I wanted you all to be aware of a couple items on the horizon. Since my last email, the PTC has had some amazing results all across the country as well as some outstanding accomplishments locally.
First, the PTC family is VERY close to our goal of 200 members. As of yesterday we officially have 194 members in the club and I swear every time I’m out on my bike, I meet a new triathlete in town that is part of our amazing club! I love it!!!

Again, thanks for continuing to spread the word throughout the Pittsburgh community.

Second, I wanted to remind you all that this Sunday is our monthly meeting. The meeting will be held at the Top Gear Bicycle shop in Wexford (http://topgearbicycleshop.com) from 1pm – 2pm 7/9/11 and will be followed with a small burger/hot dog cookout. If you have never been to a meeting, this is a great way to mingle with other triathletes, learn tips and secrets, as well as find out what else is going on in the club. The club is also looking for active volunteers that would like to play a bigger role in the club organization. If this interests you, please come to the meeting and let us know!

I also wanted to make mention of the Ballou Skies Charity bike ride which occurs this Saturday beginning at noon. If you are free, come on out for a good time and a good workout! This is their second annual charity ride and the first ride raised $5000 dollars! The ride will start and finish at the Old Economy Cafe in Ambridge. There will be two ride options. A 25 mile course and a more challenging 50 mile course. For more information simply visit http://www.ballouskies.com/

Next, the open water swims are here and let me tell you, it’s awesome!!! Conditions are fantastic (as long as it doesn’t rain) and the current is non-existent! The club meets at the Three Rivers Rowing Association dock on Washington’s Landing/Herr’s Island. 300 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 If the weather/water is clear we will swim every Friday at 6:15 p.m. Again, please make sure you are on time so we can get an accurate head count before we get into the water as well as after. Check the PTC forum or facebook for the most up to date swim conditions.

As for other upcoming races….the Pittsburgh Triathlon is less than a month away! We already have over 100 PTC members planning to race. Yes, OVER 100! I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!!!!!

I also wanted to remind everyone that the Habitat for Humanity organizes a kids triathlon in South Park on July 16th and another in North Park on August 6th. For more information, please visit the following URL. http://www.kidstriathlon.org/tri/triathlon.html

As I’ve said before, I couldn’t be more proud of all of you and your accomplishments. Please remember, that you all are the face of the best triathlon club in the country. Continue working hard and all of your dreams will become a reality! As always, please be sure to let us know how your season is going through out the summer! We love hearing from you!

Regards,
Chad Holderbaum
Pittsburgh Triathlon Club President

Did you know that the PTC has a Facebook page? If you’re on Facebook, be sure to become a member today by visiting the following URL! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_90501125746

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The PTC would like to continue to thank all of our sponsors for their support!