Gail Norman
Tampa, FL
Age: 50
Married with two teenagers
Occupation: Family physician on sabbatical. Controller for two non-profits.

“Geez, what took you so long? Ginger and Katie have been done for a long time!”  These were my husband’s comments after my first St. Anthony’s Olympic race in 2002.  I’d been an avid runner all my life, but adding swimming and biking was a new challenge.  My friend Ginger (a college swimmer who could also run and bike well) roped several of us into doing our first triathlon.  I grew up in San Diego swimming in the ocean but I couldn’t swim a lap in a pool and I didn’t know how to swim freestyle.  However much I disliked regimented swimming, I loved the whole triathlon concept and continued to sign up for races and work to improve.  Being born an analyzer, I analyzed swimming up one side and down the other and made yearly progress at a snail’s pace.  After many slow finishes, I might have gone back to just running races, but I had several friends who participated in triathlons who provided camaraderie and encouragement…and so I kept after it.  Running was easy….THIS required thought, planning, strategy, hard work, goals, tons of exercise….analyzing…..I loved it.

I continued to work hard on all three sports and slowly I saw progress.  In the past few years, I actually made it to the top third of my age group…but still found myself falling short of competitive times or placings.  Last year two of my triathlon friends who were training with Jeff suggested that he was just what I needed to make it to the next level.   After giving it considerable thought, I contacted Jeff and started following his tailor made program.  He gave me frequent short intervals which helped significantly to build strength, and they didn’t leave me exhausted, so I could go and do it again tomorrow and build even more strength.  Also, prior to this, I was swimming only 3 days per week. Swimming is my weakness.  By having me go to 4-5 days per week and having me do some shorter sessions that I didn’t dread, my swimming ability has improved dramatically in the past year.  Also, I think the S-B-R combinations each week help build endurance for doing all three sports in a race.  I had never done this before training with Jeff.  Overall, his program is working extremely effectively for me.  Prior to this past year, I had never won a running race or a triathlon.  However, now I have had several first place age group wins in the past year.  It’s been a little mind boggling how well just changing a few things can make such a huge difference.

I am signed up for IMFL this year and hope to finish my first ironman.  I can highly recommend Jeff for many reasons.  He really seems to listen and work hard to communicate well with his athletes.  He is very easy to talk to.  His plans are very well thought out and effective, and tailored for each individual person, depending on their strengths, weaknesses and likes/dislikes.  He always remembers to give me more running because it’s what I love best.  But he makes me swim for it too.  I couldn’t be more pleased with my progress.