History
Growing up I used to swim almost every day of the week at the “Doctors Association Sports club” back in Maracaibo (Colegio de Medicos) and that is where it all started, I learned to swim at that pool and I just loved being in the water. I never competed (only during that the class) but it became second nature for me to swim.
Early in elementary school we had Ballet classes and later during high school, we had a gymnastics team which I loved, which I loved. During this time my love for dancing (jazz and modern dancing) grew and I decided to join a dance studio after school called “Interdance”, it was twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, they were my favorite days of the week, along with my school choir practice days after school.
Dancing took the place of swimming pool time and soon enough, choreography and fitness was my focus. Shaping my body became an obsession and dance/aerobics classes became a passion which continue during half of my college career.

Upon my arrival in Boston in 1995 I joined the YMCA main branch but soon enough I learned that the dancing that I was looking for was held at the dance studios. I joined Jeanet Neal studio’s Theater dance with tommy coy and Impulse dance jazz/hiphop classes  for over 5 years.  At that time I also learned to Rollerblade and that became another weekly activity after work that I enjoyed, on my own or with my coworkers.  When my job moved from north station and impulse dance studio closed and my hip-hop teacher left town around 2000, I decided to go back to my roots “latin dancing” and I started hitting the latin clubs where my own musician friends would play to enjoy the latin dance. This lead to discovering the “Boston Rueda Team” a super fun group of dancers that practiced Rueda de Casino style dancing, a cuban form of choreographed salsa dancing in a circle. I have been in the group since and currently I enjoy their weekly classes at MIT and social events. As a dancer, I couldn’t ask for more, although I do miss hip-hop and jazz dancing. I consider this my cross training as well as my rollerblading 😉

After going through a very tough surgery (half neck dissection), as treatment/prevention/diagnosis for cancer, I had to stop any form of movement for years and was only limited to a few dancing events. My body needed all the energy it could get to heal from surgery and to be able to sustain my singing  activities and my software engineering job.

I took control over my nutrition in a very strict way and my energy consumption as well as how I spent it and doing what.  It wasn’t until 2008, when I finally had gotten almost 100% of my energy back that I could start losing weight and think about toning my already out of shape body. I setup my weight goals and after I had reached my first weight goal (be at the border of normal bmi), I started configuring my body tone/fitness goals. That is when I started training in 2009. First swimming in february, added spinning in march and finally training to run for a 5k race sponsored by my company. I also added a little bit of yoga at home or at the beach with my iPhone app 😉 and I continue rollerblading.

I met some triathletes and they encouraged me to race. It wasn’t until they suggested that I was already a triathlete, that I realized I could. I started researching about tris and I loved everything that I was discovering about triathlons and the science behind it. I joined the online triathlete community and quickly got hooked. I had never run races or ridden bikes in my entire life.

I tried my first 5k in june, it was challenging but I took the bait. I bought a racing bike in June and taught myself to bike in two months and signed up for two triathlons a week apart. Needless to say, I loved it and now I have signed up for one a month 2010. With my example I have been inspiring so many of my friends through the social networks that I belong to. I am so excited about my athlete life and I can’t believe I hadn’t done this before. I feel that I am in my best fitness shape ever after 40 years old and I hope to keep improving.

My weekly tri routine consists of swimming, running, spinning classes, and biking outdoors. I love to do group runs and group bike rides which makes it more fun. I am now a part of the Zoom Multisport tri team. I have to say that having a tri-spin instructor also inspired me a lot. The online resources are amazing and I can’t get enough of it, not to mention all the new super amazing inspiring people I have met through the sport.

Now I am adventuring all over MA on bike paths in parks and discovering fun new group rides, I joined the Charles river wheeler bike club, the mystic marauders bike/swim club, and am enjoying the free outdoor and open water training with all my tri new tri friends.