Member of the Week - VanHlebar

[gatorvol64]

This week's Member of the Week is VanHlebar. We are glad to have him in the spotlight this week.

Swingers Board interviews are a way for us to get to know each other better. It is a way to acknowledge just how wonderfully varied a community we are. Every Sunday, a new interview will start and the old interview will be locked. Be sure to stop in and get to know them better by asking them every nosey, intimate, personal question you can think of.

Try to ask only one question (or group of questions) per post, to make it easier for the interviewee to answer the questions, and also to allow for others to ask their questions.

Try to keep this thread about the person being interviewed. If you want to comment about things you discover you have in common or just elaborate on a response, pm them and make a new friend or start a new thread about it. This is intended to be a friendly thread, so please don’t ask anything in a purposeful attempt to get a heated debate. Of course, nobody is required to answer a question that they do not want to.

Also, please keep in mind that any answers you post are viewable to complete strangers. There is some risk in that. Again, all questions are optional.

We'll start each interview with a few overview questions to get things started:

Gender (if not a couple):
If a couple, which one primarily posts:
Age(s):
Birthday(s):
Location:
Relationship status:
Swinging for how long?:
Prefer to swing with:
Biggest Pet Peeve:
Brief Intro:
Picture (if you feel comfortable sharing one):
Website (your own or one of your favorites):

[VanHlebar]

Gender (if not a couple): Male just in case it wasn't obvious.
Age(s): 35
Birthday(s): Feb 28th
Location: Cincinnati
Relationship status: Married
Swinging for how long?: 2 years...maybe 3...I can't remember.
Prefer to swing with: MrsVan ok...couples and more somes.
Biggest Pet Peeve: can I have more than one? Rudeness would be the tops followed quickly by men that don't know how to be gentlemen.

I will do what I can to try and keep up. I just got into the sport of triathlon about a year ago, some of you might have read the posts from last year. My other hobbies would include brewing beer and computers. (yeah I guess I would be a geek)

[fun4Ds]

What's the most important thing you have learned about yourself, through swinging ?

[notaswingeryet]

What kind of brew do you prefer/what have you tried to make and how did that work out?

[VanHlebar]

Originally Posted by fun4Ds

What's the most important thing you have learned about yourself, through swinging ?

Wow I thought these would be easy and fun questions!

I guess that I needed to listen more and actually hear what people where saying, not just my wife. The fact that the LS forces you as a couple to learn how to communicate, that flowed over to my personal life with my kids and co-workers. Hard to believe that something like this could help there too.

-Van

[VanHlebar]

Originally Posted by notaswingeryet

What kind of brew do you prefer/what have you tried to make and how did that work out?

My favorite beers are wheat beers by far. I have brewed all sorts, but have stayed with Ales as they are the easiest to brew. I have only had a few that had to be thrown away because they where infected.

My best beer that I made would probably have to be my own creation. It was a Maple Pale Ale. I take 1/2 gallon of Grade A Maple Syrup and add it in the last 15 minutes of the boil to a fairly standard Pale Ale recipe. It had just a enough maple flavor to taste good, but not so sweet that it tasted like a breakfast beer.

-Van

[fun4Ds]

Originally Posted by VanHlebar

Wow I thought these would be easy and fun questions!

I guess that I needed to listen more and actually hear what people where saying, not just my wife. The fact that the LS forces you as a couple to learn how to communicate, that flowed over to my personal life with my kids and co-workers. Hard to believe that something like this could help there too.

-Van

GONG!!! Wrong answer..... your outa here, interview is over !

No, just kidding

Thats actually a perfect answer Thank you

[rpu3]

What have you learned about yourself through your triathlon efforts?

Best and worst parts about triathlons and/or training for triathlons?

[VanHlebar]

Originally Posted by rpu3

What have you learned about yourself through your triathlon efforts?

Best and worst parts about triathlons and/or training for triathlons?

I have learned a ton about myself and my bodys limits during the past year or so of training. I have pushed myself further physically that sometimes I thought was even possibly for me, but somehow was still able to limp my way into the finish line. When you spend any amount of time training, not just for tris but any sport, I think you really start to understand your limits and you start to listen to your body more than usual.

Best part about triathlons would be the people for sure. I have never been in any other sport where the support for every athlete is so high. Your fellow competitors actually want you to perform your best, even if that mean beating them. They give you so much support while out on the course it is awesome. A great example of this is from my last race. I had the best swim I have ever had in a race (came out of the water in just over 13 minutes for a 1/2 mile swim) and headed out on my bike. I got about 5 miles into the bike and my back tire blew. Not a big deal I have a spare tube so I get it changed and start out again. Less than 100 feet and the 2nd tube pops! Now my race is over. I don't have anymore tubes nor anyway to pump it up even if I had one. As I was carrying the bike back to the nearest intersection, I had at least a dozen bikers offer to stop and give me whatever I needed in order to continue to race. Almost every single rider that passed me said how bad they felt and wished me well. What other sport would someone actually give up their race in order to help out a fellow competitor and complete stranger? I can't think of many.

Worst part of the training is by far the amount of time that it takes away from friends and family. I am not an early morning person. So getting up every single day at 5am to go swim/bike/run just doesn't happen. I normally can only get in one workout per day and in reality I need two. That means on the weekends I must get two in and when you are training 6-10 hours a week it is just a lot of time away. There are many days that I feel very selfish for the training that I do.

I am sort of in a mid-season slump right now. I haven't trained that much since the last race and I just can't seem to get out there and get going. It will pass eventually, but I also feel guilty when I am not training. Stupid I know but it is hard to explain.

[notaswingeryet]

How do you manage to balance work, training, family AND swingtime?

[JustAskJulie]

Hey Stifler, Has anyone ever asked for your autograph?

[cupl4fun]

We don't do the tri's yet but we do cycle. What type of bike do you ride? Did you start out doing triathlons or did you do other parts of the tri first?

[cplnuswing]

Who first brought up the idea of swinging, you or Mrs Van? How did you/she do it and how did that go?

[VanHlebar]

Originally Posted by notaswingeryet

How do you manage to balance work, training, family AND swingtime?

Well not very well at the present time. I struggle with the plain and simple. I am not a morning person so most of my training has to be done at night. Add to this that I play volleyball every Tuesday and Thursday night and well I just struggle to get training times in.

I would love to compete at the Olympic distance level and Half Iron man levels, but I just can't do it. I feel guilty taking so much time for myself to train even for my sprint races, so maybe once the kids have gotten older I can then focus more on the longer distance. For now I just race when I can and enjoy the sport as much as possible and continue to struggle to find that balance for family/training and play time.

If anyone has done it please let me know.

-Van

[VanHlebar]

Originally Posted by JustAskJulie

Hey Stifler, Has anyone ever asked for your autograph?

Nope because nobody outside of this board seems to think I look like Stifler.

Other than that one time at the Ohio meetup and the Bob Evans take over...but that is a different story.

-Van

PS
For the record I never looked that much like him, no matter what Spoo thought and I look even less so now that I am bald! That's my story and I am sticking to it.