I know this is really long but I'd really be grateful to anyone who read this and shared their comments or experience... and I know this is silly to be asking for advice on Yahoo Answers, but I feel like all everyone I know that gives me advice is too concerned. I felt this was a good source because I'm sure nobody knows me on here, and could just give me a straight opinion without their natural emotions and concern of being my friend or family member.

I go to school at UT, so I live in Austin and my brother is training for the half-iron in Austin, Texas on October 25, 2009. He is in very good shape since he has been racing for over over four years and is only 18.

However, just randomly I got the idea that I should do it too. I started looking online and want to participate in the Austin Triathlon as well on September 7.

My only fear is that it is too late to start training since I am way out of shape. I am 20 years old, about 6', 180 pounds. I am not fat or anything and have a pretty small frame, but I have a terrible diet (2 meals a day, always fast food, eat candy and drink soda all the time).

However, I was on the swim team throughout high school and swam about 5000-6000m/day. I also used to train for marathons and completed one in hs as well. I wanted to see what I could do today, so earlier I grabbed my bike during the hottest part of the day and biked about ten miles fairly easy, and a few minutes ago, I ran about three miles, though my times were pathetic. I used to swim a 500m freestyle in about 5 minutes, and run a mile in about 5 minutes.

Today, I felt like I ran at a pathetic 10min/mile pace, and I'm not sure about my bike, but I know I can hardly swim 1000m now without getting really exhausted.

Part of me says this is out of my reach right now, but part of me says since I am fairly young and have a lot of persistence and perseverance that I can get back into shape pretty quickly. I think I can do it with really hard work, and since I was on the swim team and used to be pretty active, I know I have the endurance, and just feel like my gut is telling me I can do it. But since I haven't really exercised since hs, and am in nowhere near the shape I used to be in 2 years ago, I don't want to be ignorant at the same time and make a stupid decision and end up hurting myself.

With my current state, and with the regular triathlon next month and half-iron in two months, is this really as crazy as I think it is? All I want to do is finish, get a cool shirt, and be able to so say I did a half ironman. I don't expect to win anything I just want to finish without looking too pathetic, and I'll have that much more experience to be able to actually compete next year if I continue to train.

My other concern was that I don't want this to hurt my academics. I think this would be an excellent time to start training though if I end up doing it, because my last day of summer school is on Wednesday, then I have a solid two weeks of no school before the fall semester starts.

However, when the fall semester starts I will be taking a heavy course load of 20 credits (Microtheory Economics, History, Physics, Calculus III, Spanish II), and working at my internship 20 hours per week.

Also, since I've had this idea, I thought it would be neat to work for a pedicab company downtown as well. It seems pretty flexible. I would work probably about 2 nights (8 hour shifts) throughout the week, and be a taxi for all the drunk people at the bars on 6th street and make pretty good money from tips. It would be really cool though because the manager of the company said I would end up biking about 20-30 miles a night.

Anyways, I kind of expected this from my parents but they think taking 20 hours of school, working at an internship part time in the day, part time pedicap at night, and training for triathlons, is going to cut into my studying, sleep, social life, and I guess basically they think I'll end up being a wreck.

I expected that from them, though. I think pretty much any concerned parent would say that. My girlfriend thinks its too much too, and says I always try to take on too many things at once.

Idunno though, I really think it's managable though. It wont be easy, but I think it's managable.

There are 168 hours in a week. If I am in class for 20, work for 40, workout for about 10, that still leaves me 98 hours for other things.

So if I study for 30, and sleep for 50, I still have 19 hours of free time, almost a whole day (Sorry, I'm double majoring in Finance/Electrical Engineering with a Minor in Economics, so I guess I really like numbers lol). Therefore, I could still go out on Friday or Saturday Night and be with friends. And I could even study with friends so I would still have a social life.

Therefore, if I can manage my time well enough, it seems to me that I can get in really good shape and participate in two triathlons, work at my internship, work as a pedicap, go
My main passion is finance though. I am a very active trader, and long term investor. My career goal is to work as an analyst somewhere like Goldman Sachs for a couple years, get an MBA from a top 10 school, and ultimately become a hedgefund manager. I think if I were able to hack this without letting my grades suffer, this could say a lot about me, since they are looking for "hungry", overachieving Gordon Geckos, willing to work a million hours per week on no sleep without sacrificing their work.