Training for Your First Triathlon or Marathon

Guest Bio: Tom Altena, EdD

Thomas Altena, Ed.D, has been an Associate Professor of Exercise and Movement Sciences at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO for the past ten years. He completed his academic degrees at Dordt College (IA), University of South Dakota, and Oklahoma State University and did postdoctoral training at University of Missouri-Columbia. He has published his research in topics that include exercise accumulation, lipids and lipoproteins and how exercise produces healthy changes in cholesterol. Furthermore, he has published research in body composition methods and fish oil supplementation. Dr. Altena has done amateur bodybuilding, ran marathons, and has competed in long-course triathlons and always seeks to discover the limits to human performance, though some of the testing is not in the lab, he uses himself as a personal lab rat. He is a single father of two active boys who participate in all the sports, perform the arts, and are successful in the classroom. If anything, Dr. Altena, knows how to strike the balance among work, family and home, exercise and competition, and play times.