Chain Reaction Part One

Eleven years ago today I walked on a treadmill for 10 minutes.  This event, without my knowing it at the time, was the first link of an ongoing chain reaction.  But thinking back the first link would have been me sitting on the coach with a half eaten bag of potato chips, thinking to myself I feel like crap, I am unhealthy and I have to do something about this.  At this time my weight was 300 pounds and the only form of regular activity was mowing the lawn when I absolutely had to. 

This chain is still going on, I didn’t start out thinking that I wanted to race in an Ironman Triathlon I just wanted to be able to lean down and tie my shoes.

In the coming months I hope to recount the major links in this chain that brought me to where I am today.  Becoming an Ironman doesn’t happen overnight. 

Me in 2000

Ride Through the Woods

Photo by Jason J Molyet

I went mountain biking at Mohigan Sunday afternoon.  A mountain biker is a special breed of person.  They are masters of a unique skill set that enables them to enjoy racing up difficult climbs and down dangerous descents, strewn with roots and rocks.  They live for the adrentiam rush they experience when they narrowly escape personal injury by staying upright while riding through the rock garden.  I am not one of these bikers.  I’m just a guy that likes to ride a bike through the woods, and today was a wonderful ride.  The woods floor was dusted with snow and the air was crisp and clean.  The friends I was riding with made this experience a thrill, thanks, John, Rabbit, Jason and Josh.

A Day at the Beach

Pleasant Hill Lake Summer 2010

Sun on my face and sand in my toes is part of a day at the beach.  Swimming at Pleasant Hill Lake gives me all of that but since it is frozen solid I went to the Y pool.

Friends of mine offered to spend some time with me and give me some pointers on improving my swimming.  Since they are both swim coaches I jumped at this opportunity.  My last swim instructions were in the Y’s tadpole class when I was 6.  For the last few years I have been watching swimming videos and the Olympics to try to improve my strokes.  But without knowing specifically what I was doing wrong I didn’t know what I needed to change, I just knew my swim times were slower than I wanted.  In my mind I was swimming just like Michael Phelps.  Swimming isn’t like cycling or running it is more about technique than simple training.  With the suggestions from my swim coaching staff, thanks Marcia and Dale I was able to go from 26 strokes per pool length (25 yards) to 20 to 22 strokes while maintaining the same speed.  That will be a savings of 675 stokes over the 2.4 mile Ironman swim.  Learning to swim efficiently will save energy that I will need to complete the bike and run portion of the Ironman.  I will work on getting comfortable with the new stoke technique for the next few weeks and hope my speed will increase.  Once I am ready Marcia and Dale will work with me again, I am anxious for more instructions.

Blizzard Buster 5k

The Blizzard Buster 5k is the first race of the year in our area.  This is the fourth year my wife and I have competed in the Blizzard Buster.  I like mixing races in with my training, running with the other competitors makes me run a little harder than I do when running alone.  I run harder because I want to catch the runner in front of me and I don’t want to be passed by the runner behind me.  Not to mention the carrot at the end of the stick . . .  the prize for placing in my age group.  I didn’t place this year but my wife set a new PR and won her age group.  This is what she won. 

That’s right a new cup with a spoon.   She was excited about this because our grandson broke the mug she won at Blizzard Buster,  2 years ago.  It was her favorite hot chocolate mug,  now she has a new one.  Most races give out metals as awards but you can’t drink hot chocolate out of a metal.  Although I didn’t place I was very pleased with my run. 

 I ran a 25:30 on a hilly, icy course and that was good enough for me.