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.

The Long Run

I ran 90 minutes today.  I plan to increase my weekly long slow run by 15 minutes every other week and try to keep my heart rate at 125-135 beats per minute.  I run 3 to 4 times a week, but I enjoy the long slow run the most.

By mid April I will have increased my long run to 3 hours.  I am training to compete in Forget the PR 25k, www.mohican50k.com my first big event of 2011.  Forget the PR, is an incredibly difficult 17.1 mile run on the hiking trails at Mohican State Park.   To date my longest trail race has been 8 miles on some of the same trails.   Increasing my long runs increases my endurance, which I will need to complete this event.  I will continue to increase the time of my long runs in preparation for the full marathon I will run at the end of REV3 on September 11^th. 

I want to ride my bike

The winters in Ohio for the most part prevent bike riding because of the possibility of icy spots on the road. I managed to work in about 35 miles on the New Years Day ride hosted by the local bike shop, most if it in the rain, but since then its been all spinning classes at the Y.  If you have never taken a spinning class here’s what happens, you ride a stationary bike while the class leader that tells the group when to peddle fast, when to peddle standing up.  Spinning is a good workout, but does not give the thrill of riding outdoors. 

Running in the winter is no problem, in fact I really enjoy running while it is snowing, its  surreal and relaxing. I have screws on the bottom my shoes, sort of like studs on tires, so I don’t worry about slipping on the ice.  I didn’t let a temperature of 14 degrees keep me from running 9.2 miles today.  

But I miss riding my bike, feeling the wind on my face and seeing the beauty of the Ohio countryside and I miss the camaraderie that exists within the group of people that I ride with. These people have become some of my best friends, I miss them, I want to ride my bike.

The Story So Far . . . .

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Brad, I live in north central Ohio and on September 11^th I will be competing in my first Ironman distance triathlon, but I am getting ahead of myself, this being the first blog post, I feel obligated to start at the beginning. In the summer of the year 2000 I found myself weighing 300 pounds (Fatman) with severe high blood pressure, high cholesterol and showing early signs of Diabetes. I smoked and got winded while walking up the stairs. I was a classic couch potato. My doctor told me that if I didn’t do something about my weight I would have many more serious health issues for the rest of my life. This was not the future I wanted.

Me (Fatman) Summer 2000

In  October of 2000 my wife and I joined the YMCA and started an exercise and diet regiment. This was very hard at first, it was hard to stay motivated to exercise and to watch what I ate. It all became more than a little overwhelming. There were days that I just wanted to admit defeat and sit on the couch and eat a big juicy bacon cheeseburger. After about 6 months of this dismal attitude I realized that in order to achieve this new level of health that I wanted, I had to make this lifestyle permanent, I had to find a way to embrace this way of life and not see it as torture. I had to succeed in losing weight and keeping it off AND enjoy life! So I made a bargain with myself, I told myself that if 90% of the foods that I ate are healthy then 10% could be whatever, as long as I didn’t eat too much. If 90% of my activity was healthy then 10% could be napping on the couch. This worked wonderfully; I called it the 90% plan. If I REALLY feel like sitting on the couch and eating a big juicy bacon cheeseburger I do, and I don’t make myself feel guilty about it because even a big juicy bacon cheeseburger is healthy in limited quantities. I lost about 100 pounds in less than three years and have kept it off easily, I was also able stop taking medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol and quit smoking. My health is under control and physical fitness is now such a huge part of my life I look forward to going bicycling or running or playing soccer with my grandkids.  This is a lifestyle that I can sustain for a lifetime.

A few years ago I decided to enter a sprint triathlon, this one took place at the Shelby YMCA; it consisted of a 300-meter swim, a 12-mile bike ride and a 5k run. I had no illusions of winning; I just wanted to finish the race. I hadn’t competed in anything since junior high and just wanted to see how I would do.  I came in second in my age group and yes there were more than 2 in my age group. I loved it, it was exciting, exhilarating and such a thrill that as soon as I finished I knew I wanted to do it again. I have found that for me, competing is a great motivator, it gives me a reason to stay in shape (besides that health thing); it makes me want to work a little harder to do a little better in the next event. And when my friends ask me how I did, I can tell them that I did great, I finished.

Since that first triathlon I have competed in many 5k races, several sprint triathlons and duathlons, some informal cycling time trials, half marathons, four half ironman triathlons and a full marathon. This year I plan on running, two half marathons, a half ironman triathlon, a full ironman triathlon, quite a few 5k races with my wife and many bike rides with my friends. And in all of these I will give it everything I’ve got…90% because for me, winning isn’t crossing the finish line first, it’s crossing it many times and for years to come.

Between now and September I plan to report details about my preparation for the most physically difficult thing that I have ever attempted, so stay tuned, it should be quite a ride.

Brad