Back At It!

Is a year and a half too long to be away?  The answer is yes.  Well, I am back.

In November I decided enough was enough and I needed to sign up for a race and get back to training.  I had put on all of the weight I had lost in training for the first two triathlons and was definitely unhappy with how I felt and looked.  This time, however, I decided to up the ante.  I loved doing the two sprint distance triathlons.  I had so much fun training and racing but decided it was time to do more.

Looking at the international distance races out there, I found that most of them were on Sundays.  I don't race on Sunday.  Really wanted to do the Nations Tri, here in DC.  Sunday.  How about the Tri DC?  Sunday.  Other races were sprint on Saturday, international on Sunday.  Then I noticed there was a half-ironman, or 70.3, on a Saturday in May.  I knew that was going to be my race.  Five months to train for that distance, I felt, was plenty of time.  But I wanted company again.  I guess I am a social racer.  So I sent out some texts, emails, etc and got a couple of friends to join me.  Now there are six of us all signed up for the race and training.

I am really looking forward to the race and am enjoying the training.  I am losing weight, feeling better, and scared to alive of doing 70.3 miles.

Let's Get It Started!!!

For Christmas we bought a Wii. 

We bought a Wii Balance Board. 

We bought Wii Fit Plus.

I stood on it.

Then my kids started to laugh!

They laughed because my cartoonishly handsome Mii with its chisled chin, wide shoulders and trim hips now looked like it belonged in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade being pulled by highly trained balloon wranglers.

I almost cried.

Could it be true?  Obese?  Me? Seriously?  With a Wii determined BMI of 31.31 and weighing in at 206.5lbs I knew that something MUST be done.

I should have been prepared.  I should have known.  After all, my 2-year old had been coming up to me in the weeks before and saying how my tummy looked like Santa's.  That should have tipped me off.  I knew I was overweight but OBESE?  I was now a contributing statistic to those stupid news reports about how Americans are fatter and less fit than ever.  I didn't want to be part of that demographic.

So, I determined that something must be done.  About 18 months ago I had started training for a triathlon here in VA that would be taking place in October.  Training was going well until one day I looked online and the race was full!  How could that be?  Just two weeks earlier there were only 72 out of 550 people registered.  No waiting list.  So just three weeks away from the race, I stopped training. 

This time it had to be different.  I didn't start training and then wait to decide and register.  I registered!  Done.  May 1st was now a looming part of my psyche and I had to do something or I would drown during that first 750M swim.  Drowning is a terrible way to die, I have heard, so training began.

All that time ago I had purchased "Triathlon Training in Four Hours a Week" by Eric Carr.  I dusted it off, reread it, and modified the training schedule to match my 10 weeks before the race is held.  I put it online after a week or so and you can see it here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AurnFzZ6Pob6dG5BM1RUajN1U3Q5ay02RV9xRmNhQ0E&hl=en

I even sent out some email trying to recruit some fellow victims.  To my amazement, a couple even responded positively.  We are still trying to get together for some of the workouts but things have been going well for me.

I am no longer obese.  I have dropped about 15 lbs and am working my way down the Wii chart of overweight people towards a healthy weight.