So I started my prep on February 15th. I went out and bought the shoes, a couple of new pairs of shorts, a new pair of goggles and jumped in full force. The problem was that I was horribly out of shape. I had biking ability as I’ve been mountain biking since 1997 pretty consistently and at a fairly high level. Run and swim – no so much.
Our family is blessed with a membership to Cedardale. The great part of Cedardale is that it is more than a gym. It has EVERYTHING – aquatic center (indoors) with a hot tub and a billion lap lans, a smaller pool for kids, etc. They also have an indoor track; it is small (10 laps for a mile), but hey, it still works. Plus it has all kinds of cardio machines along with a ton of free weights and weight machines. It’s really ideal. That being said, its a great place to do all aspects of training.
Yeah – well that’s good cause I was in shape, BAD SHAPE.
My first swim? 10 laps in the smaller pool. In this pool 44 laps is a mile 
My first run? 1.2miles. Luckily my bike legs were OK. Bottom line was that I was a physical mess. I didn’t have the “legs” or the “lungs” to make it happen. In short . . . I wasn’t in triathlon shape
Well – Rick and I started slow. For the swim, .25 swim was the first goal, once I got that .5m and so on until after 4mos (by May) I could crank out .5m regularly in about 18:30. My PR (personal record) for .50m was 17:30 in the pool (no wetsuit – this will be significant later). For the run, the only goal was to just be able to do the 3.2m without dying. I made 3.2m my minimum length when I went out. At first it was the gym until about 4/1 when I started to run outside. I used Google Maps to map out a couple of courses (I still use it today to map out much longer runs . . . it works awesome. I have like 20 bike and run courses mapped on there). For the bike at first we used the espresso bikes that Cedardale had. they are pretty cool bikes that have a bunch of courses from 1.1m each to a 28m hard course. The goal? Work our way up to a whopping 14m, about the distance of the sprint triathlon.
To follow our progress we tracked it on .xls and put it up as a shared document on Google Docs so Rick and I could updated it and see each other’s progress. That part was SUPER helpful and a lot of fun.
Next step? Build . . . build . . . build. Build up our mileage. Once it got nice outside we ran and biked outside, while still swimming in the pool. By the time July came around I upped by 3.2m minimum run to 5m – I was getting better legs and lungs – great progress. On the bike I was riding my mountain bike with road flats. That first summer I never biked more than 16m. The swim I worked up to a .75m regular swim in the pool with a stretch distance (maybe 3 times a month) of a mile.
One note – I did little or no “bricking” that I can remember. What is a brick or bricking? That is when you do disciplines back to back. I pretty much stuck to doing one discipline and building up my strength. For me, bricking didn’t happen unless I was actually racing or until the next winter. At this distance it really didn’t matter, but later it became a KEY discipline.
During this time I consistently lost weight - pretty much the weight I am now +/- about 3lbs. I went from 212 to anywhere from 195-197. So lost about 17lbs – that’s pretty good in my book. I ate better, but I didn’t starve myself. I ate less at each meal, stopped eating stuff that was just plain bad (like a whole bag of Kettle corn during a RS game). I didn’t compromise on coffee drinks or beer – no skim milk or lite beer, that’s horrible .
Bottom line is this – I went from being lazy and a bit over weight to swimming .75m, running 5m, and biking 16m at least once a week. That was a big deal for me. I liked working out, I felt good, and I was getting better! My legs and lungs were really developing. I also had NO INJURING to speak of – that was a huge blessing . Rick was doing the same thing and we were really pushing each other.
The side benefit of this was my relationship with Rick. We were working out, sharing life, struggling, surviving, achieving, talking about faith – all together. We talked about our achievements, competed, supported, and annoyed each other the whole time. Many times we didn’t want to see each other at 6:30am at the gym, but we did. We both have families, so we shared in the trials and tribulations of family. More than once we dreamt out loud of what the races would be like, feel like, look like; how would we do? Will we be ready? It was and still is great to have someone in your life to do that with that isn’t your spouse
The whole preparation experience was just awesome.
The first race was in July 12th. We were ready. We went from overweight, uncompetitive, unfocused, kind of bad eaters, to being much more focused, in pretty good shape, and REALLY excited about the race.
Oh wait, one other note: its important for people to know that there was VERY LITTLE financial investment. Other then my gym memberhip I only spend $65 on a pair of shoes and maybe $20 on a couple of pairs of shorts – that’s it . . . and the registration for the races. No new bike, wet suit, or special fuel for these races – those would come later.
My next post will address the first race, the feelings, the finish, and what I learned.
A bunch of books I’m reading . . .
October 22, 2009Now that the fall is in full swing, I’m buried in a lot of new books I’m reading along with the research for my dissertation. Here’s a list and I’m hoping to add some commentary later for a few of them:
1. Commentary on Jonah – Brazos Press
2. REVEAL – Willow Creek Resources
3. Souls of Black Folk – Penguin edition (I’ve made sig. comments previous to this, just do a search)
4. UnChristian – Baker Books
5. The Challenge of Christ – NT Wright, Baker Books (been reading this forever)
Let me know what you are reading!
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