The First Day
Posted by Admin on November 30, 2009 in Training
I swam this morning for the first time since August. After injuring my knee, I wound up doing nothing in terms of triathlon/endurance training and instead focused wholly on eating, drinking, and being merry. With the knee feeling so much better – in my estimate, it’s 60% of normal – and with so many other reasons to get back onto the horse, it felt good to start a new training program.
I find a direct correlation between my weight and my race performance; the lighter I am, the faster my results… generally. At my best, I’ve been as low as 167 lbs. When I got hurt, I was around 174 lbs. As of last night, I was 190 lbs. and it was all due to diet. I’ve been eating whatever I want, whenever I want, and with no guilt whatsoever. That’s all changed now. Gone are the McDonald’s meals, no more potato chips or Doritos, sayonara to soda, cookies, candy, etc. I’m back to a normal and regular diet now. That means yogurt and granola in the morning, fruit as a snack, small and sensible meals for lunch and dinner, and a lot of water consumption. My goal is to get to 175 lbs. by December 30th. That means 30 days to lose 15 lbs. It’s a tall order for sure, but I am focused and motivated.
What I find ironic is that when I’m leaner, I feel better, have more confidence, and potentially race faster, but from a few people so far, I’ve been told that I don’t look as good (it’s all relative). With my current chunkitude, I’ve gotten quite a few compliments from folks saying that I look healthy and good. I don’t get this, and it rings of the comments my dad gets from my mom. He thinks he looks great in his leanness, but Mom says he looks like an Auschwitz survivor. Nice. Poor guy; I totally support him in this sense, but I can understand if Mom wants a thicker partner. The night of Ironman Brazil, my then-girlfriend Deborah told me that I looked gaunt, that my cheeks looked somewhat inverted, and that I was pale. Granted, I had just burned 13,000 calories and spent 14+ hours racing, but I kinda liked being that lean. I made sure to change that body type very quickly thanks to the gorging that followed both in Florianopolis and Rio!
In any event, it was fun to eat with reckless abandon these past weeks, and I will defend the decision to not do anything about plumping up. It wasn’t my goal to get fat per se, and by all means, the mirror depicts a startling image of a body that is drastically different from that in August, but I find that challenges motivate me to work hard and re-focus on the right things. I like the successes that follow hard work and only wish that I was similarly motivated in lots of other areas. For now, the physical ones are good.
This evening, I will get on the bike and ride on the trainer in my living room. I can’t wait. It might be a short session like my swim was mostly because the knee still offers restrictions in flexibility, but the fact that I’ll be sweating and working hard is what excites me. I won’t start running until next week and will take it slow as well, but with big plans in 2010 in terms of my race schedules, I want to get a head start. Below is a tentative schedule of races on my calendar including both the ones where I’ve successfully entered and those I hope to enter. I’ll add more posts in the next week to describe the progress and the strategy around the creation of the schedule below. It’s ambitious indeed, but totally within my realm of possibilities. The first race of significance to me is a half-marathon in eight weeks. I’m not predicting a P.R., but don’t count me out just yet!
- – Jan 9: Fred Lebow (5 mile run)
- – Jan 24: NYRR Manhattan Half-Marathon (13.1 mile run)
- – Feb 7: Gridiron Classic (4 mile run)
- – Feb 28: Snowflake run (4 mile run)
- – March 14: Miami Triathlon (Olympic)
- – March 20: Pine Hill Arms Triathlon (ski-bike-run)
- – March 28: March Madness Biathlon (run-bike-run)
- – April 25: Bronx Biathlon (run-bike-run)
- – May 2: Broad Street Run (10 mile run)
- – May 8: Spring Couples Relay (run-bike-row)
- – May 16: Queens Biathlon (run-bike-run)
- – May 30: Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon (bit longer than Olympic)
- – June 13: Eagleman Triathlon (half-Ironman)
- – June 27: Philadelphia Triathlon (Olympic)
- – July 18: NYC Triathlon (Olympic)
- – July 25: NJ State Triathlon (Olympic)
- – August 8: Central Park Triathlon (sprint)
- – August 21: Timberman Triathlon (half-Ironman)
- – September 12: Nation’s Triathlon (Olympic)
- – October 10: Dallas Triathlon (Olympic)
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