First ride

I recognize that in my past I did not need prodding. I did not ask, "How high?" when told to jump, I jumped as high as I possibly could. I have never been told, "You're slacking today." One of the reasons I have eschewed personal coaching is the firm belief that no one is going to kick my ass more so than me. Now don't get me wrong, I certainly need education and accountability and for that a mentor or coach is a terrific asset.

I finally rode my bike on Thursday. It was perfect weather and clear roads. Ah, heaven. I rode 12 miles with my two best friends who happen to be my training partners. They started a plan for IM CdA, so I am coming in a bit lame and late. Who cares though! I can ride and that is great enough.

I only rode for an hour. The distance, 12 miles. Well obviously I went faster than 12 mph but had some stop lights and had some slow speed chats and adjustments.I could have gone longer or farther but one hour is good enough. I am learning....limits. I kept my cadence over 85 and my HR below 150 bpm.

I actually did not ride much in the aero bars. Two reasons. First, it increased my HR about 3 bpm. Second, I did not feel worthy. To me aero is the 'business' position of my bike. When I get there, I mean to put the hurt on.

But no, today was not about business or power or watts. Today was about the joy of doing something I love, riding my kick ass carbon fiber wet dream Valdora tri bike with my pals.

There's treasure everywhere.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, GOOD NEWS

I spoke with one of my doctors Tuesday. While there is still a concern of overall kidney and liver damage and the issue of the adrenaline surges, my tests numbers have been strong enough to allow me to begin training. I'm a triathlete again!!!

For the next month I am allowed to train as long as I make sure my nutrition and fluid intake are perfect. Training limits are Zone 1 & 2. I am not allowed to push it at any time and I must submit detailed notes of all my food intake, morning HR and daily exercises for their review. After that will come some tests and then progression or regression in training protocols.

I would expect this blog to become a blueprint, hopefully the perfect blueprint, for how someone deconditioned can go from a Common Man to triathlete. Expect me to revert to a data geek posting workouts along with pertinent info regarding my energy, recovery and upkeep. If I'm typing it once I can copy/paste too. If you did not notice already, I uploaded some training widgets along the sidebar for weekly/ monthly / yearly totals.

I think there is much to say but not the words to say it. My heart is soaring. I laughed louder, I smiled wider. I walked faster. I feel like a missing piece of a puzzle has been given back to me.

There's treasure everywhere.

My dilemma

Let me explain my dilemma. I feel as if my four years of Ironman training gave me a base fitness that allowed me to coast along with some semblance of fitness appearance long after my kidney failure. In December, nine months after all the misery I put myself through at Ironman, I felt like that coasting had finally played out. For the last month I have felt for lack of a better term, normal.

I no longer feel fluid enough to swim 2 miles in open water, nor have the legs to ride 80 miles before my day even starts, or have the constitution to run 15 miles at a moments notice. For any of those workouts, sometimes two in one day, I only needed a phone call and a meet time.

I felt determined and I had every intention yesterday of working out, I felt as if my sanity demanded it. I chose my exercises carefully so I wouldn't muck up my blood and activate the Rhado. It would be a glorious re-introduction to some sort of program and I could take back a part of my life that has been missing like an amputated limb.

Then I thought about my kidneys being screwed up on Saturday. And then my partner started in on me asking if that was really the best thing I should be doing. And then we got into a conversation about how screwed up I was a couple months ago, that my doctors want me to wait till Spring to start up again. That if I screwed anything up I could end up spending a night in the hospital hooked up to an IV and waiting for my kidney numbers to drop.

Instead of working out, I walked out. I needed fresh air. I was, I am frustrated. I talk to the doctors this week this week. I am hoping there is something positive to go over.

Business Fitness

I suppose most people are finally getting back into work today after what seemed to be a blessedly long holiday vacation period. In fact I woke up on Sunday before my usual waking time, went downstairs and started going through my groggy routines for ten minutes before realizing, "Ah crap, it's Sunday" and then heading back upstairs for another two hours of sleep.

On Saturday I went to the grand opening of one of my company's new locations. Man ,talk about energy and enthusiasm and lots of business. The community completely opened up to us.

It also kicked off a two part contest for employees. The first part is a 60 day body morph challenge. On Saturday each was measured, had their body fat taken and a 'before photo'. In sixty days we will do it all over again and the one with the most dramatic change wins a cash prize. I actually won this contest the first year we did it, I dropped 77 pounds and 2/3 of my body fat and was part of an ad campaign.

The other part is a physical fitness contest that for the sake of brevity I will include in a future blog post.

I am not involved in either contest as a competitor. Obviously I still haven't been released for exercise, let alone doing one or both extreme body transformations. In full disclosure to my friends, being at the grand opening and being excited about the two contests jacked my adrenaline up and turned my urine tea colored. Needless to say I spent the rest of the day drinking lots of water and resting. Very similar to THIS experience.

Whatever your goals are this year commit to be great at it. Don't do anything half-hearted. Talk to your support system, tell your co-workers and friends. Dare to be your best at every opportunity. And you may surprise yourself at your results.

There's treasure everywhere.

Happiness is more than a dress size

The cereal Special K funded a study in Britain using 3,000 women. The results showed that the happiest women, overall, based on their criteria were those at Size 14. I was skeptical at first on how this translated with American women and the preception of women through our size zero idolization of women in entertainment, (the hollywood, rockstar crowd). Later in the day, I happen to be listening to a radio show that devoted an hour to this study and those results were supported and expanded upon by the women and men who called in.

A goodly amount of the calls affirmed that they are not a single digit dress size and had they taken the quiz would have validated the results. And in fact a quick check showed me that the average dress size for American women is oddly enough, size 14. The callers spoke openly about how they don't measure their happiness by the vision in the mirror but also by success at work, their relationships, the quality (though disappointingly not the quantity) of their sex life and how fit they are to get through their life, not based on competitive measures, (i.e. personal fitness programs, energy to work and/or play not necessarily enter races and how much energy they have working and playing with their family).

My career is predicated on people wanting to lose weight, but I am glad to see that the perception that women must be a size-nothing based on gossip rags and internet sites is not as pervasive as I imagined. The assault on our consciousness on how women must look based on the smoke and mirrors of two hour make up sessions, free designer clothes, perfect lighting, air brushing and then image manipulation is upsetting.

A selfish blessing

I heard on the radio that 16 year old Jett Travolta, son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston died after hitting his head in a bathtub on Friday. So far it is considered an accident though he did have a secondary condition he dealt with that concerned his arteries and perhaps that came into play.

Every time I hear of a life taken before it even begins it makes my heart ache. Part of that today is the selfish guilt inside me that says, "It should have been you that died that day as well." Its moments like these were I looked at my wife and when I told her about the Travolta tragedy I said, "I was 16, I hit my head, I shouldn't be who I am today. I have a family and career. I could have died too."

I spent time after my miraculous recovery helping grieving family's whose siblings had suffered from an aneurism or TBI, when the family couldn't understand the process or the pain that the victim was going through. Conversely I was a person who the victim could see as someone who had been were they are and could give voice to what they could not express.

I feel really bad for the Travolta family. But it makes me appreciate my recovery even more. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. But I'd take feeling bad than not being able to express feeling bad, any day.

There's treasure everywhere.

In you, not on you

We take the opportunity each January 1, to declare a NEW this or NEW that, I WON'T do this or that, I WILL do this or that.

I have absolutely no problem with resolutions, its a small step to arranging our life into a more perfect order, but I am always sad to see them fall by the wayside after only a couple of weeks. Heck I have seen resolutions fall by the wayside in a couple hours.

This is why I have always recommended affirmations and for people to read them upon rising, once during the day and again before going to bed. I have seen people use 100 affirmations, my particular style has taken me sometimes fifteen minutes at a pop to read, but they work.

I believe every New Years resolution or personal affirmation boils down to one concept, 'a new you." On my bathroom mirror in dry erase marker I wrote in bold letters, "Today is a new me." Yeah it a bit new age but it sets my mind when I see. it. You could just as well write, "I am an Ironman" if that's your main goal of the year.

The point of the declaration is that you are trying to change behavior, not become some thing new. You can be resolute in losing weight or stop a bad habit but once you accomplish it, you don't want it to define you. In 2010 do you want to be seen as, "Hey John, let me introduce you to Sally. Sally lost 50 pounds, read a book a month and stopped drinking diet cola in 2009."

No of course not. You want all those things you change about yourself to shine through your confidence, energy, enthusiasm and self esteem.

If you didn't make a resolution because you always fail at them, thats okay. On any given day of your life you can pick a habit up or put a habit down. Some are harder than others but when you conquer the hardest ones, they're the most rewarding.

There's treasure everywhere.