The Prequel

Like every good triology i.e. Star Wars and Star Trek, mid flow some smart ass decides to add in a "prequel" which shows the background to the main story.  This is my "prequel", I am motivated to share this story as it reveals what drives me and I feel it is important for those who are supporting my journey.

Myself, in a different life

Once upon a time in another life, I was a different person caught in the vicious cycle of yoyo diets, eventually just giving them up all together.  In my peak I got to 154 kilo and finally I had enough of feeling uncomfortable and terribly unhappy.  I decided to make a life changing decision, one that I don't regret but certainly one that I hope people won't judge me on and previously (and perhaps still) one I don't like to share or talk about.  With medical intervention I was able to control the amount of food I can consume, it is amazing how little food your body actually needs.  And with diet alone i.e no or limited exercise, you can lose a significant amount of weight.  In 12 months of food portion control I lost an amazing 70+ kilos, almost 50% of my previous weight.

The decision I made is one that I can never reverse, but it has helped me to maintain a steady weight since.  Funny thing is I am stoked to be a steady ~ 80 kilo, but it makes me sad as when I was previously at this weight I was doing one of those well advertised weight programs and at the time I was made to feel crap because I was still considered too big as I was 20 kilo above my ideal weight!.  Well what a load of ..... unfortunately that did not enspire me to continue and hence I gave up.


You know when something big is happening in your life it seems that relevant stuff appears everywhere, well for me it is around the time that mini triathlon and duathlon series were popping up.  I started off with a few Real Woman and Contact Tri's, I then began to set a goal of one event per month for 12 months.  I loved the atmosphere and the focus of these events to just get people moving.  Perfect for me !!! 

Hamner Fun Run

Real Womans

Thats me on the podium, 3rd spot

Finish line - 1st half marathon

Now Im no 'rockstar' and I will never be the fastest, although I did get a podium finish in a contact duathlon, lucky they didn't reveal how many folks were in the race :) hehe.  My goal is to pick events where the challenge is finishing, and with that I made a goal to run my first half marathon.  Which I did, and I cried like a baby when I finally crossed the line.  A cold and wet Christchurch day, the real motivator to keep running was my brother - he came out to support me and would pop up along the course unexpectly to cheer me on.  I was worried he was going to catch me walking!

Ticked that one off so decided on a half ironman, November 2010 at Lake Hood.  Convinced by brother to be my coach and hence I became a 'sponsored' athlete - cantab style.  Sister in law lent me her old road bike, shoes and other bits and bobs.  At the time the thought of swimming 2k was fine, but then a 90k ride (yeah right!) then a 21k run (what the??) almost seemed impossible and how was I going to do this within the 7 hours time restriction.  But I am stubborn and the more some folks told me I couldn't do it, the more I was going to... in fact I got tired of hearing NO so I simply cut those people out of my life and made friends with people who said I could. What a difference ..... hence to say I crossed the line in a sweet 6hrs and 45 mins.


After crossing the blue mat I believed if I want it I can achieve anything !  For the last few years I have been distracted with love, and marriage to my beautiful.  But always in the back of my mind the next challenge, a full IRONMAN.

You know losing such a lot of weight doesn't come without its side effects, thank goodness for granny support underwear !! And although I have investigated in having the excess skin removed (awaiting that lotto win) I think it is appropriate to take this body to the Ironman and finish a journey which I started in a different life.

And the journey begins...

Break out the red shoes

Another Saturday brick session done and dusted :) Good swim this morning, coach had us doing tri sprints at the end , where everyone leaves the wall at the same time.  It means we all fight for some clear water and it "sort of" replicates race starts in the ocean.  A good opportunity to get pay back for any cross arms etc.. during the session, managed to knock a mate in the head and smack someone with my elbow, but I got swam over and pulled under and got a kick in the side.  So fair all round I reckon, I gave what I got :)

Unfortunately wind trainer session today, but it does represent an opportunity to break out those flashy shoes I won, you know the red bike shoes worth $500+.  Im too embarrassed to wear them in public, in case someone gets the wrong idea and thinks Im really good or a plonker pants who buys all the gears but has no glues!

The small run off the bike was followed by a 'bike skills' session down at Chelsea Sugar carpark.  A riding mate offered to give Liza a few lessons on the bike and I thought I would tag along.  Needless to say the rule, "what goes on tour stays on tour" applies, but did anyone see that dog ????? :)

But we did get attacked by these cute baby ducks .....

A perfect day

So had a relapse on Wednesday by missing the run, seems I need a group/or someone to spur me on, I can no longer rely on my own motivation.  How sad!!!

But I feel I somewhat redeemed myself today with a 2hour this morning, again kicking off at 5.30am.  Then finished the day with swim squad.  Kicking back on the couch as I await the missies to get home.

Now folks have said I need more pictures so here you go, a stunning photo of the Quay St riders after this mornings effort.

And just to prove we did actually bike, here are our bikes.

Sponsored Athlete - Cantab Style

Its Tuesday and its been a good day on the training front.  A near 2 hour ride on the road this morning with the Quay St guys and then an hour swim this evening with the Tri Club.  Not to mention yesterday for the first time in about 3 weeks I completed my 50min run, only because Liza dobbed on me, in the last blog entry, I got an email from a mate about 30sec later said I better be in my running gear by 5pm as she was popping round and we were heading out for a run.  So thanks ! I was dreading it but it was great :)

Funny story bout the same mate, it seems Jafas class 'sponsored riders' as being professionals, where as us cantabs merely refer to being a 'sponsored rider' if you managed to score your sister inlaws old road bike and bits and pieces.  So when I said jokingly one day I was a 'sponsored rider' it seems they assumed the Jafa interpretation !!!! I wonder what they must have been thinking when they saw me ride for the first time ???

Just to be clear Im a riding novice, in fact Im really an exercise novice !!!  It's been a 5 year journey ... stay tuned for my next entry ...

Bonked

Monday morning and can't see further than a few metres due to the heavy rain and it's windy.  Sucks!  Lucky this mornings session can be done indoors on the treadmill with some core exercises.  Better clear up before tomorrow morning or that will really suck especially now we have agreed to ride for an extra 30min. i.e. 2 hours.

So promised to talk about 'half wheeling', here is my understanding and observation ......

Where you ride with your wheel overlapping the person in front, they don't know you are there but if they move sideways to avoid a pot hole, you will take them out as well as yourself and likely a any other rider near by .... if you are further ahead i.e. passing, then at least you and they can fend off with shoulders etc.. but still hold your line and hence can keep riding.

If you search 'half wheeling' on google it seems this is not 100% correct ...

Some folks say half wheeling is when riding in pairs and the person next to you always wants to be a half wheel in front, hence you speed up to keep up and then they move another half wheel ahead, then before you know it everyone is sprinting.  Apparently a cure is to ride them hard until they bonk.  Which I assume means until they are tired and hit the wall then you leave them for dust.

I think the key message is DONT DO IT! The last thing you want is to get bonked by the team, he he :)

New group ride

6am Sunday morning, time to get up for the pending group ride.  Meeting at 7am for a 7.15 departure.  To bad I have spent the last hour coughing up my lungs!.  Poor Liza, no sunday sleep in this weekend, although I had planned to sneak out of the house, seems all the family (who came to stay for weekend, sweet) got up also.  Oops. 

New ride group this morning with nz-cyclists and I gotta say everyone was great and very supportive.  Unfortunately the other two trainee buddies weren't in top form either, one decide to knock off a quick 80k+ on Saturday and the other hard gone hard out all week and had to play a semi final hockey Sunday afternoon.  So... sick and sore we excused ourselves from the group, but only after we promised to return the following week :)  Then rather than the planned 100k+ us sad sacks managed to knock out a good 40k, with hills!!!   See below.....

Now we are not completely slack bums as we agreed to ride a bit further on Tuesday and Thursdays so meeting at 5.30am, rather than 6am.  I think that is commitment!.

Going soft!

It's Saturday morning and I should be hardout training in the normal brick class but today I have taken the soft route and my excuse is a head cold which I eluded too in the last installment.

Im really keen to do the 100-120k ride tomorrow so thought to take one extra day to recover.  Besides the sister in law and 2 out of the 3 kids have come to Auckland for an impromtu visit, heading to the airport to collect them in a few minutes.... Yay!!!!!

Just got an email from the Ironman NZ folks promoting their 30th anniversary for the 2014 race.  Apparently all entries in 2013 are guaranteed a spot in the anniversary race.  I wonder how my wife would feel about this, since I promised to only do such things every second year.......