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The Roller Coaster

I have a complicated relationship with food. I both love and hate it at the same time.
I started off as a chubby child and remained so until High School. In  10th Grade I joined the rowing team, at 5'3" and 185lbs.
After two seasons of rowing, I had gotten to 5'9" and 145lbs, growing 6" and losing 40lbs.
After graduation through college and into adulthood I became very sedentary and developed terrible eating habits. Over the years I eventually got up to 365lbs on my 40th birthday and came to the realization that I really needed to change my life. I then joined a  gym that does HIIT style classes and after the first two months I had lost a couple of pounds but was mostly just sore.  But then they had a Clean Eating Challenge (they like to do "Challenges"),  and that really kicked off my  weight loss journey. After the 30 day challenge I had lost 20 pounds and actually felt good. I was down to 330lbs and really started to enjoy the work I had been doing both in the gym and the kitchen.

It was at this time that some of my new friends at the gym had convinced me to join them on an obstacle course race (OCR). It was going to be 5K long and have 20+ obstacles. I was so scared, I had never ran that far before, and really didn't think I could do the obstacles. With their encouragement I signed up, ran, and didn't die! After that first race it was easier for them to talk me into trying  a much more challenging OCR, a Spartan Race. I did that race and was hooked. I kept on my weight loss plan and ran several more races, and after two years I had lost over 100lbs and was down to 257lbs. I was riding high, and feeling good. But pride cometh before the fall. I started slipping a little on my diet, but was still putting in the work at the gym. But since diet is 80% the battle I had gained back some of the weight and was at 280lbs. It was at this weight that I broke my foot during a Spartan Race. I had broke the 5th metatarsal on my left foot and had to have surgery to put in a screw to hold it together to heal.  During my recovery I  had to stay off my feet and keep my "Toes over Nose". This just happened to be at the same time that the COVID-19 lockdown started here in Florida. I had foot surgery on Thursday and the lockdown started two days later on Saturday. This led to me gaining back a good portion of my weight and I had gotten back up to 320lbs when I was cleared to walk again.

I've been back at it for a few months now, and working out fully again. My diet is still an issue so my loss hasn't been as dramatic as the first time, but I am currently down to 310lbs and running races again.  I keep my head up, and know that I can get back to where I was, and then some. It is just a matter of discipline (not my strongest suit), and time.

I wan t anyone to know that it can be done. If you need/want to lose 10lbs or 100. YOU CAN DO IT! Just believe in yourself, surround yourself with others who believe and support you, and stay the course through the ups and downs of the weight loss roller coaster.

Races I've done

Since my very first race, which was a 5K road race in November 2017, I've completed 30+ races of varying types to date (February 2022).

Upcoming Races

Triathlon

For my next adventure, I've decided to do an Off Road Triathlon Sprint. It is in 12 weeks and located outside of Cullman, AL, which is about half way between Birmingham and Huntsville. I chose this site as my father lives in Cullman and this gives me an excuse to make the 7+ hour drive to visit. This is my first Triathlon, so I chose a Sprint. This particular race is 880yard swim, 18 mile mountain bike trail, and 3 1/2 mile trail run. I've done many mud or trail runs, but never a Triathlon. So, here we go!
Today was Week 1 Day 1 of training and we started off with a Swim workout. 200m Freestyle/Backstroke warmup (easy pace), then 3 x 200m (20 seconds rest between), and 200m Free/Back to cool down. It felt more taxing (cario-wise) than I was expecting, but my HR never got too high. Overall, first day of training went well.

Deka Strong

This past weekend I participated in the Deka Trifecta here in Jacksonville. This consisted of 3 events, all having the same 10 workout stations, and each event had a different distance of running between stations. Deka Fit had 500m, Deka Mile had 160m and Deka Strong had no running. I participated in the Deka Strong event, so luckily I did not have to run between stations. I am glad because of how poorly I did without the running. Had I ran between stations, I couldn't even imagine how bad my times would have been.

The ten stations were:
30 Weighted Alternating Reverse Lunges (55#)
500m Row
20 Box Jumps / Step Overs (24" high box)
25 Medball Sit-Ups
500m Ski Erg
100m Farmer's Carry (2 x 60#)
25 Cal Assault Bike
20 Medball Over Shoulder (60#)
100m Tank Push/Pull
20 Weighted Burpees (44#)

I completed the course in 33:10, in dead last place. 6/6 in Age Group (M 45-49), 21/21 Males, 34/34 Overall.

Dead Last.

I've tried to brush it off and tell myself that "Hey, you did better than everybody on the couch". But for some reason those words ring hollow today.  It's one thing to be in the bottom 25% or even the bottom 10%, but I have never come in dead last. And this time it wasn't even close. The next slowest competitor was almost 5 minutes faster than me at 28:13. Heck just to compare, the winner of the Deka Fit finished the same 10 stations and ran 5 kilometers in a minute faster than me not running.

My emotions are all jumbled right now, I'm proud that I finished, especially after all the injuries of the past year and a half (broken foot and sciatica). But dead last is quite the blow to the ego. The Age Group ranking was a bit of a blow as well. Since I will be 45 before the year ends, I got bumped up to the 45-49 age group (even though I was 44 during the event). If I was in the 40-44 age group I would have been in 1st place since I would have been the only one in that group. I might have felt a little better with the pyric victory, but probably not. Oh well, I guess it's time to "Suck it up, buttercup", and get back out there because wallowing won't get me any closer to my goals. You've got to take the lows with the highs, roll w/ the punches and keep moving forward. 

9X CrossFit Champion, 4X World's Fittest Man Rich Froning was at the Duck River Triathlon that I was at. He stated it was the hardest thing he's ever done. That makes me feel a little better about tapping out at the 2 Hour mark.

Laissez le bon temps rouler!

I've signed up for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in New Orleans on February 6th, 2022. I have a friend running the Full Marathon that day, and our wives are coming, along with a few of their friends. So Party in NOLA! I ran my baseline run yesterday, which is just a quick 9 minutes (2 for warm up, 5 for run, 2 cool down). Did well on it, other than tripping on a seam in the sidewalk. But I tuck and rolled pretty good and got right back up. I'm a little nervous as I've never ran a Half Marathon before. I've done two Spartans (and will have a 3rd done before NOLA) at the Half distance, but an OCR is different from a road race. In an OCR you can stop and rest a minute before you try an obstacle, and you are expected to go slower than a road race since you are on the trails and in the mud or technical terrain.  But I'm also excited as I have started to enjoy the longer slow runs. I think I'll set my goal at 3:45:00 (17:11 pace) and my stretch goal at 3:16:30 (15:00 pace).