It's been seven weeks, can I be pissed now?

I hear repeatedly that my positive attitude in the face of the pretty significant challenges I undertake is what attracts many of the readers. I hope you won't mind if this is one of those rare days that I don't have that super positive vibe going. In light of the circumstances, I think you'll be able to forgive me.

Remember that nail I pounded in the wall to be the place of honor for my Timberman finishing medal? Well, as of today, almost 7 weeks out from the race; that nail is STILL EMPTY. That's right. The medal that signifies the completion of the my goal, the culmination of all my efforts, and a major milestone in my progression from just some fat guy, to a much less fat guy who has pushed himself to and beyond his limits.

It's not like I haven't been patient, or haven't been proactive. Originally, we were told it would just be a week until they sent the medals. Then we were told 2 to 3 weeks. Then we were told 3 to 5 weeks. We were told 3 to 5 weeks 2 weeks after the race. I've reached out to the World Triathlon Corporation (Owners of Timberman, and producers of the medals), and their athlete representative told me the medals were already shipped once.

That last email exchange was early last week. She told me that they would ship me another by the end of last week. Their headquarters are in Florida, so a medal shipped last week should have been here by now. I recognize that they may be pretty busy getting ready for Kona (Ironman World Championships), but seriously, there has been more than enough time to get these medals and get them out to us.

I have to be honest, I was beginning to wonder if maybe my results weren't being recognized for some reason. Like maybe because I didn't finish in under 8:30 that my results were being recognized by the race officials but not Ironman. But I checked, and as long as you finish before the course closes, your finish is official. So it isn't that.

And I found out yesterday that I'm not the only one who hasn't gotten theirs. I've been able to find at least a couple others who have not, and I haven't really tried that hard to find more. I knew Rachelle had been one of the last ones to get the correct medal, but one of the folks I found finished only 12 minutes after Rach at 7:42 and still hasn't gotten hers, either.

I'm sorry if this sounds petty or whiney, but it means a lot to me and I really would like my freaking medal.

Notes:

- First Weight Watchers weigh-in of the session. I've lost several pounds in the past couple weeks, and I'm hoping that will be reflected in todays results. I would have liked to have skipped breakfast to get a number when I'm not carrying around a bowl of shredded wheat in my stomach, but was just to hungry to wait for lunch to eat. I'm showing amazing restraint today during the Morning of Temptation. I may even grab a cheese bagel to put on my desk to save for lunch, just to show I can have it right there and not eat it.

- I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted to go for a mountain bike ride last night along the Esplanade. It's a car free area, well lit, and has almost no joggers after dusk. I even rigged a light to the handlebars so I could ride more safely. Unfortunately, I didn't look at the rear tire until I was completely ready to ride. Totally flat, and with no spare in the house. I'm going to stop for a spare on the way home today, and ride tomorrow on the trails at The Fells.

- Running again today. I've been reading a lot of folks out on the web wondering if Couch to 5Ks get any easier as you move along. I think for some of us, they're supposed to be challenging each week as you move up. The challenge is what lets you know that running is not something most people just pick up. The effort you feel in getting through each run is how you know that you've accomplished something.

A chain reaction

Last night, I got one of the best compliments I've gotten in a REALLY long time. Ange, an elite triathlete who has finished Kona, and whose Timberman time this year was just a little over half mine, said that I inspired her to get back to work on her own weight loss. For several minutes I was quite excited as I read through her blog, learning we'd competed in two of the same races, and to see someone here semi-local doing a lot of the things Rach and I are doing and really succeeding at them.

But then I realized, it wasn't me who motivated her. Sure, she read my story, but all I did was channel the motivation provided by a commenter, "Mary in NC", who kindly reminded me I could do more to apply my determination and willpower to my food intake as well. How many mornings did I get out of bed this year at 5:30 AM to make it to the pool by 6? What about that time 45 miles into the Timberman bike did my legs seize up, and I found a way through it? If I have the willpower for all of that, I definitely have the willpower to make quality food choice 20 meals a week (That 21st meal is where I get to use my extra points per Weight Watchers, so I don't wind up binging).

So, while I'm absolutely thrilled to have Ange find the blog, and to get to learn about an athlete of her caliber, I also know that the real motivator here was "Mary in NC".

Notes:

- I'm still doing week 4 of the couch to 5k, because I am exhausted by the end of the run. I'm not moving on to week 5 until I can handle week 4 without slowing down at the end of each run. I ran last night, and I did the whole thing as planned, but by the end I was beat.

Weight Loss, Sponsorship, and Kona

it's amazing how fast you can start losing weight when you actually follow a plan and stick to it. I'm now 72 hours into not just following my Weight Watchers points, but actually making smart food choices for the food I intake. I'm down several pounds since Sunday. Some of that is due to kicking the salt out of my body, and some of it is simply eating a lot less. I'm going to bed a little bit hungry and definitely waking up hungry, which makes breakfast fun!

Waking up hungry has been a great reminder that when I eat properly, my body responds to it. And though I might not like going to bed a little hungry, it's further reinforcement to keep going in the right direction so that my body will slowly start to adjust. Being hungry isn't fun, but I know it's the right way to feel right now. I'm not starving, just not completely full. And that's where losing weight starts, taking in fewer calories than you burn.

Of course burning calories helps too. We had a rainy night here in Boston, and Rach, on a very rare day off, wanted to go have some fun. So off to the mall we went, for dinner and some window shopping. I ate at make-it-yourself salad place, and had a broccoli, mushroom, feta, turkey, and light ranch over spring mix salad. It was delicious, and I was really happy to have the willpower to ignore all of the poor choices around to focus on eating healthy.

One of things I love about triathlon is all the gear and technology, and losing weight has a benefit there as well. As I get closer to looking like a traditional triathlete (thinner and buffer), more sponsorships will likely come my way. In addition, the sponsorships I get will have more options for me. Not everyone makes a 3X cycling jersey or tri top. As an example, Mountain Khakis shorts only went up to 42 inch waist, so I requested the biggest I could get and will wear them as soon as they fit.

Sponsorships make doing more races possible, because I can get more and better gear for less or no money, and put our money towards race entries. One race I know Rachelle dreams of doing is Kona, the Ironman World Championship. The annual event is going to be held this weekend on the big island, and is something Rach and I hunker down to watch each year. They always package a highlights show for consumption, and while I love watching the human interest stories and hearing John Tesh do a breathy drama filled narrative, there's just something about seeing it live that brings out the excitement of this kind of race. So that's what I'll be doing with part of my Saturday.

Which means Sunday I'll probably be on the bike or running, because while I am easily inspired, nothing gets me more inspired than watching the pro's go all hard core on the toughest course in the world.

The season is over; long live the season!

Triathlon season is finally over. Originally, I'd planned to be done over a month ago, but Club Nationals was just too good to pass up. There are always opportunities for more races, including a local cross country triathlon that includes a 5 mile canoe paddle that sounded intriguing. In the end, I just decided it was time to stop for the year to focus on weight loss and building up my body for next years races.

The only problem with stopping racing cold turkey is the fact that I need goals, both short term and long, term to keep me motivated. So with triathlon season over, it's time to start road race season. These races will give me a chance to measure my progress, give me little goals to shoot for, and most importantly keep me motivated to work on the portion of triathlon I mostly dislike and am not good at.

I also know that my running will be the area most directly impacted by my weight loss. One of my anonymous readers has been absolutely right to chastise my diet over the past couple weeks. It's clear that I haven't taken my weight loss or nutritional plan very seriously. Frankly, I've been lazy, and that can't continue, especially with the season we have planned for this year.

I've been able to get myself started again with now 48 hours of solidly sticking to my plan for how I want to spend my food points in a healthy manner. I started recording my point usage this morning, and between that, getting on track with my running (I'm going to repeat week 4 of the Couch to 5k), and a little encouragement from Rach when I feel like I'm slipping, I'm going to be successful towards my goals.

Our first race of the fall is Paddy's Road Race; a 3 mile road race on 10/17. Last year, we did this race in the pouring rain, and I came away with my first sub-40 minute 3 mile race. The race was almost a month before I started the blog, so I don't have a race report. But I do have a photo from the event.

I was wet, but not cold. Blubber is an excellent insulator

I wound up at 39:46 on what felt to me to be a little bit of a hilly course. I bested that time a little over a month later at a very flat race in Plymouth, and I'm sure to beat both of those times this year.

The other race we've signed up for so far is the Lowell 1st Run. My poor performance in this 10k last year is what motivated me to lose much of the 25 pounds I've lost this year, and helped me realize I would need to train a lot harder to finish Timberman. I have a time to beat in this race as well, and with nearly 3 months to train and lose weight, I intend to smash it.

There will probably be 3 more races mixed between those two; a halloween race, a thanksgiving race (perhaps a return trip to the Feaster Five or America's Hometown 5k), and a Christmas themed race of some sort. They'll all be 3 milers or 5ks so I can use them as milestones, not big huge endurance efforts.

All of this will keep in mind that I'll be slowly starting to build miles towards our June and September 70.3 and 140.6 efforts. Running is the area that needs the most work, so it's where I'm putting the most effort. We'll be working out an off-season plan that allows me to maintain

Notes:

- It turns out my run at Club Nationals this weekend was actually my best run at any triathlon yet. I had a 3 mile run last year at Nantasket, and beat that time by almost 6 minutes. My next best was the 5k run at the Season Opener this year, and I would have come in under that time as well for a like distance.

- On the plane ride from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach on Thursday, I sat next to a triathlete who was competing in the Long Course national championship, and we talked triathlon the whole flight in. It was definitely motivating to hear him talk about the races he'd done and how excited he was to be competing in this event.

- On the way towards home during the flight from Myrtle Beach to Charlotte, I sat next to a lady reading her week 6 Weight Watchers book. We started talking and it turns out the tall man next to her was her husband who had lost 100 pounds this year through eating right and walking. He was once 350 and is now 250. And while I didn't ask his age, it was clear he was in his late 40's or early 50's, and looked a lot more comfortable than I was sitting in my cramped airline seat. He'd gone from a 3XLT to an XL shirt (he's a tall guy like myself), in just 11 months. If he can do it, I sure as heck can too.

Race Report: Myrtle Beach Tri/USAT Club Nationals

I've been having trouble trying to sum this weekend up in words. I think it's because Club Nationals meant a lot to me for a lot of different reasons. 

First, it was a chance to give something back to the Wheelworks Multisport team. Just by showing up, I put us in contention to win a national level club award. Unfortunately, Division III was the most popular division in the club competition with no fewer than 12 teams showing up to compete. My travel and participation points were good enough for 9th place, which while I wish was higher, is pretty good for just a single person. What's funny is if we'd had a mere 10 more members, we'd have been competing in Division II, which was not as strongly contested, and we'd have taken 3rd place based on the points I earned. 

It doesn't really matter where I ended up in the club standings, because I got to compete in a national championship in the sport I love for the club that has given me a lot this year. Plus I learned what to expect from an event at this level, and had a great time, so hopefully my experiences will help encourage other members of our team to want to travel to this event in the future.

One reason I wasn't expecting was to be there to cheer on a friend. I didn't think I'd know anyone down there, but as I was thumbing through Facebook on my phone, and saw my nearly lifelong friend Monica West had posted a status update that she was in Myrtle Beach getting ready to run. Monica is a terrific triathlete, and was racing to qualify for Team USA at the Long Course (half-iron) distance. It wasn't her first time either, as Monica represented Team USA last year in Perth, Australia for the 35-39 age group. I didn't think fast enough when I saw her to get a picture, but I did get a chance to high five her as she ran by into transition.

Unfortunately, yesterday wasn't her day. She ran a strong race, but her best leg is the swim and the swim was cancelled (I'll get into that in a bit). Monica still wound up with a time of 4:51 for the bike and run. To put this into perspective, my Timberman bike of the same distance was over 4 hours by itself. While she didn't qualify for next years worlds, I am proud of her effort, and prouder still to call her my friend. She's a great triathlete, and I know she has a lot to look forward to next season and beyond.

As for my race, I found it kind of ironic. My first race of the year had the swim cancelled (for everyone after my wave of course), and the last race of the year had the swim cancelled. The inter-coastal waterway where we were to swim tested positive for higher than allowed levels of e. coli, meaning the department of health wouldn't allow us to swim. I was a bit bummed, because while I'm not the strongest swimmer, I enjoy the swim. Plus the swim course as planned wouldnt require much sighting and would have allowed me to be at my best.

The Inter-Coastal waterway... evidently it's icky with e coli (and probably sharks)

Instead, the race organizer used a time-trial like start to simulate a few swimmers coming out of the water at a time in order to reduce the chaos of a mass start into a bike transition. While this meant a 200 yard run into transition, it was a heck of a lot better than if the race had become a duathlon, which would have likely doubled the run distance. I've never done a time-trial start before and it was actually kind of neat.

At first, I didn't think my first transition would even as good as normal. My set-up was not very good because our transition prep was interrupted for the swim cancellation announcement. Plus, I forgot my bike bottle in the fridge at the hotel, so during set-up I had to steal a bottled water out of transition to stick on my bike so I'd have something to drink. I managed to run 200 yards, grab the bike and jog at least another 100 yards to get out of transition in 3:21. I'm pretty happy with that considering how much running was involved.

It took me a minute once I crossed the mount line and hopped on the bike to get my shoes in the toe clips. I really need to replace those suckers with some Keo pedals again in the spring. Once I got going though, I was flying. At least I thought I was. The course was a mostly flat out and back, 5 miles each way. My computer on the way out was telling me somewhere between 17-19 MPH, and on the way back 14-17 MPH into a fairly strong headwind. 

I knew the computer was acting up because I couldn't get it to sit in the mounting properly, so I figured it might be a little off on the time, and I figured it was a bit slow. I didn't have any idea how slow until I glanced at my watch timer coming back out of transition and it said 35 minutes. I was pretty psyched because it meant I had to have been close to a 20 MPH average and blown away my PR for 10 race miles on the bike. 

My second transition was pretty smooth, and I have to say I was mostly happy with it considering the height of the bike racks (very high) and how different this setup was than my previous races. Wound up being 3:00 in and out of transition on the nose. Considering the size of transition, and the fact that my bike was almost as far from the run out as possible, it could have been a lot worse.

The run, on the other hand, couldn't have been a lot worse. After my PR on the bike, I had what amounts to a fairly average run for me. For a course this flat, I had hoped for something much more, but by the midway point in the run the heat was beginning to get to me. The run was mostly blocked from the sea breeze, and open to the sun, which adds up to a far from ideal situation. On top of that, the time trial start didn't give me any way of knowing how I was faring against the folks in my division. I had nothing to push myself against, so I just dug in as deep as I could. I wound up with a run time of 42:39, which while not the worst run I've ever done was a full 3 1/2 minutes off my PR for a 5k, and this was only 3 miles.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my race. If there had been a swim, it's very likely I'd have set a PR for a sprint distance race. I just felt great, even when I was tired on the run. As it was, I had an amazing bike, and an average run that allowed me to finish in 1:17:49, 177/188 finishers. I finished last in my age group, but by less than a minute and I wasn't the last male in the race either. 

Food, drinks, my medal, and a towel - Photo by Laurel Tabat

Once the race was over my sister-in-law Laurel and I went and did some shopping and had a post race meal at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Laurel had never had it before, and I promised her she'd love it, and she did. We followed lunch up with some shopping and touristy exploring before settling in at the hotel for dinner and a few drinks.

Blueberry vodka + lemonade + Sprite = Happy Laurel!

It was a great experience the whole weekend, and getting a chance to spend the weekend with my "sis" was definitely the best part.