A little History

So, I guess a little background here would be useful. I'm overweight, and I have been my entire adult life. My heaviest weight occurred in 2006/2007 where I topped out at a rather scarey 302 pounds. I had lost weight before, but it never stuck. I'm not going to say it's because nothing worked, because usually dieting works to varying degrees as you follow the plan. However, to be a success you can't just go back to the way things were.  There is no "end" of a diet. You only fail when you stop.

So, what was different this time? Honestly, I have nothing magical to say here. I guess I decided I was going to not stop. It's that whole lifestyle change you always hear about. By now I had a fairly good handle on what I should be doing, and it's pretty much what you already heard from others... moving more and eating less. Easy answer, but much harder to implement when you're trying to break a lifetime of very bad habits. It always felt that was something OTHER people could manage to do, but not me, but all it really took is not giving up.

On the food end of things I started doing what I knew worked. For me that was counting calories and recording my intake in a food log. I didn't follow any special diet or anything. For me it's about doing what is sustainable for the long haul. I try and make the best choices I can at any given moment. So, if I want to squeeze in something bad (Hello cookies!) I find the room for it, but overall I try and make healthy choices. I have way too much of a sweet tooth to not allow room for real life.

On the exercise end of things I started walking. I started off by walking to the super-market near our house which is only a mile away. I then extended those walks out by 3, 4, 5 miles... I also started getting into exercise videos. Turbo Jam was one of my favorites. I liked variety so I started using our exercise bike. With all this work and the food logging the weight started to come off.

So how does this lead us into triathlon and Ironman of all things? A few years before this I had read the book "The Slow Fat Triathlete", and I decided to read it again. No idea what caused me to even buy the book in the first place, other then it sounded so FAR out of my realm of possible that it was pretty intriguing.  Lot of heavy people get into running as they lose weight becuase besides being a great calorie burner, it's just something they've never been able to do. There is something very satisfying about changing that reality.

I can't even say triathlon is something I dreamed of doing, because it was just something so far outside the realm of possibility that it didn't apply to me. I didn't even know any triathletes, and I certainly didn't have a sporty bone in my body.

The book inspired me to learn to run. I've NEVER been able to run before... not even the 10 minute mile in grade school. I'd run half a block and my lungs would be on FIRE. Lots of people suggest the couch-2-5k program for learning to run, but for someone who was still heavy and was never active, that program was just a bit too aggressive for me. Someone else suggested a book to me that had a 13-week program that eased into things a bit more realistically, and something magic happened. I started to run, yes I was learning to run at 230lbs. First one minute intervals, Two minute intervals, three... and so on. And about 14 weeks in I could run for an entire hour w/o stopping.

Somewhere in the middle of my learning to run it occurred to me that I was already riding the exercise bike, and knew I liked biking, and now I was learning to run, If I threw in swimming...Why not a triathlon? I could try a triathlon... Couldn't I? Really? It seemed a bit insane, but it sounded like a good goal to keep me on the right track.  However, had not swam since I was a kid. I signed up for a class with a local multisport group. It was only 5 class sessions, but was enough to get the basics down. Then I signed up for a swim pass at our local university so I could practice on my own.

So, I decided to sign up for the Chicago Olympic Distance Triathlon. Somewhere along the line I came to my senses and decide I need a practice run before the longer race, so I also signed up for a sprint distance triathlon. I bought my very first road bike ever in April 2008. (I had been riding a MTB before that) The Sprint was in July and the Chicago Triathlon was in Aug 2008. The races came and went and were hard but fun! I too was now a slow-fat-triathlete!

Since then I've been up and down in weight wise, but never over 230-ish since my initial weight loss.  I went from a size 26 to a 12/14 (Although, I think I'm a 16 currently. ugh.) I've been as low as 180 and currently I'm about 210. Yes, I have a ways to go to finish this off, and it certainly hasn't been a straight pathway on the way down, but I've managed to keep off most of it for over 3 years now.

I also continued to race for fitness. Triathlons are additive in that way, In 2009 I did a 15k and another Olympic. In 2010 I did a Half Mary, Half Iron and trained with a group for Ironman Wisconsin. In 2011 3 half marathons, a full marathon, half Ironman and most of Ironman again... and I already have 3 races registered for in 2012.

Ironman though still alludes me though. I made it to mile 133 in '10 and this past year I did 135-miles. (I'll post both those race-reports shortly so you can see what kept me from finishing SO close to the end) I WILL obtain my goal of Ironman Wisconsin in 2012, and I plan to do it as close to goal weight as possible. (150)

Stepping Forward

So, Here I am. Trying to figure out how to lay out next season. How do I best set myself up for success? So many different directions one can go, and right now I'm pretty much frozen in fear of making the wrong choice. The truth is I'll probably be fine no matter what direction I go if I put in consistent work, and also lose most of my extra weight. Yet, it seems like such a make or break kinda call.

I guess the first step is to not really have an off-season. While most people just dial it down a few notches over the winter I have a bad habit of dropping training too much, and then spending months and months trying to re-gain ground. I already feel like I've been entirely too inactive already even though Ironman was a mere 6 weeks ago. I've done a few runs, and a few swims, and sad to admit I have not even been on the bike long enough to wipe off the Power-Bar-Perform drink off the handlebars from Ironman. Sticky!

So, I am looking into all of my options. There is one thing for sure this year though is I'm going to listen to my gut and not feel guilty about adjusting things along the way. I've had good advice from good people, but one thing I think I've confirmed is I'm not your typical athlete. I have a very a-typical background, and maybe that requires not so typical of a plan.

Step one though is making weight loss a rather large focus. This is the time of year to do that. You would think one would lose tons of weight training for an Ironman, but for most people, especially females, it just doesn't happen that way. There is lots of "fueling" for 6 hour bike rides and 3 hour runs, and you have recovery nutrition to worry about, and your body is generally hungry. It's not impossible to do it later in the season, but doing it now sure makes life easier.

So tonight I ordered a bodybugg. I've used one in the past but I somehow lost mine. It's one of the best tools I've used for keeping track of a deficit.  It's rather eye opening to see how much one does NOT move around in a day until you see it all graphed out in front of you. In the past it's been useful for trying to make sure I keep active when I'm NOT exercising... and therefore burning a lot of calories throughout the day. It's just a tool... but a useful little bugger.

I have a lot to post about in the future. A little about my weight loss history, my race reports from my two "Almost-Ironmans", and Oh yeah... and there was that little race I did 2 weeks ago called the Chicago Marathon... A race which I didn't even know I was doing until a handful of weeks beforehand!