I'm Ba-ack....

Okay, so 5 years after I stopped blogging about my journey I'm back. 

I'm back because I need the accountability of a blog community and I need a place to journal my progress.

Shortly after I stopped blogging this journey I also stopped going to the gym and stopped working out altogether. 

I gained 30 lbs and my blood pressure shot up to over 160 over 90.  My cholesterol isn't so hot either.

So I'm back.

Not sure if I will ever make that triathlon goal but I'm at the gym 3 days a week and I'm working out so who knows.  

Today I ran 1.2 kms and completed a weight circuit, low weight, fast reps. 

I feel okay - my neck and upper back are sore right now but overall I feel good. 

We'll see how this goes.

Lauren

I Quit

Blogging that is.

There isn't really enough news to keep adding here. If you care join my twitter feed @laurensheil or @theearworm. I'll give breif, periodic updates on my Triathlon progress there.

See Yah

Lauren

Sorry I've been missing lately

Okay so I haven't kept this log up very well.

It's tough to do when there hasn't been much progress to report. What can I say? I train 5 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday with Tuesdays and Saturdays off. I mostly train one sport a day with Monday being the double day either swim-bike or bike-run. According to the plan I'm on my first triple day is the actual race, which freaks me out a bit.

My swimming hasn't improved much so I'm starting to get a bit discouraged. I also need to buy a new bike before I can confidently race and my financial situation is a bit precarious at this point. All in all, with just 6 weeks to the Milton race I may not make it.

I feel strong. My running and cycling are in good form. I'm eating okay, although a bit more of a nutrition plan might be in order soon. My weight has stabilized at 195lbs which for a man of my height isn't bad, and my blood pressure which was the key motivator that started me on this path is down to 119 over 85! I could stand to lose another 5lbs but I'm not worried about weight loss at this point.

So there you have it. I'm off to scour Craig's List for a cheap used bike and some swimming lessons.

The count-down begins

June 6

That's the date I have circled on my calendar. It's the Milton, "Try-a-Tri" sprint distance Triathalon.

I am confident I will be able to complete the distance with no problems. My swimming is coming along and with 12 weeks to go, nailing a 375 meter swim seems doable.

I'm already biking 16K and the required distance for this race is only 10.

I ran outside for this first time this year on Thursday and checked off 4.75K in 28 minutes. Way too slow but it was my first time in the cold and off the tradmill since November.

Week One

Okay not exactly.

I've been running and biking since last June. The story I told last week unfolded over the winter and early spring of 2009. But this is week one of my full tri training. I finally got up the nerve to get in the pool.

The training program I'm on is one of the free ones from Beginner Triathlete.com It says that before you start you should be able to perform all 3 disciplines for a minimum of 20 minutes without stopping.

Running - Check
Biking - Double Check
Swimming - Well....

The extent of my swimming lessons and experience begins and ends in the 26 foot diameter above ground pool we had in our back yard when I was a kid. My dad taught me one afternoon when I was 10. He took me out to the middle, away from the edges and told me to "dead man float".

The person who came up with that name was never 10 years old! You don't tell a kid that what they are terrified of has the word "dead" in it!

I leaned forward, kicked my legs up, but I refused to put my face in the water. I must have looked like a drunk swan. After two or three attempts and still refusing to put my face down my dad finally grabbed the back my head and held me down for second. I could have him up on charges of child abuse today but after the initial shock wore off I realized that my hips were floating and suddenly everything made sense.

After that it was just a matter of crawling through the water and kicking my legs. I could swim!

But here's the problem. I never learned to exhale in the water.

As I mentioned, the pool was only 26 feet in diameter. Even at 10 years old I could hold my breath and be across the entire width in 4 strokes. When I arrived at my gym today and hit the water I quickly realized that there is no way I'm going to make it 25 meters on one breath. I tried, believe me.

I can't yet comfortably exhale with my face in the water, I panic and start to inhale before I can left my head up. I've got to work on that. For now, I go 10 strokes, about half way, tread water for a second and go another 10 strokes.

Any tips on training my body to exhale without panicking will be appreciated.

Lauren

Why Tri?

Why not?

Actaully there's a bit more to it than that.

Last year, at the ripe old age of 36 my Dr. told me I had high blood pressure. I wasn't extremely over weight or in any immediate danger but just slighly "un-healthy". So I did what any normal 36 year old man would do, nothing...

A few months later, when I went back to the Dr. I had gained 5 more lbs and my blood pressure was increasing. Still not enough to set off any serious alarm bells but the trend was not good. So I did what any normal 36 year old man would do, I joined the gym. But after a few weeks I got bored and stopped going...

The next time I saw my Dr. my weight hadn't budged and my blood pressure was still too high. At that point it was time to get serious. I was told that if my blood pressure didn't come down significantly within the next few months I would have to go on medication to regulate it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against medicine when it's necessary for things like Cancer but I am a firm believer that if you can control something with diet and exercise, why pump you body full of synthetic chemicals and supliments?

I went back to the gym.

But I am an exteremly goal oriented kind of guy. I can't just work out for the sake of working out and lowering blood pressure, something that you can't see the results of day after day wasn't enough motivation for me. If I was going to stay motiviated I needed a "mission", some sort of big, grand vision that will take me years, possibly a lifetime to achieve.

I've always liked cardio a lot more than weights, I'm cheap too so what could I do that wasn't going to cost much and get me excersising regularly for a really long time.

Triathalon!

For the cost of a good pair of shoes and a tune up on my bike I was in business!

My short term goal is to compete in a sprint or other short distance event this summer. Sometime within the next 2 years I want to do an Iron Man distance and we'll see where things go from there. One dream is to maybe compete in an Iron Man on every continent (except Antarctica of course) before I'm 50.

This blog is my on-line training journal. I'll share my successes, failures and lessons learned and maybe get a few tips from the the Tri-community while I'm at it.

Now all I have to do is learn how to swim...

Lauren - Mississauga, Ontario, Canada