Prep1:Week1:Day1
1:1:1
I have had a lot of "Day One's" in the past 8 years. After completing my first Ironman at Madison, WI in Sept 2008, I woke up that next morning to struggle across the room to look outside my hotel window only to see a line of crazy fanatics lined up to sign up for next year. I had had a decent time for a 20 year old who had decided to coach himself in one year to that peak performance, but it felt like a one-and-done for me. I entertained the idea of some day possibly qualifying for the world championships, but a few years later decided to cover my odds and signed up for the Kona Half-Ironman to at least get the experience. In the 4 years it took me to sign up for that half, I had gained a lot of weight, going from 165 to 220 pounds. That's a gain of 55 pounds in 4 years. I was still training, yet not nearly with the vigor I had getting ready for the event. I started slowly to indulge in food items that I had strictly cut out of my regular training diet, and I was paying the price. I had coasted on what I had worked so hard to build, and struggled to lose 30 pounds, and race at 190 pounds.
“They say every 7 years, your nervous system has completely regrown with new cells, so in a way, I am a new man.”
It's now another 4 years later, and I am in the same boat. I allowed my work to become an excuse. As someone who traveled 90 percent of the week, I sat on my butt and ate out a lot. I also found a girl, got married, and just months ago had my first child. Life caught up to me as it had with so many of the personal training clients I had worked with in the past. I had become my own client.
When I trained myself before, I was driven by fear, by adolescent hormones, by anger, by hope, and by the idea of who I wanted to become. Now that I can feel my saggy, unresponsive muscles, and slow metabolism, it's easy to let the excuses mount up: I'm getting closer to 30, and it's just the new norm. They say every 7 years, your nervous system has completely regrown with new cells, so in a way, I am a new man. Albeit a slower one...
But now I have something different to fight for: a way of life, an example for my daughter, a responsibility to pass down the good habits I have learned to set her up for success that I worked so hard to figure out on my own.
“Today’s Workout:
1 Mi Run - 7:04
3 x 10 x 135lb Bench Press
3 x 10 x 225lb Squat
1,000yd Swim”
Today I coach myself. This isn't a sprint, this is an endurance race. It's all or nothing, but that doesn't mean I have to kill myself to develop those good habits. For the past three months, my goal was to redevelop the habit of activity. What does that look like? Well, I set my alarm 5 minutes earlier each week until I was doing an hour workout each morning before work. I didn't jump out of bed like I used to, but that will come. In a year, I'm thinking about taking on another Ironman again to prove my method and repeatability. Anyone want to join me?