2018 Season Recap

It is hard to believe that my 5th racing season has come to an end. At the same time, it is hard to believe that I have been racing for 5 seasons!

2018 certainly did not turn out the way that I envisioned for many reasons, and looking back I have several regrets. Early in the year I laid out several goals and stated that my focus for the year would be on racing short races and increasing speed while losing more weight (2018 Goals).

The off season got me off on the wrong foot for sure. The weather, including the winter that just wouldn't go away, was not good for training outside. I did well to keep up with my training inside but it quickly zapped my motivation. On top of that, I had a major goal of losing weight this year but I never actually laid out a plan to do that and instead ended up gaining about 15 - 20 lbs in the off season.

As February and March passed I found out that my "A" race for the year actually wasn't going to happen and this took the wind completely out of my sails. I sulked and pouted about the Des Moines Triathlon for far too long. I also found out that my goal of winning my age group in the Heart of America Series was in jeopardy after finding out that I wouldn't be able to race in 3 of the series races. My last race of 2017 was on Thanksgiving Day and my first race of 2018 wasn't until the end of April, which meant that I had 5 months between races which is a long time for me. I would love to say that I don't need to race to stay motivated but I think that this off season showed me that is not the case.

My first race of the year was the 5K at the Drake Relays Road Races. I knew that I wasn't in great shape going into the race and ended up being sick the week leading up to the race. Surprisingly I ran pretty well finishing with a time of 30:48, but didn't even come close to the 28:48 that I ran in November on a much more challenging course. Looking back, I don't know why that time and race made me so down, especially since it was still one of my better 5K times of the past 5 years.

A few weeks later I competed in my first triathlon of the year at Hickory Grove and the disappointment continued to build. I had only 1 open water swim and 3 outdoor bike rides logged for the year going into that race. In addition, I felt really out of shape and unprepared. Things didn't get better when I arrived at the race and realized that I forgot my race bib holder. My bike time was absolutely horrible for me, as I averaged 17.6 mph. Having my friend's Megan and Dan with me kept me from getting too frustrated with myself and I was hopeful that I could still turn things around with such a full season of races ahead of me. There was another silver lining from this race as well, I logged my 2nd fastest swim pace at 2:08/100 yards.

Crossing the finish line at Hickory Grove

With just 2 weeks before my next race, I was hoping to build on my swim success at the Pigman Sprint and hoped that more outdoor bike rides would improve my bike split as well. It turned out to be a horrible race day for me. Winds were high with gusts from 25-30 mph which resulted in another horrible bike split of 16.9 mph even though the bike course was extremely flat. Additionally, even though I felt good on the swim, I ended with my slowest pace ever in a race of 2:49/100 yards. I was able to end the race with a decent run time but once again I headed home very disappointed. 

Forcing a smile after finishing at the Pigman Sprint

Again I had only 2 weeks until my next race which left me scrambling to find things that I could fix with my training. After Hickory Grove I was hoping for improvement with each race, but as it was turning out I wasn't improving at all. At this point my confidence had taken quite a hit and I was spending a lot of time in my own head with a lot of negative self-talk. 

My motivation was at an all time low going into the Quad Cities triathlon on June 16th and I'm ashamed to admit that it was the first race that I nearly gave up. In fact, even though I didn't quit the race, I pretty much quit trying. After riding the bike as hard as I could, a horrible time got me down going into the run. That paired with an extremely hot and humid day resulted in stopping to walk less than 1/4 mile into the run. I walk/ran the rest of the race and ended up logging my worst overall race pace ever with the exception of the Legend 70 last September. 

Ready to head home after finishing the Quad Cities Triathlon

Disgusted is the only word that I can think of to describe my feelings after the QC Tri. Here I was, half way through the year and half way through my racing season and not only had I not improved, I was actually regressing. For the first time in the 4 years that I had been racing I actually was starting to question why I was even bothering to do this anymore. Half way through the year and I hadn't accomplished a single goal and it was beginning to seem that all of them might be out of reach.

2 weeks after the QC Tri, I woke up one morning with an injured back that got much worse over the next week. I did not train at all for over a week and had a much decreased load over the following month and a half. If you remember back to mid-July, I actually wrote a blog post about how much I hated 2018 (Writing off 2018). As it turns out, that back injury ended up being the turning point of my entire season. At the time it seemed like more bad luck, but it turned out to force me to re-evaluate a lot of things and acted like a reset button.

A lot went through my mind during the 4 weeks leading up to my next race. I was actually starting to think about what life would be like if I had to stop racing all together. I realized that I had been focusing on a lot of the "wrong" things and I had lost my reason for doing all of this. A trip out of town and family time gave me time to clear my head and remember that I'm really doing all of this for me to feel good about being me. I read back through all of my blog posts from the past few years and could feel the emotion coming through in my words and feel the accomplishment that I felt with each race and along each step of this journey. I wanted to be a better me and I wanted to inspire people.

The second weekend of July I was scheduled to do 2 races on back to back days. With my back still recovering and the lack of training time, I opted to do something that I have never done before, skip a race that I signed up for. I skipped the Accel Triathlon on Saturday and opted for the Des Moines Corporate Games triathlon on Sunday. Although humid, it was a pretty decent day for a race and with the help of Erin and my girls there to cheer me on, I ended up racing better than I had all year. I set a swim pace PR of 2:01/100 yards (nearly making my goal of breaking 2:00/100 yards) and I also managed to bike a much improved 18.4 mph pace.

Abs giving me a high five before the finish line

This race really did a lot for my confidence but I was still experiencing back pain and my weight was still an issue. The following Tuesday I scheduled a doctor appointment to check up on my back and ended up chatting with the physicians assistant for a couple of hours. I won't go into the details of what happened at that appointment as it is documented in a previous blog post, but I will say that the appointment was life changing for me. I joined Weight Watchers the next day and the weight loss success was nearly instantaneous. 

My back was recovering slowly but my fitness had certainly taken a hit due to the lack of training. On the 3rd weekend of July I was supposed to run a 10K at the Des Moines Corporate Games road races, but opted to race the 5K instead. I finished the race in 32:16 and was happy that I was able to run the entire way after having to walk portions of my last 2 races. Even better yet was that I did not experience any back pain during the race. 

At the last minute, I decided to sign up for the Des Moines Corporate Games cross country race the last weekend of July. I hadn't raced a cross country race since high school and I absolutely crushed the 4.4K course with a time of 27:01 which earned me a silver medal. I was finally starting to see some week over week improvement and my improved nutrition was having a really positive impact on my mood as well as my training. 

Racing well at the DSM Corporate Games Cross Country Race

 By this point I was logging a good number of miles running and having some decent training swims but I was still not back on the bike because it was the only thing still causing me back discomfort.  Early in August the Heart of America Triathlon Series standings came out and I was very surprised to see that I was in 4th place in my age group with only 1 race to go. I wasn't sure what to expect going into the Bluff Creek triathlon on the 3rd weekend of August but I was feeling pretty good and had lost about 18 lbs since beginning Weight Watchers. Needing to score a little over 600 points to take the series lead I was planning to race my heart out. My sister and nephew drove up to cheer me on and I always race better when family and friends are there watching. As it turns out I had a crazy good race which included a PR of 19.3 mph on the bike and a podium finish. I placed 3rd in the Clysdale division! 

Truly feeling at the top of my game after a strong
finish at Bluff Creek

At this point I was not experiencing any back pain while training and decided to go all in for my last triathlon of the year. I had 5 weeks to train and decided to try out a completely new training philosophy that I learned from the "IronFit" book that I had recently purchased and read. The workouts were time based instead of distance based and were performed based on heart rate zones. It took me a few weeks to get used to not worrying about pace while training but I started to notice that my workouts were feeling easier and I was recovering from workouts much more quickly. 

Shortly after Bluff Creek the final standings for the Heart of America Series came out and I ended up winning my division by scoring over 700 points at Bluff Creek! I beat out 106 other racers to take that crown and it qualified me for the Heart of America Series champions wave at the Cyman triathlon in September. 

It wasn't until the IMT DSM Monument Mile on September 20th that I realized just how effective the training was for me. On that night I managed to shatter my previous mile PR time by running a 7:51 mile and reaching my goal of a sub-8 minute mile this year! I felt so good coming off this race that I didn't even care how the Cyman triathlon turned out the following Sunday. Just 2 months prior I thought there was no way that I was going to reach any of my goals for the year and in less than a months time I met 2 of them!

I don't think I have ever gone into a race with as much confidence as I did the Cyman triathlon this year. I invited a bunch of friends and family out to watch me race and to celebrate my success with a cookout at our house after the race. 14 people came out to watch me race and several others joined us at the house afterwords. I even got a text message from my sister in KC before the race. The weather was perfect for racing and I knew that I was in the best shape that I have ever been going into a race. I stepped on the scale that morning to see a weight of 233 lbs, a weight that I haven't seen in 15+ years. 

I'm getting chills now just thinking about how well that race went. I managed to set a PR pace on the bike of 19.4 mph and followed that up with an all time 5K PR of 28:00. I didn't even come close to making it on the podium, but that didn't even phase me. I had just finished the best race of my life and I felt absolutely amazing. After this race, I am completely sold on this new training philosophy and look forward to fully implementing it next season. 

Looking great and finishing with a calm confidence

The outpouring of support that I received for that race also made a difference. For those that came out to watch me race, celebrate with me afterward, or provide positive thoughts or words I am absolutely grateful. There were many days this year that I was only able to get through with your love and support.  

Very supportive friends willing to get up early on a Sunday

The most supportive and loving family that I guy could ask for

Even Ellie came out to watch me race...and she
brought her mom

Making my parents proud

So you are probably wondering what is next for me, but I'm going to have to keep you in suspense for a little longer. I am still working on my schedule but will put out a post sometime soon with what my plans for 2019 are. I will tell you that there are some pretty big things in store for next year and my training schedule starts back up on Christmas Day. 

I am forcing myself to take the next 12.5 weeks off of scheduled training and enjoy the positive end to my season. I will still be working out plenty with a focus on walking and strength training but I am planning to try some new things as well. This will also allow me to enjoy my hunting season without worrying about fitting in certain workouts and will allow enjoying some extra family time around the holidays. 

Thank you all for following along this year!

Cyman Triathlon 2018

It is hard to believe that my 2018 season has come to a close. I will write a blog post in the upcoming weeks highlighting my 2018 season. This post, however, is a recap of the Cyman Sprint Triathlon that I competed in today. I went into the race today feeling very confident. Over the past 5 weeks, since the Bluff Creek Triathlon, I have had quite possibly my best 5 weeks of training ever. On top of that, I am coming off my best performance of the year at Bluff Creek, the news that I won my age group for the Heart of America Triathlon Series, and blowing away my 1 Mile PR on Thursday night at the IMT Monument Mile.

In addition, I stepped on the scale before the race for my mid-week weigh in (my weight watchers weigh in day is Wednesday) to see a weight of 233.2, down from 249.4 when I raced at Bluff Creek. The Weight Watchers program is continuing to work wonders for me! This is the lightest that I have ever been for a race since I ran track in middle school and it is making a big difference.

The weather was nearly perfect with temperatures starting out around 50 degrees and climbing into the low 60s with low humidity, sunshine, and light winds. A later race time and short drive to the race meant that I didn't have to get up super early. My alarm went off at 5:45 am, after changing and grabbing a quick breakfast, I headed to Bondurant with my mom and dad in tow to get ready to go. We arrived plenty early and I had a lot of time to stand around after getting my transition set up. I had a large group of work friends as well as family come out to cheer me on for the race.

After a quick warm up run around the lake, I made my final preparations and got ready for the race to start. The water temperature was 67 degrees, meaning that the race was "wet suit legal" which made me very happy to hear.

Putting on my wet suit as race time approaches

The race started at 9:00 am with the collegiate wave followed by my wave, the Heart of America Champions Wave at 9:03. The swim course was a straight out and back with a distance of 750 meters and I had an excellent swim. I came out of the water in a time of 17:48, more than 3 minutes faster than my time at the Cyman last year. The 2:10/100 yard pace is one of the fastest of my career.

Waiting in the water for my swim wave to start

Finishing up the swim

Out of the water and heading to T1

This is my first race using clip-less pedals and cycling shoes. Even though it added some additional complexity and preparation, it ended up not having a large impact on my transition times as I managed to get through T1 in 1:32 which was just seconds off of my current PR time. 

I was feeling very good as I headed out on the bike. Although the bike course was only 14 miles long, it did include several smaller hills on the back side of the course. In addition, we faced a head wind as we headed back into transition. None of that mattered much as I managed to set a PR for my bike split pace at 19.4 mph, cutting almost 2 minutes off of my time from last year. 

Clipping in and heading out on the bike course

Off the bike and headed for T2

My T2 time was a little longer than normal with the additional shoe change, but still a really good time at 1:06. As I headed out on the run, I was feeling pretty good. As I passed the first mile marker I could tell that I was running at a faster than normal pace and was even happier when I tried to push that pace a bit during the 2nd mile and my legs responded without any complaints. As I headed around the lake and up into the finish chute I couldn't believe the time that I saw on the clock. I quickly checked my watch to see that I had run the 5K in 28:00 flat. That not only set a triathlon PR, but set an overall running PR for me. My previous PR was a training run last October when I ran 28:13. 

Heading out of T2 onto the run course

Heading into the finish line

Getting some high fives from my girls at the end of the course

My official time was 1:31:43, 11 minutes faster than the 1:42:40 that I posted for the same race last year. I had a top 100 bike split and finished 138/240 total racers. I felt great the entire race and couldn't have asked for a better way to bring my 2018 season to an end.

Official times

As icing on the cake, I had a lot of support at the race today. Several coworkers, both former and current, as well as family came out to support me today. Their support and interest goes a long way to help me along in my journey and means more to me than any of them will ever know. 

A whole bunch of friends from work

Sister-in-law Jess and Niece Ellie came out to
cheer me on

Always excited when mom and dad get a
chance to watch me race

Me and my girls. For as much as they drive me
crazy, they are my biggest cheerleaders.

My wife Erin and I. None of this would be
possible without her love and support

After the race, we headed back to our house to meet more friends and family to grill out and celebrate another successful season. Everyone had a great time enjoying chicken and burgers along with the beautiful early fall weather. 

In-laws in-driveway

Girls having fun with the neighbors

Brother and sister-in-law, sadly Paul's attire
wasn't enough to will the Packers to a win

Words cannot express how high I am feeling right now. 2018 ended on such a high note and I am looking forward to what is to come in 2019. For now, I'm going to shift my focus to recovery, family time, and deer hunting season. Thank you all for your support throughout this year, as well as over the past 5 years. It had been a great run and I'm still just getting started. Keep your eye on my blog and Facebook for my season wrap up and information on my plans for next year, chances are, 2019 will be even more epic than 2018 was. 

Putting the Pieces Together

I have been looking forward to writing this post for the past several weeks but I feel that tonight is finally the right time. A little bit of a warning that this post will probably turn out a little longer than most. To start, we need to take a brief look back at where I started and how I got to where I am today.

History
In March of 2014 I started an 8 week 5k running program and fell in love with running. At the time I topped the scales at 346 lbs. Over the next 2 years I ran several races, including my first 2 half marathons in the fall of 2015. At the time I had brought my weight down into the 290's with no additional effort beyond running a few times a week.

During the winter of 2016 I really started to focus on weight loss. I adopted a restrictive diet (as I had done in the past with temporary success) and switched my focus from road races to triathlon. By June of 2016 I managed to drop my weight down to around 240 but I had lost all motivation to continue with such a restrictive diet and by consuming drastically fewer calories then I needed to train it just wasn't sustainable. As my very successful racing season came to an end, so did my drive to continue losing weight. By the end of the year, my weight had creeped back up into the 260's. I will still training, and had big plans for 2017, but I wasn't training at nearly the rate that I had been during the spring and summer months and didn't change my diet at all to compensate.

As the winter months wore on and my marathon training program started, I was very frustrated with myself. I had set a goal to be around 220 lbs by the time I ran my marathon but I was sitting in the 250's instead. Things came to a head when I injured my foot in April and ended up having to bow out of the marathon in June. Deep down I knew that the plantar fasciitis was due to running so many miles while carrying too much weight. After failing to meet that goal, I was determined to not miss out on my 2nd major goal of the year, a Half Ironman distance triathlon in September. I worked my butt off training for that race but the scale didn't budge and my diet did not improve.

Again, going into the off season, I had some BIG goals around finally losing weight and coming into this racing season lighter than I had ever been. Just as had happened at the end of 2016, my weight slowly climbed back up into the 260's where it stayed throughout the winter. The only difference is that 2018 didn't include any long distance races and ridiculous amounts of training. With each month, and each race that past, I became more and more discouraged. I was racing very poorly and the confidence that I had the prior 2 years was nearly non-existent. I knew that something was missing, but either didn't know what it was or was in denial about it. When I injured my back in late June, I had all but given up on the season and even blogged about it (I Am So Over 2018).

Things begin to turn around
If you don't remember back to my original blog post, about how I got into running, let me jog your memory. My running journey began with a simple question from a co-worker during the winter of 2018, "Does anyone want to train to run a 5K with me?". It turns out that I seem to find inspiration in the most unexpected places. Now, if you ask my wife, she will tell you that I have talked about going to the doctor to discuss weight loss for the past 3 years. She will also tell you that I am stubborn and like to do things on my own even if it means learning the hard way. Well, as it turns out, I probably should have followed through a lot sooner.

On July 17th, I walked into an appointment that I had made at the new Mercy Clinic in Grimes to see the Physicians Assistant at that office. The primary reason was to have a follow up on my back, but as luck would have it, I was her last appointment of the day and she ended up spending over 1 1/2 hours with me. We talked about pretty much every medical issue that I have had in recent memory, walked through my progress over the past 4 1/2 years (including past physicals and blood work) and she commended me on how far I've come. I don't know why, but receiving reassurance from a medical professional made something inside my brain click. She referred me to a dietitian at the Mercy Weight Loss Center but also provided a suggestion. She said that based on how much of a self-starter I have been with running and triathlon, that I should consider giving Weight Watchers a try.

As I left her office, I wasn't so sure. At the time, my perception of Weight Watchers was that it was for women, specifically women who tended to be stay at home mom's that weren't morbidly obese but just wanted to drop 20 lbs. I honestly don't know where this perception came from, but it is what I thought. At home that night, I decided to check it out and sign up. Now I'm not going to get into details about how Weight Watchers works or anything like that (if you want to read more, their website has a lot of information), but it didn't take long for me to figure out that it is the exact piece that I had been missing for these past 4 1/2 years. I opted for the "Online Only" option which does not include the weekly in-person meetings, but does provide me with access to the website, and Android app for my phone to track my food.

I officially started WW on Wednesday, July 18th and during my 1st week I lost 6.6 lbs. This was no surprise because every time that I had started a diet, I had great results early. During week 2 I lost another 4 lbs, but that wasn't even the best part. I was still unsure about the plan during the first week as it was a little hard and I was still getting used to it. By the end of week 2, it wasn't feeling difficult at all (I mean that literally....not difficult AT ALL). Week 3 was a 5 lb weight loss and things really felt like they were cruising.

My progress so far

It was also in week 3 that I met with a dietitian at the Mercy Weight Loss center. I was excited to share my early success and even more thrilled when she told me that I am making excellent decisions and handling this transition very well. We spent an hour together talking about many things, such as my triggers for eating and how to create a sustainable diet (more specifically what that entails for me), but my biggest take away was our discussion about mindful eating. I have thought about this a lot since that meeting and it really makes sense. I am a very habit and pattern oriented person and I truly believe that the reason that I am succeeding with WW is that it gives me a plan to follow that I can easily stick to. I thrive on the structure of it to the point that it has become extremely easy for me to follow it. 

At the same time, I know that everyone is different and different people find different ways to succeed at the same things. There are a lot of diet options out there and even more diet advice. From rules such as "Don't eat after supper" to "Eat 5 small meals a day", the Keto diet to tracking calories with an app such as My Fitness Pal. Oh, and everyone knows the person who lost weight by just drinking more water too. However, when you look to the heart of every piece of dietary advice out there, they all point back to 1 simple principle, and that is mindful eating. When we pay attention to what we put into our mouths, we make better decision.

My meeting with the dietitian included some biometric measurements as well as some physical measurements. In addition, she encouraged me to take the physical measurements every couple of weeks and to stop in every month for the biometric measurements as well (offered free of charge in their office). She emphasized that sometimes the scale might not go down (or even on occasion go up) but that is just one measurement of success and that I should look at them all together.

Today marks 4 weeks since I met with her and 7 weeks since I met with the PA and began WW. Below I have taken a picture of the 2 biometric measurement printouts, on the left is from 4 weeks ago and the right is today.

The difference that 4 weeks has made is outstanding and really shows the progress that I have made, as well as how much farther I have to go. The bullet points below are my biggest take aways:

• Fat mass dropped from 82.6 lbs to 65.6 lbs
• Muscle mass actually went up from 166 lbs to 167 lbs (by the way this is a crazy high number which makes me super proud)
• BMI is a crap measurement (which is not entirely a surprise) for me because my ideal body weight is 153.4 lbs even though I have 175.6 lbs of non-fat mass on my body. To drop out of the overweight category, I would need to be below 180 lbs which would leave me with less than 5 lbs of fat
• A lot of people claim that when you lose a significant amount of weight, it is usually a lot of "water weight" but my hydration percentage actually went up from 48.8% 4 weeks ago to 51.2% today

In addition, with the help of Erin, I have taken 4 physical measurements of my body and the difference there has been outstanding as well.

8/7

• Neck: 16 inches
• Chest: 50 3/4 inches
• Waist: 51 1/4 inches
• Hips: 46 1/2 inches

9/4

• Neck: 15 inches
• Chest: 47 inches
• Waist: 49 1/4 inches
• Hips: 42 1/4 inches

The dietitian was right, putting these numbers together is really telling the whole story. The good news for me, is that the scale has been at a steady decline as well. 

Weekly Weigh Ins

My official WW weigh in days are on Wednesday, but I also weigh in on Sunday as well. I find that twice a week is often enough to keep me looking forward to the next opportunity to see progress but not so long that a "bad" weigh in can't be thought about for too long. 

Final Thoughts

Proper diet and nutrition was the puzzle piece that I have been missing for the past 4 1/2 years and I feel like I have finally found it. Using Weight Watchers seems to be extremely sustainable for me and will not only compliment my training regimen, but will also help prevent me from gaining weight during the off season. I don't feel overly restricted, which is key for me, and I have already had the opportunity to overcome nearly every food trigger that I had identified with the dietitian. 

I finally feel like I am transitioning from being "The fat guy who is in pretty good shape" to an athlete that can compete and has a bright future in the sport of triathlon. Success builds on success, and I can honestly say that I can never remember a time in my life where I have felt this great and this confident in myself.

As a disclaimer for this post, I am not a believer that Weight Watchers is some sort of quick fix for weight loss, nor do I believe that it would work for everyone. I think that everyone out there has some puzzle in their life that they are missing a piece. After reading this post, I hope that you know that no matter how long you have been looking, and even if you have given up hope, that piece is out there for you too. You just have to keep looking for it and listen to those people around you (including yourself sometimes) to help you find it.

There is certainly more to this story, but for now I will leave some of the finer details for future posts. Please keep following along on my journey. I have been filled with new hope and motivation and things are really looking up again!