Wow, where do I begin?  OK how about some race reports for the last 2-3 weeks?

June 19th Lake 2 Lake Classic 50k MTB Race – DNS – I wasn’t feeling it and some reports indicated the trails were crap so I lamed out.  Post-race reports from others say it turned out to be a great race, and I remember the weather was perfect.  I also learned this was the last year for this race.  Oh well, I missed out.  Add it to another regret.

June 25th Welland Sprint Triathlon – DNF – That’s right DID NOT FINISH.  I barely finished the swim (3rd from last overall), where I found myself not being able to catch my breath.  Even on the bike my breathing & heart rate were off the charts and I was barely moving, kept getting coughing fits probably from inhaling too much Welland canal water during the swim, and hyperventilating to entire swim.  Lets see what probably led up

Welland-Swim Exit

to this:

• My swimming is simply not up to snuff – as in I almost drowned in this race.  Although I did progress since I started last January, it simply wasn’t getting better quick enough, not to mention lack of open water practice.  Once again, I just seems I’m not cut out to be a swimmer and you know what, I have no regrets about ditching the swim.
• Mentally I was simply not feeling it as seen by my shitty / lack of training in June.  A combination of things simply left me unwilling to put in the time or control myself.  This also led to a very bad diet, including pizza, beer, chinese food, etc. etc.  Simply atrocious and one of those embarrassing setbacks.  Well, there’s consequences to a bad diet and lack of exercise….weight gain, and plenty of it.
  

  Welland-Bike Start

Well that covers the race reports, or whatever you wanna call those.

So with what happen at the Welland race, I officially pulled the plug on swimming, again, and like I said, I have no regrets.  I tried – tried hard, but it just isn’t working out.  Not to mention I don’t really enjoy swimming anyhow.  With that said, any multisport I do in the future will be duathlons – run, bike, run.  I’ve adjusted the race schedule to reflect this revisited direction.

Now regarding the diet; I knew I was on a bad path but I didn’t think it was that bad until I jumped on the scale this morning – 222.6 lbs - Yeah that’s right, last year at this time I was low 190s.  I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it – all that hard work evaporating away and I have no one to blame but myself. I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of this eating issue for the last few months – what’s changed? I’m still not 100% sure. All I can do is set goals, be accountable, and forge ahead.

Now that all that is out of the way, my main focus is to bring the weight back down, and any racing participating I do this year is only to have fun. Trying to be competitive at over 220 lbs is simply not going to happen.  Hence the reason all the races are basically shorter distances while I drop some weight and build up my fitness again.  Since I’ve dropped going to the pool, I’ve also restarted my strength training routine 2-3 times a week to hopefully gain some of the muscle mass I’ve loss this year.

Speaking of goals, here are a few milestones I’m shooting for:

• Aug 1st – 212 lbs
• Sep 1st – 205 lbs
• Oct 1st – 197 lbs
• Nov 1st – 192 lbs

Those weight targets are while maintaining or even gaining some lean muscle mass, hence the slower drops.

And finally, I had to have a new look for the site to go with the new direction, something a little more simple and clean. Hope everyone likes it.

Final Message:

Setbacks and challenges will happen throughout life.  You can choose to dwell on them or you can pick yourself and push through them.