Two years from couch potato to olympic distance triathlete

I figure it's time I made one of these here success posts. This is long, but if you're looking for motivation, I think you'll find it here.

In September 2012, after a number of incidents made me realize that I was on a very bad trajectory, I set out to turn my life around. At that time I was 220lb, I was 40+ percent body fat, my resting heart rate was 90+, my cholesterol was 250 and I got out of breath running for the bus. Things needed to change badly.

I started out by simply eating less. I wasn't tracking, I just reduced my intake. I started taking daily walks, at a pace that would leave me breathing heavy by the end of the walk.

In November, I started the couch to 5k running program on a treadmill. Man, was that hell. After that first 30 seconds of running I thought my heart was going to explode. But I persevered. On the days between running, I used the multi-gym machine at my community association gym. Oh how little I knew.

In December, I discovered MFP, and my diet approach become much more scientific. I started on a 1,000 deficit, but quickly switched to 500 when I realized it wasn't sustainable. I learned about macros. Soon I embraced IIFYM (seriously, guys, it's the way to go).

Fast forward to March 2013. I finished the C25k program, running a 5k in about 33 minutes on the treadmill. In May or June I started running outside. Rude awakening. Suddenly I couldn't run 5k anymore! At all! But I persevered. At this point I was trying to set a PR every time I went out running. Oh how little I knew. In October(ish) I started a proper running plan - intervals and stuff - and running really started to click with me. I ran in sun. I ran in rain. I ran in ice. I ran in snow. Over the next 9 months I would bring my 5k time down to below 23 minutes and my mile time down to 6m30. I brought my max distance up to 15km.

In about October of 2013, I started a proper barbell training regimen. Stronglifts 5x5, three times a week. What a difference that made. I suddenly realized I'd just been playing on the machine weights. I'm sure they helped, but they weren't where I needed to be. This was the real deal.

I started swimming. Suddenly, it was like being back to the C25k program all over again. But I persevered. I would swim as far as I could - often little more than 25 yards, rest, then do it again. And again. And again. I must have looked like a crazy person doing that for an hour. But eventually I could swim a mile without stopping.

In March of 2014 I bought a bike. I hadn't ridden a bike in 20 years. That thing scared me. You can guess how the bike training went - start small and work from there. 6 miles. 8 miles. 10 miles. 15, 20. By father's day I rode my first half century. Though that was a bad mistake. It exhausted me for about a week afterwards. Sometimes you can be too ambitious.

In May of 2014 I began specific training for an Olympic distance triathlon. Running three times a week. Swimming three times a week. Cycling three times a week. Weight lifting three times a week. My family forgot what I looked like. My friends are sick of Endomondo posts on Facebook. I'm pretty sure they'd like to shove a copy of the USAT rule book where the sun does not shine. But I persevered.

Then, just six days before the race - disaster! My first crash on the bike. I hit a patch of wet mud on the road and turned the bike over. Road rash and a nasty bruise on my hip. Bike was thankfully mostly undamaged. A trip to the doc and an x-ray confirmed that nothing was broken and doc grudgingly cleared me to race. Relief! The bike went into the shop and they checked it out and tuned it up. A new helmet was purchased.

And that brings us to yesterday. Race day. Ahead of me was a grueling 1500m swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run on a hot, humid Missouri day. It was hard. At times, I wanted to quit, especially during the run. But....



Pursue your goals. Don't make excuses. Do what you want to do in life, and don't let anything set you back. You can do this, if only you'd choose to.