The journey of my "Midlife Crisis!"...part 3

So after the decision was made to put off Ironman for 12 months, I needed to find something to fill the gap that would still progress me along the path to the ultimate goal. It also had to be something that was significantly cheaper than Ironman to work in with the new reduced budget. After some digging I found the perfect event - being the Auckland Half Ironman based out of Kawakawa Bay. It would take place on 20 March 2010 meaning that the training I had been doing up until that point wouldn't have been wasted.At the same time, I entered the 2010 Rotorua Marathon for a second time as I had really enjoyed the event and I also wanted to see if I could break the four hour barrier.

People asked me at the time if it was hard to put off Ironman for a year and being truthful yeah I was disappointed as when I started on this journey I had 2010 fixed in my mind as the date for completion. But that said it was a joint decision and I totally understood and supported it. I was not going to be selfish and spend a considerable amount of money on something that could be easily used for something more practical and as R said the event wasn't going anywhere. She's a wise woman is my wife...

To partially compensate for not competing in Ironman 2010, G & I decided to go to Taupo anyway for Ironman weekend solely to enjoy the event and partake in the atmosphere. I'd been in his ear about what a great event it was after my spectating experience in 2008 and he was keen to come along to see it first hand. It was also a good opportunity for me - as part of my training for the Auckland Half Ironman - to run the actual Ironman course in Taupo in preparation for when I was going to participate in 2011. (great forward planning on my part!) So once again, I was on the shores of Lake Taupo before dawn watching the 1300 athletes taking off for a very long day. And once again, I had a really great day which reaffirmed my decision that I had to take part in this event.We stuck it out until the end and can lay claim to seeing every single person finish the course - from #1at 3pm through to #1300 just before midnight.

And then it was my turn...2 weeks later I was on the beach at Maraetai in Auckland contemplating the day ahead.

Auckland Half Ironman (2km swim, 90km bike, 21km run)
Maraetai Beach /  Kawakawa Bay
20 March 2010
Target Time - target was completion. Although I had a feeling if I did it right, it would be around 6 hours
Actual Time - 6:38:36

Weather was just right for this event with the sun out, not much wind, and the temperature about right for late summar. I came out of the swim 5 minutes ahead of my predicted time and I felt very good on the bike for the first 60km however from there started getting tricky as I ran out of water...which is a cardinal sin! Luckily they were giving out water bottles at the 65km mark so I quickly downed a bottle and carried on to the end of the bike. I was off the bike and starting the run just after the 4 hour mark meaning that a total time of 6 hours was very much on the cards, however after the first 3kms of the run I started getting stomach cramps and had to walk a fair bit of the first 10km. But I soldiered on and got to the finish with enough energy to jump over the finish line in an exaggerated fashion! And what topped it off was that Nathan & Riley were there to meet me...

Doing some digging post event, I figured out that the stomach cramps on the run was probably caused by me gunning down the bottle of water on the bike as it caused me to overhydrate. (There is a technical name for it but its got too many letters!) Another lesson learned...

So another tick in the box on the way to Ironman, and it was a fairly short turnaround until the next event - the Rotorua marathon 6 weeks later. I knew going into Rotorua that I was probably underdone in terms of specific running training and my longest training run was just over 21km - which was even less than what I'd done in 2009. I was banking on the endurance built up with training for the Half Ironman to get me through however I decided to take the pressure off myself and to forget about target times and purely do Rotorua for enjoyment. And to go along with that thought pattern I nearly didn't run marathon with a watch on...I said nearly as in the end I did run with a watch. I couldn't resist!

Rotorua Marathon 2010 (42.2km)
01 May 2010
Target Time: being honest, the only time I wanted to beat was my 2009 time (4h28)
Actual Time: 4.07.38

That I beat my previous time by 21 minutes by doing less training proved that if you train smarter, you don't necessarily need to train longer. Again, I had a really enjoyable day and I felt a greater sense of achievement in completing this marathon compared to 2009 because it showed that I was improving all the time and I knew in my mind that there was more still to come - that's because I'm a competitve sod!

After Rotorua, I did nothing for 3 months! And when I say nothing, I meant nothing! No running, no biking, no swimming...and it was good to do this!! The reason for this was that I'd been training and competing in events for almost 2 years solid and I felt that the time was right to take a decent break ahead of the intense training that would come ahead of Ironman - both physically and mentally. So I kicked back, spent a lot of time with the family, threw all the rules out the window in terms of eating & drinking, and basically became a "normal" person again!

Over those 3 months, there were 2 events of note and both occurred in mid-May.  The first was I officially entered Ironman 2011! Signed up, paid the hefty entry fee, and committed to the biggest challenge of my life! I was forced to make the decision to enter that early because for the first time ever, the event was going to sell out - the total number of entries is capped at 1500 and the most it had ever reached previously was 1300. However with an increase in interest from overseas, I had to enter early otherwise wait another year to do it...and there was no way I was going to do that! So I entered and I picked the right time to do it as 2 days later the event was fully sold out! Now there was no turning back...

The second event was that I discovered I was going to be a dad for the third time, with baby due in mid-February 2011. I was stoked but also a little concerned as baby was due 2 weeks before Ironman on 20 February...which in baby speak means that be 2 weeks either side of that date! (Luckily Isaac played ball and came 2 weeks early...)

So after my 3 month break I took the first steps towards Ironman by starting off with some short runs & bike rides. I soon learnt that even though I had been in great shape in May, it doesn't take long to lose that as by August I was stuggling on those very first runs. I had expected that so according to the plan I was following, the first month was going to be very easy as a means to ease my way back into it. And things tracking nicely until...

04 September 2010
It's a day that will doubly stand out for me as not only was it the day of the first big earthquake in Christchurch (I was born there so it was significant for me!) but it was also the day that the Ironman dream nearly got derailed permanently. This was the day that I got knocked off my bike and ended up with a broken right wrist. How this happened was that I was on a training ride around Clevedon in south Auckland and I was about 5km from finishing when as I was going through a roundabout I got clipped by a young fella in a souped up car who thought he could get through the roundabout ahead of me. (I did have the right of way). Next thing I knew I was flying, landed on my right wrist and slid along the road for a bit. There were a lot of people around to help me (a doctor, and off duty police detective) and I was soon in the back of an ambulance on my way to hospital. At first I didn't think it was too serious as nothing really hurt but the more time went on, my wrist started hurting a hell of a lot. Again I didn't think it was too serious as I could fully move all of my fingers so I was very surprised when they said it was broken and I possibly might have to have surgery. So after a night in hospital, I got the good news that no surgery was needed and my wrist would be in plaster for 6 weeks.

Now in the grand scheme of Ironman, taking 6 weeks out of my training schedule wasn't the end of the world as I was lucky (if I can use that word) the accident occurred when it did. If it had happened in November or December then it would have been a big deal, but as it happened in September I could afford the time off and not impact on my training plan too much. I would however need to get a new bike as my other one was totalled as a result of the accident, so a lot of time was spent on TradeMe over my enforced layoff.

Those 6 weeks dragged by and by the end of it I was itching to get out and do some exercise. I was driving R nuts being a passenger in the car when she drove me to work in the mornings, and I wasn't able to help out much with the boys. Working & sleeping was also difficult with a heavy plaster cast on but I slowly adjusted to it and I had been told that I would probably need physio on my wrist after the cast had come off. And so on October 15, the plaster came off! And to say I was happy was an understatement...a big one!

It also meant that training could resume for Ironman - albeit it slowly. I had purchased a new bike the week before and was itching to get out on it to give it a whirl.

The 20 week countdown to Ironman was on...

The journey of my "Midlife Crisis!"...part 2

Anyway a week after the 2009 Rotorua Marathon, I bought a bike. Off TradeMe and definitely not top of the line but as a starting point it was a good one. It had 2 wheels, a seat, 27 gears, and some carbon in it meaning it was pretty light. And it looked cool...haha!

Why so soon after the marathon? Well in my mind there was no need to muck around as the clock was ticking towards Ironman and as a vehicle for recovering after the marathon, jumping on a bike is a pretty good one as it's low impact on joints and keeps things moving. And in keeping with my way of entering events to stay motivated, I entered a couple of minor ones - a duathlon in Auckland in late June 09 and a cycle event around Cambridge in August. I picked these events as they eased me into using the bike as since my initial foray onto a bike back in August 08, I hadn't gone near one as I had focussed solely on running.

The duathlon in particular interested me as it was my first dipping of the toe into the water of multisport events. A standard duathlon is a run/bike/run and this one was fairly short - run 5km, bike 20km, run 2.5km. In my mind with all of the running training I'd done over the previous 9 months, I could get away with doing minimal run training and instead of focussing on getting used to riding a bike for longer periods. Strategy worked fairly well and on race day I'd only been for 4 training runs...which isn't much considering the marathon had been 8 weeks earlier!

Contact Duathlon Series Auckland (5km run, 20km bike, 2.5km run)
28 June 2009
Target Time - no idea whatsoever!
Actual time - 1.15.44
Body weight - no idea. I gave up counting after the Rotorua marathon

In what must have been an omen for my Ironman day, it chucked it down with rain that day! Not just showers but full on rain & wind...but I still really enjoyed it. That I came last in my age group (and overall there were only 6 people behind me) didn't bother me in the slightest.

After that, the running shoes were well and truly put away and weren't really touched for about 8 weeks as the focus really shifted to the bike. As I had done a lot of biking when I was younger, I was very comfortable in the saddle and didn't mind riding during the wind & rain early in the mornings - remembering that it was the middle of winter at that time. What amazed me was that when the conditions were at their worst, there were a ton of other nutters out there doing the same thing as me! I thought I was the only crazy one...

So onto Cambridge one weekend in mid-August for my first cycling event. Riding by yourself on the roads is one thing but it is something else to ride in a big bunch and as this was my first time doing that I was a bit nervous...OK quite a lot nervous. Reason for the nerves is that when you're in a group like that you always have to be watching what's going on around you as one slip could mean a lot of riders come off their bikes. There's also a certain etiquette about bunchriding like making sure you take your turn riding at the front - being at the front means you get hammered by the wind first and have to work harder whilst others behind you get an easier ride. In the end it's a quick learning curve and after a while you learn to relax and enjoy it!

Wakaroc Winter Ride Series - race 2 Cambridge (70km)
16 August 2009
Target time - honestly no idea however had between 2.45-3 hours in my mind
Actual time - officially...did not finish!

If I learnt anything from the ride was that riding in bunches really does make you go faster as for the first 56 kms, I was gunning it and on target for a finish time around 2.20hrs...but then I heard the sound that all cyclists dread which was air escaping from my tire as I ran over a piece of glass. It was also then I discovered that you need a decent pump as the one I had would not inflate my replacement tube. So without a means to pump my tire up, I had to sit on the side of the road and wait for the van that follows tail end charlie to come pick me up. Not impressed at all...and the first thing I did the following weekend was go out and buy a decent pump that worked!!

Post the race, I immediately entered the Lake Taupo cycle challenge at the end of November. Much in the same vein as the marathon in Rotorua, the Taupo cycle challenge offered the chance to really test whether I could cope with the demands of the Ironman bike leg. The distance was 160km and the course was pretty tough with a lot of hills for the first 100km and then the mother of all hills after 130km. It was also around this time that I was first told about a Half Ironman event in Cambridge in mid-November - 2 weeks before the Taupo cycle challenge. Doing a Half Ironman is a natural stepping stone to the full Ironman however what concerned me was the timing of the event to the Taupo cycle - which was my main focus - so I decided that I would do the Half Ironman in a team with me doing the swim & bike, and Roger doing the run. That way I could get a good feel for the Half Ironman but not destroy my legs totally prior to the Taupo event.

To really add to the busy schedule, I entered the Onehunga Half marathon at the end of September. With Ironman less than 7 months away, I was now having to not solely focus on one discipline but had to start mixing the training up to include all elements. This meant getting up at 5am and going swimming in the mornings at the Olympic Pools prior to work 2 mornings a week, and alternating to either run or bike during my lunch breaks at work. Then on the weekends I had to do a longish run and a longish bike ride...so yes it was becoming time consuming. But the results were showing...

Onehunga Half Marathon (21.1km)
27 September 2009
Target time - 1.53.18 (previous PB)
Actual time - 1.41.01 (new PB)

Shaving 12 minutes off your personal best doesn't happen that often so I was understandably very happy. It helps when you have a dead flat course and someone running with you who can help push you along (thanks Peter).

One of the key drivers throughout all of this was the satisfaction I felt when I reached mini targets. Running the PB in the Onehunga Half was one, the first time I swam 1km without stopping was another. It even got the stage that I was taking days off work so that I could cycle from Maramarua to Cambridge (115km) just so that I could say I had cycled over 100km for the first time! But it's these little things that keep you sane and keep you going because there are also bad days when you feel like nothing goes right or you're out there running and you feel like rubbish! The good/bad days are all part and parcel of putting yourself through this type of thing...and was in full evidence during the Karapiro Half Ironman.

Karapiro Half Ironman 2km swim, 90km bike, 21km run (I was only doing swim & run)
14 November 2009
Total team time - 6.09.48 (first in our age group so we got a medal...OK we were the only team in our group)
My times - 4.51.06

It was a bad day at the office...no other words for it. What didn't help matters was that on the Monday & Tuesday prior to the event, I was in bed with a vomitting bug meaning I wasn't eating and definintely not training. The lack of training I could probably get away with but the not eating will cause issues as one of the key components of doing an endurance event is making sure that the week prior to the event that you're eating things to help you ge through the event - lots of carbs specifically! Because I didn't eat anything for 2 days, I really paid for it on the Saturday. I got through the swim OK however when I got onto the bike there was no energy in the legs and it was a struggle. And to top it all off, I punctured about 10km from the bike finish...I think someone was telling me not to do any more events in Cambridge!! Luckily my pump worked this time and i was able to get moving pretty quickly. Probably the only positive I took away from the day was that even when I was really struggling, I knew in my mind that I was always going to complete it which showed me that the mental toughness was there.

Having such a bad day at Karapiro made me more determined to have a great day at the Taupo cycle challenge. Peter decided fairly late on that he was going to enter to keep me company and G came up from Wellington to cheer us on. So on the last Saturday in November, I lined up with 10,000 other cyclists for the biggest cycling event in the Southern Hemisphere.


Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge (160km)
28 November 2009
Target time - 6.00.00
Actual time - 5.41.39

Well...it was a great day! Weather conditions were perfect (drizzle and no wind) and I really enjoyed myself...although going up Hatepe Hill was tough and there were a few words spoken under my breath that can't be repeated here! I spent most of the ride in several bunches which meant that I was able to go for faster longer than I would have if I'd been by myself - however after Hatepe I was pretty much by myself until the finish. But I was very happy at the end to finish the distance and know that I could carry on for the extra 20km that would make up the Ironman bike distance - which again comes back to the mental side of Ironman. Remove the mental doubt about whether you can do the distance and you go a long way to reaching the goal of completing it.

Natually after Taupo I was very keen and ready to push on for Ironman - which was a little over 3 months later in March 2010. I hadn't entered at that stage as I wanted to be absolutely sure I could do it before I paid the substantial entry fee...over $750.00. After completing the Taupo cycle challenge, I was then in a position to say that I could do it so was ready to enter. However something occurred that I hadn't planned on with R being made redundant from her job with HRG/APX. Suddenly without the second income coming in, spending that amount of money to Ironman became a very low priority. So we both made the joint decision that I wouldn't be doing Ironman 2010 and would delay it for 12 months and instead do Ironman 2011.

Hindsight is a great thing...and with hindsight it turned out to be a very good decision!

The journey of my "Midlife Crisis!"...part 1

Having recently completed Ironman New Zealand, the question has been asked of me a lot of why I did it? What would drive me to attempt something that I had shown precisely zero interest in doing in the past? I vaguely knew about the Ironman in as much as that I knew there was a big race in Hawaii each year that was a big deal (the World Champs).
Having contemplated the question, I have come to the conclusion that this is a story that I should put into words - as it has been the all encompassing goal of mine for the past 3 years. And who knows it might inspire other people to step outside their comfort zone.

You hear countless stories of how people have accomplished major feats having shed a pile of weight so in that regard my story isn't unique...except for one thing. For a change it was me actually doing this and not just reading about it! And it is for that reason that I value this achievement so highly!

What is Ironman?
You tell people you're aiming for Ironman and the vast majority of them look at you and immediately think you're a body builder and wouldn't think of it as the longest endurance triathlon there is.

The specifics of it:
Swim - 3.8km
Bike - 180km
Run - 42.2km (the full marathon distance)

And all of this has to be achived in one day inside a 17 hour time limit. Sounds easy! haha

So, as with all stories, there is a beginning. And this is how mine began.

Taupo - March 2008

I find myself in Taupo on the first weekend in March to support my mate Hayden's brother who was entered into this event and had a shot at a decent time. Now I have to admit that my initial motivation for going was that it was a lads weekend away so a good opportunity to get on the lash (leaving pregnant wife & son at home) - as evidenced on the Friday night. But in the spirit of the weekend, I was down on the shores of Lake Taupo early Saturday morning to watch the mass start in the swim. What followed over the next 17 hours was a lot of standing around in the rain, positioning ourselves in good viewing spots to watch Bevan fly past. And as the day grew longer, the rain eased off and we found ourselves down at the finish line just after 10pm to watch the finishers coming in. (Bevan finished in just over 9 hours). The more I stood there, the more impressed I became with the types of people I was seeing finish as I was seeing all shapes, sizes, and ages crossing the line. I had it in my mind that with this sort of event, I would only see absolutely skinny uber-athletes with negative percentage body fat finishing however this couldn't be further from the truth. What stood out most for me was the image of a lady in her 50's struggling to finish - struggling so much that she could only walk 100 metres at a time before having to stop to rest because her body couldn't go on. It was past the midnight cut off so she was officially a non-finisher however it was the determination she showed to get to the line irrespective that inspired me to think...if she could do it, why can't I??

So I left Taupo with a new appreciation for the strength of human spirit and some vague thought about why didn't I give it a go. And that's how it stayed as a vague thought for quite some time because for the next 5 months, nothing changed. Part of me thought that it would be great to do but most of me was too lazy to get off my butt and do anything about it. I'd had these wild thoughts in the past and they'd passed however this one refused to go away and kept on nagging at me.

So on 21 August 2008, I decided to get on a bike and go for a ride. Not a long one (only 5km) but more than I had done on a bike for a long time. And I enjoyed it - so much that I did it again the next day. And then again on the weekend. And then the following week I decided to take the bike to work so that I could ride during my lunch break - a 13km circuit to Mission Bay. And this continued for several weeks and I really enjoyed it as it gave me a good distraction from work. Then I bought my first pair of running shoes.

It was this purchase that really solidifed in my mind that I was going to change my ways and get fit as spending the sum I did was a committment in my mind that I had to do it in order to justify the cost! I remember the guy behind the counter smiling when I said I was going to go out running tomorrow- as I'm sure he'd heard it all before from people of similar size to me. (And he was right as I didn't go out the next day...hey it was raining!).

So the journey began...

First run day - 15 September 2008.
Distance - 2.6km
Number of times I stopped - 3 times
Time taken - around 18 minutes
Body Weight - 107kg

They say that all journey's start with a small step and my one was fairly inauspicious, but the main thing was that it didn't deter me from keeping on doing it. I knew that I would have to drop a significant amount of weight in order to achieve what I wanted, so I adopted a smarter eating regime of cutting down portion sizes as opposed to cutting out foods completely - although unconsciously I cut back on the bad things. I knew that the changed eating habits along with the increased exercise would give me the desired result and in order to track that I started a spreadsheet that tracked my weight loss on a week by week basis. Having the results shown graphically was a great motivation for me as I always wanted to see that line keep going down so it made me eat healthily.

I had a 2 year plan to attempt Ironman NZ in 2010 but I knew that in order to maintain the motivation that I would have to have smaller targets over the intervening time to focus on. As Ironman is also a big mental thing, I had to be sure in my own mind that I could physically do the distances required. The  biggest unknown for me was running so my initial focus was on pounding the pavements - which also has the dual effect of being the best way to lose weight. My initial target was the Auckland Quarter Marathon (10.55km) in early November so I gradually increased my mileage from my initial distance to a point where my longest run prior to the event was 8 km. What complicated things was that 3 weeks prior I strained my calf muscle which meant I couldn't do much running for a week. But I got there...

Auckland Quarter Marathon (10.55km)

 2 November 2008
Target time - 1:00:00
Actual Time - 1:01:26
Body weight - 98kg

I came away from the event feeling both elated that I'd finished and slightly disappointed that I'd not gone under my target time of 1 hour - which is my competitive nature coming out. The overriding feeling was "great...what's the next event!"  This is commonly known as the runners high and showed that I was hooked!!

So hooked that the week after the Auckland Quarter Marathon I entered the 2009 Rotorua Marathon ...that is the full noise of 42.2km. My rationale for doing this was fairly sound (I thought) in that if I entered an event 7 months out from it, the fact that I'd paid my money would mean the motivation would not waver. Well I hoped...

Training continued over Christmas and into the New Year (2009) with the volume and length of runs getting higher. Training over the festive season was hard as it was difficult to resist the food...and beer...and more food...but I was able to relax my eatting a little as long as I kept the training volume up. Before I knew it, my next challenge was before me - my first half marathon.

Cathay Pacific Half Marathon (21.1km)
22 February 2009
Target time - 2:00:00

Actual Time - 1:53:18
Body weight - 85kg

That I completed this event 7 minutes under target gave me a great boost. But I also came away knowing that in order for me to complete Rotorua 10 weeks later, a lot more hard work was needed. I say that because I got to the end and I was spent...I could not have gone on much further. So over those 10 weeks, I aimed to do several runs up to a maximum 35km in length in order to get used to the distance...unfortunately the best laid plans don't ways come together and this was the case for me. Not helped by me whacking my knee into a door frame, the longest run I was able to achieve was 25km in length - which I wasn't sure would be long enough. And so it transpired on marathon day...

Rotorua Marathon (42.2km)
02 May 2009
Target time - 4:00:00 (not a hard & fast target...first aim was to finish)

Actual Time - 4:28:09
Body weight - 79kg

For the first half of the run, I felt really good. The first 21km were completed in a time similar to my time in the Cathay Half (1.54) but the second half is where it really started to hurt - especially from the 26km mark. This is where the second of the 2 big hills on the course starts and unlike the first one which is short and sharp, this one is long and gradual and after you've run that far already it hurts! The result of that was that from 26km onwards I was walking a fair bit and it was at this point where the lack of really long training runs showed. I ran the last 3km (39-42km) as I was determined not to walk across the line and when I reached the finish chute it was great feeling of elation...and I got to carry N across the finish line! Suffice to say that the body was sore the next day, but the sense of achievement was very much there - going from no running to marathon finisher in 9 months was a big achievement!

And with that, part one of the "mental" training was done. I now knew I could run the marathon distance...next thing I needed to do was to buy a bike!!

And that's the next chapter...