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...