ON THE ROAD TO FITNESS
Back in 2000 I planned a trip to the Grand Canyon. There, my son Zack & I would take the famous mule ride half way down and back on the Bright Angel Trail. In researching the ride I found there was a weigh limit – 200 pounds. I don’t know if they thought the mule would collapse if it’s rider weighed more than that, or would just throw its top heavy passenger down the steep canyon wall. Anyway, I weighed 205 pounds—5 over the limit—so I went on a diet for the couple of weeks until the trip.
The afternoon before our scheduled ride I showed up at the scales. I didn’t eat anything for breakfast or lunch. I got on the scale—199 pounds—I could ride the mule! Well, that little diet started me thinking that at age 57 maybe I should lose some weight and start exercising since I was totally out of shape. A week later, back at home, I began to jog a little, starting off at a mile twice a week. Plus I tightened and oiled the chain and pumped air into the tires of my old mountain bike. I lived in Incline Village Nevada at the time and as the name suggests the town is built on an incline straight up from Lake Tahoe at 6200 feet to some 8,000 feet. I began riding my bike up and down the streets, up and down the hill, starting at 15 minutes per ride, again twice a week.
After just a couple of weeks I began to feel a change. I’d come to dig the exercise—I was enjoying doing something for myself. I slowly lengthened my jogging and biking distances. I ran along a fairly flat street that paralleled the lake and within two months I was up to six miles, which took me an hour not counting the 5-minute walking break I took after the first three miles. And I bought a bike computer for $20 that read my miles and speed and time and in those same couple of months got to 15 miles distance in about an hour. I was going up the hill at 6mph or less but down at 25mph or more. Now, I was spending four hours per week exercising outdoors. That was in the fall of 2000. But this was in the mountains and by November the snows came. I could still time my runs in the sun between snowstorms even though the streets were a little icy. But it wasn’t much fun riding my bike in the snow and ice. Then another great sport caught my attention—cross-country skiing. I had done it in the past and it was easy to pick up again. Plus, Incline had it’s own cross-country system of trails just up the Mount Rose Highway from my house. And it was free to Incline Village residents! Thus I substituted an hour of skiing twice a week for the twice a week biking.
I even began losing some weight. I don’t think it was so much from the exercising but as I developed my fitness routine, I also—without consciously planning it—began to eat better. I stopped drinking sodas and candy bars every day. But I did add a second cup of coffee in the morning and another at lunchtime and added apples and bananas into my menu. Over the next couple of years I slowly drifted down to 180 pounds.
In 2003 I became interested in trying a triathlon. I’d been hearing about them for years. I knew they included Ironman events –which looked impossible to do especially at my age of 60. The Olympic distance also looked beyond my abilities. But there were so-called “sprint” triathlons that looked at least possible. I was already jogging further than the 3 mile run and biking further than the 15 mile ride. However, even the sprint included a swim—some 500 meters or more in a lake or river or swimming pool. And I’m a lousy swimmer! But I signed up for a sprint event in September in Sacramento. I started swimming a couple of times a week at the Incline pool and slowly added on laps until I reached 20—or 500 meters. My crawl stroke was terrible; I could actually go faster using the breaststroke. It took me half an hour to just do the 20 laps.
Unfortunately I pulled a calf muscle and dropped out of that triathlon. I healed and signed up again for one in June 2004. This time I sprained my knee. Obviously, I wasn’t that committed to doing a triathlon or I would have taken better care of myself. Still, I signed up again for the June 2005 Tri for Fun Triathlon at Rancho Seco south of Sacramento. It seemed weird holding it next to the twin cooling towers of a decommissioned nuclear power plant. But no pulls or strains this time. I showed up.
The triathlon began with a half-mile swim in Rancho Seco Lake. Wetsuits were allowed but I didn’t have one. I jumped in and got used to the 70-degree water after a couple of minutes. Some 30 minutes later I crawled up on the beach and walked (others were running) to the transition area and my bike.
Most of the other participants had road bikes. All I had was my old mountain bike. I mounted it and rode for 16 miles, 8 miles back and forth along a state highway. The 3-mile run was along fire roads and trails within the park.
I stuck around to see how I did and couldn’t believe I came in first in my age division (60-64 year old men). Of course, there were only three of us in this division but I didn’t care. I began packing up my gear and wondered what had happened to my bike shorts. A while later at my car, I changed clothes and found that I’d been so nervous about the events that I’d put my running shorts on over my bike shorts (and ran the three miles with them on!). Such was that first triathlon.
David, my oldest son, and Jennifer, my daughter, surprised me with a Motobecane road bike for my birthday that year. So I signed up for a second triathlon, this time in Sacramento proper. I was faster because of my new bike but came in fourth this time. Still, this triathlon thing was a blast. And regular swimming, biking and running kept me in good cardio shape. Plus I continued my twice a week yoga class, which was great for balance. I wasn’t ready for strength work yet.
I moved to Atascadero California in 2006 and participated in one or two sprint triathlons a year in the area for the next three years. Finally by 2009 I felt I could step up to an Olympic distance event and chose the Wildflower Triathlon at Lake San Antonio in southern Monterey County the first Sunday in May. My son David, then age 39, said he would do it with me so we trained for several months (separately, because he lives in San Jose.) We arrived at the lake the day before our Sunday event and camped out in one of the lake’s campsites. However, the Wildflower Long Triathlon (1.2 miles swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run) had been held earlier that day and there were maybe 500 happy finishers of the race that stuck around and partied into the night. Fortunately, we’d heard that would happen and had brought some jackhammer-strength earmuffs and were able to sleep. That Olympic triathlon was great fun. We both finished the 1500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and 10 kilometer run in the middle of our age groups, although Dave finished it in much better time than I.
I continued participating in the Wildflower most years after this on through 2015. And added on the Carpinteria Olympic and the Santa Barbara Long (1 mile swim, 34 mile bike ride, 10 mile run).
In 2014 I moved to Ojai and the next year to nearby Ventura. I kept joining in triathlons but now wanted to try a different competition. I signed up for the Ventura Half Marathon to be held in September 2014. Well, it seems that every time I try something new I some how injure myself before the event—this time I pulled a calf muscle the week before the half marathon. The event director was great—he gave me a credit for the next year. So, I ran it in September 2105—but not without incident! Just as I was rounding a cone at the halfway point, a motorcycle policeman came roaring towards the path. I jumped out of the way, stepped too close to the cone, tripped over it, fell on my knee and began gushing blood. I told the volunteer who ran over to me that it was “nothing” but she insisted on bandaging me up. I lost a good five minutes there and didn’t run as fast going back as I would have liked. Still I did finish—even though it took me nearly three hours.
In December 2015 I gave myself a big Christmas present. I signed up for the Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz to be held in September 2016. The 70.3 includes a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. So it’s a half Ironman, the full being twice each distance and adding up to 140.6. I felt comfortable signing up for it nine months in advance because I opted for the insurance plan they offered which would refund most of the fees in case I got injured or came down sick.
I began my training program in February slowly increasing my distances running, biking and swimming. I ran in the Ventura Breath of Life Olympic Triathlon in June, coming in second in my age class, and the Shoreline Half Marathon in Ventura in July, again coming in second in my age division. The ocean swim portion of the Santa Cruz 70.3 is around the huge Santa Cruz Wharf. By chance, my family reunion was at a campground near Santa Cruz the last weekend in July. And by chance, there was the annual “Roughwater 1 Mile Swim” race around the wharf the Saturday of our trip. This was a golden opportunity to practice my swim portion of the half ironman under competitive conditions and I signed up. I finished the mile race in 50 minutes. So, I figured I could finish the 1.2-mile swim (which begins further down the beach from the wharf and stretches out past the wharf to make the 1.2 distance) in 60 minutes, slow but satisfactory to me. There’s a time limit of 70 minutes in the swim portion of Half Ironman events. If I took longer I’d be disqualified. (So, I could be out of the competition before it hardly began!)
Back home, I bit the bullet and bought a triathlon bike, a Cervelo P2. The man I bought it from had bought it new in January for $2700 including upgrades, had raced in the Oceanside 70.3 Ironman, and sold it to me for $2,000. It was now only a month to the big triathlon. I worked to get comfortable using the aero bars on this bike, but can’t say I ever did, only bending into “aero position” half the time. But I upped my bike rides to two 50-mile journeys per week. And I kept running 10-12 miles once a week and a shorter distance once a week and swam in the Ventura Harbor in my wetsuit for an hour or more three times a week. (I was still very worried about finishing under the time limit.)
Then came the weekend. On Saturday I drove to Santa Cruz and the site, Depot Park, and picked up my packet. I pumped up my tires and left my bike in the transition area. Then I got back in my truck and drove the bike portion of the course including the one long and steep hill climb I’d read about. That evening I took a sleeping pill and went to bed in my motel room at 8:00. I got up the next morning at 4:00, ate a breakfast of granola, yogurt and two cups of coffee and drove down to the site.
As usual, it took a long time for me to get into my wet suit because either it has shrunk or I’ve grown. I need to replace it but don’t want to spend the bucks to get a better one. Along with 2,000 other entrants, I walked down to Main Beach east of the wharf.
At 7:00 the race began and about half an hour later came my age group’s turn. The water was choppy but I just swam and swam clear out past the wharf, turned right for about a block and then back along the other side to Cowell’s Beach west of the wharf. I only stopped to catch my breath a couple of times, but it still took me 64 minutes. Yet that was six minutes to spare from the time limit so I was thrilled. I waddled back to the transition area two blocks away, jumped on my bike and headed north and out of town along California Highway 1. The weather was perfect, foggy and cool. But I was nervous, hoping I wouldn’t have a flat, hoping my chain wouldn’t drop lose. In fact I was so apprehensive I rode the entire 56 miles in my small front chain ring. I’m sure if I’d changed rings when needed and rode harder I would have finished that portion with much better than my 3 hours 46 minutes. But it was good enough for me! Off the bike, I changed shoes and began the run. I was a bit wobbly at first, but then got into a pace. After ten miles I finally began to feel that I would finish under the 8 hour 30 minute time limit for the complete race and could afford a pee break. I ended up running the 13.1 miles in exactly 3 hours. But I was the happiest guy on earth when I heard my name over the loudspeaker as I finished on the beach in front of the main stage at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. My total time, including transitions, was 8 hours 15 minutes—15 minutes under the maximum time limit. I came in third in my age division (70-74). Of course, there were only four of us competing in that division!
In December I ran the Santa to the Sea half marathon in Oxnard and in January decided I’d like to try running a full marathon in 2017. I signed up for the Mountains 2 Beach Marathon that winds around the town of Ojai then down the Ventura River Valley to and around the city of Ventura. It wasn’t until May 28th so I had plenty of time to train. And since I had just recently finished a half marathon I had a head start. Week after week, I kept on adding miles. I did have to take a break for a week with a bruised heel and another week for the flu (first time I caught it since I was a kid). By following a method suggested in the book Marathon You Can Do It by Jeff Galloway, I’d jog for 9 minutes, and then walk for 3, repeated over and over. It was rather easy to add on the miles and by the first week in May I actually ran 26.2. It took me 5-1/2 hours but at least I knew I could do it.
Also in the first weeks of May I started a class at the Ventura YMCA called Body Pump by Les Mills. It consists of 60 minutes of using weights, dumbbells and one’s own body (with a coach, and set to music) to perform some 800 reps. A great workout! However, the Tuesday before my marathon I developed a shin splint. Somehow, between the running and the movements in the class I wasn’t treating my body right and AGAIN I had to withdraw from a first-time event! But now, besides regular walk breaks, I’m following a new way of moving developed by Danny Dreyer called Chi Running, which I’ll tell you about in a future blog. And I’ve signed up for the Ventura Marathon on October 22. I’m back to running longer each week and this time I’m determined to finish!