Monday, August 25, 2014

So it begins...

So I am going to say this before I begin. I'm not 100% sure why I am writing this. I'm not a particularly great writer that will be able to keep people riveted and coming back asking for more with each passing week. I'm not really in need of any additional attention, above and beyond what I already receive from my family, friends and work. So the only thing I can gather is one of two things, or maybe both.

1. Maybe I just need to put into writing all of the changes taking place in my life, both physical and mental.

And/Or

2. Maybe in some unknown way I am seeking feedback from people who have experienced similar things or have done the things I am aspiring to do.

So, with all that being said I don't want to drag this on too long. I can already hear groaning from the few people that have decided to read this babble of mine.

Long story short, I have always been a big strong guy. There were no endurance sports in my daily activities,  it was always how strong am I and how much weight can I push around. I was never overly concerned with health either. My close to 15 years of smoking can attest to that. So, I was a big strong guy who LOVED to smoke. They don't go hand in hand really. But, moving on, as time went on and life got busier (work, kids, life in general) the big strong guy who loved to smoke transformed into a big fat guy who loved to smoke. Then in February I got shoulder surgery that was long overdue and before you know I am sitting in my Doctor's office in March as a 279 lb smoker who is out of shape with extremely high blood pressure. Now, due to my natural worry wart personality I am in a full blown panic and not sure why. I should have seen this happening, it's not like it took place over night. But the worst is running through my mind, thoughts of dying young and leaving my kids fatherless,  all while missing every important milestone in their precious lives. Leaving my wife to habdle all of it on her own. Change NEEDS to happen now, no more excuses.

Well, first things first I decided that I needed to quit smoking and get on a basic diet. Sounds easy, right? I've told myself these things before to no avail.  But, the light switch flipped this time. I managed to quit smoking and get on a basic low carb diet to get this thing started the right way. I started doing some general bike riding to aid the weight loss effort. And it is all working, I was able to start losing weight while quitting smoking. 5, 10, 15 pounds, the weight was just falling off of me. Now this is where things take a curious turn.

As I mentioned before endurance sports were never part of my vocabulary.  But all of the sudden I get a strange urge to start bicycling longer distances, and even more appalling I had a desire to go out and run?!!? Where is this coming from? I just kept telling my self that I must be in some weird state of euphoria because I can breath while performing my normal everyday tasks. But it wasn't,  I could not shake these urges. So after doing some shopping for basic supplies and downloading some cool running and biking GPS apps I was ready to go.

So, till next time here is an update of where I am currently.  I have lost 35 pounds and September 4th will be 5 months smoke free. I have signed up to Bike 30 miles on September 20 and to run my first 5k on November 2. So I am following some training programs, for running I am doing the Couch to 5k thing that seems to be very popular,  and taking things one step at a time because this is all very new to me. I have also set my first big goal of completing a Sprint Triathlon this coming spring.  So, I will keep everyone updated with my progress and any feedback from experienced runners, bikers, or triathletes would be greatly appreciated.  But I will definitely keep everyone informed of what seems to work and not work along the way.

Thanks for reading everyone!