Goals are important.
How important are they? You might
want to ask Andres Cantor, because he thinks that goals are a very big deal.
Just under five months ago, I set three goals for my triathlon experience, (i) to raise $3,333.33 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, (ii) to lose 33 pounds, and (iii) to complete the Westchester Triathlon in 3:33:33. Today, three and a little more than half a day before I compete in my first triathlon, I have a goal update for all of you. Just as a warning, in three sentences I will be making a blatant appeal for you to donate a couple of dollars to LLS. But, don’t worry, I am only $130 short of my goal (for those of you who are math gurus and have looked at my donations page and see that it appears as if I am $180 short, you are right about that, but I have sent in a $50 check that still has to be processed; thus, I am only $130 away from my goal). So, are you prepared for what I hope is going to be my most blatant and, hopefully, final request for your generosity? Here it is: Please support my five-month-long (very painful and time consuming!) triathlon training by clicking here and donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If for some reason you were about to donate and see that I already reached $3,333.33 don’t put your credit card and mouse away – keep typing and clicking and give to a very important cause. Thank you, again, to everyone who has already donated!
Ok, enough about you and your money… it’s time for me to look in the mirror and see where I am at in terms of my weight and race-time goals. Let’s start with weight…
I will save my explanations, disclaimers and caveats for later in the paragraph, and I will just come out and say that I have not met my goal of losing 33 pounds. I have lost 20 pounds and my before-and-after pictures (yes, I have them; no, I am not posting them) are significantly different. One major contributing factor to my failure to reach my stated weight-loss goal was that weight loss became a secondary focus about two months into my training (here is that explanation-disclaimer-caveat section that I was talking about). I was coming home from trainings sore, tired and all-sorts-of-grumpy, and the feeling persisted throughout the day and sometimes into the next day. I asked a friend of mine, who happens to be very knowledgeable about the subject of sports nutrition, about why I was feeling so dead. He asked me about my nutrition, training, etc. In short order, he explained that in my effort to lose weight, I was driving my body crazy. After a long, strenuous workout, my body was craving protein and carbohydrates, for the repair and rebuilding of muscle structure. Salad was not cutting it, so my body was going after any and all protein that it could find, including what was available in my muscle fiber, etc. So, while I was losing weight, I was also losing muscle and, because useful protein was not easily available when it was needed, I was also failing to build as much new muscle as I could have been. As you might guess, after that I changed my diet, adding calories (good calories) and a lot more protein, I stopped losing weight at a fast rate. While I hate to whiff on a goal, I am confident that I made the right decision to move off of my weight loss goal… and for those of you who read my previous blogs, I do fit into my little black dress (for those of you who have not been reading my blogs and have no idea what “my little black dress” is, PLEASE, read this post before coming to any conclusions.
Don’t worry, though, I have some good news! Taking a (boring) trip back in time, I picked the 3:33:33 time goal to keep in line with my theme of “3” (then again, so was my 33 pound goal, but let’s forget that for a minute). To be perfectly honest, I had a real personal goal of finishing the race in 3:15, which was based on the times of friends who I knew who had completed the triathlon last year, and the fact that my asthma is usually at its worst in September because of my allergies. Flash forward back to today, and I can tell you that my strategy to gain muscle vs. lose weight has paid off, I think. I am pretty confident that I will finish the triathlon in under 3:15, but I am going to go a step further and I am going to say something stupid, which I think I will regret…
Here goes…
In honor of everyone who has donated to LLS in support of my training, and as a penalty for not dropping all 33 pounds, and ONLY if I get another $130 in donations so that I reach the $3,333.33 goal (have I lost you yet?)… drum roll please… Then, I will work my tail off to finish the triathlon in less than 3 hours (this is assuming that we have dry race course conditions – if the roads are wet, I am going to slow down on my bike and stay safe, meaning all bets are off).
You might be thinking, “Three hours, big deal!” So, here is some context. No first-time triathlon runner from Skippy’s Team finished the triathlon in less than three hours, last year. I believe that the fastest time was around three hours and ten minutes. Keep in mind that last year’s Skippy’s Team included people who have ran marathons, half-marathons and have trained for and competed in endurance events prior to participating in the Westchester Triathlon. I have NEVER competed in an endurance event... and have I mentioned my asthma (have I ever failed to mention my asthma?). Furthermore, based on my current timing (:36 swim, 1:28 bike, :58 run + :08 total transition time), I am looking at a 3:10 race time – and I have never completed all three events back-to-back-to-back in training, so 3:10 is purely theoretical. What that means is beating a 3:00 time will require a lot of adrenaline, luck and some pain, too – but, I am going to go for it.
So, in what will probably be my final pre-race blog post, I want to thank all of you for racing alongside me, supporting me and laughing at me. This has been an amazing experience and I thank all of you for being a part of it. See y’all at the finish line!
P.S. – The real reason why I need to finish in less than 3 hours is Richard Cantor, of Scarsdale, a man who I have never met. I need to finish the triathlon in a sub-3 hour time because I need to finish the triathlon faster than Richard Cantor. Why do I care about finishing before Richard Cantor? Well, last year, at age 67, Richard finished the Westchester triathlon in 2:55. So while I’ve resigned myself to the fact that, at age 34, I am going to get crushed by a bunch of 40 year-olds, smoked by a plethora of 50 year-olds and beaten by a handful of men in their early 60’s. However, if I can’t swim, bike and run faster than all the 65+ year-old men… well, that means that I just need to work harder. Good luck Rich!!! I am gunning for you! Oh yeah, did I mention that if I finish in over 3:05, I will be in danger of having a slower race time than 76 year-old John Cook, of Stanford, Connecticut, who finished last year’s triathlon, at age 75 in 3:04. Truly, awe inspiring!
Just under five months ago, I set three goals for my triathlon experience, (i) to raise $3,333.33 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, (ii) to lose 33 pounds, and (iii) to complete the Westchester Triathlon in 3:33:33. Today, three and a little more than half a day before I compete in my first triathlon, I have a goal update for all of you. Just as a warning, in three sentences I will be making a blatant appeal for you to donate a couple of dollars to LLS. But, don’t worry, I am only $130 short of my goal (for those of you who are math gurus and have looked at my donations page and see that it appears as if I am $180 short, you are right about that, but I have sent in a $50 check that still has to be processed; thus, I am only $130 away from my goal). So, are you prepared for what I hope is going to be my most blatant and, hopefully, final request for your generosity? Here it is: Please support my five-month-long (very painful and time consuming!) triathlon training by clicking here and donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If for some reason you were about to donate and see that I already reached $3,333.33 don’t put your credit card and mouse away – keep typing and clicking and give to a very important cause. Thank you, again, to everyone who has already donated!
Ok, enough about you and your money… it’s time for me to look in the mirror and see where I am at in terms of my weight and race-time goals. Let’s start with weight…
I will save my explanations, disclaimers and caveats for later in the paragraph, and I will just come out and say that I have not met my goal of losing 33 pounds. I have lost 20 pounds and my before-and-after pictures (yes, I have them; no, I am not posting them) are significantly different. One major contributing factor to my failure to reach my stated weight-loss goal was that weight loss became a secondary focus about two months into my training (here is that explanation-disclaimer-caveat section that I was talking about). I was coming home from trainings sore, tired and all-sorts-of-grumpy, and the feeling persisted throughout the day and sometimes into the next day. I asked a friend of mine, who happens to be very knowledgeable about the subject of sports nutrition, about why I was feeling so dead. He asked me about my nutrition, training, etc. In short order, he explained that in my effort to lose weight, I was driving my body crazy. After a long, strenuous workout, my body was craving protein and carbohydrates, for the repair and rebuilding of muscle structure. Salad was not cutting it, so my body was going after any and all protein that it could find, including what was available in my muscle fiber, etc. So, while I was losing weight, I was also losing muscle and, because useful protein was not easily available when it was needed, I was also failing to build as much new muscle as I could have been. As you might guess, after that I changed my diet, adding calories (good calories) and a lot more protein, I stopped losing weight at a fast rate. While I hate to whiff on a goal, I am confident that I made the right decision to move off of my weight loss goal… and for those of you who read my previous blogs, I do fit into my little black dress (for those of you who have not been reading my blogs and have no idea what “my little black dress” is, PLEASE, read this post before coming to any conclusions.
Don’t worry, though, I have some good news! Taking a (boring) trip back in time, I picked the 3:33:33 time goal to keep in line with my theme of “3” (then again, so was my 33 pound goal, but let’s forget that for a minute). To be perfectly honest, I had a real personal goal of finishing the race in 3:15, which was based on the times of friends who I knew who had completed the triathlon last year, and the fact that my asthma is usually at its worst in September because of my allergies. Flash forward back to today, and I can tell you that my strategy to gain muscle vs. lose weight has paid off, I think. I am pretty confident that I will finish the triathlon in under 3:15, but I am going to go a step further and I am going to say something stupid, which I think I will regret…
Here goes…
In honor of everyone who has donated to LLS in support of my training, and as a penalty for not dropping all 33 pounds, and ONLY if I get another $130 in donations so that I reach the $3,333.33 goal (have I lost you yet?)… drum roll please… Then, I will work my tail off to finish the triathlon in less than 3 hours (this is assuming that we have dry race course conditions – if the roads are wet, I am going to slow down on my bike and stay safe, meaning all bets are off).
You might be thinking, “Three hours, big deal!” So, here is some context. No first-time triathlon runner from Skippy’s Team finished the triathlon in less than three hours, last year. I believe that the fastest time was around three hours and ten minutes. Keep in mind that last year’s Skippy’s Team included people who have ran marathons, half-marathons and have trained for and competed in endurance events prior to participating in the Westchester Triathlon. I have NEVER competed in an endurance event... and have I mentioned my asthma (have I ever failed to mention my asthma?). Furthermore, based on my current timing (:36 swim, 1:28 bike, :58 run + :08 total transition time), I am looking at a 3:10 race time – and I have never completed all three events back-to-back-to-back in training, so 3:10 is purely theoretical. What that means is beating a 3:00 time will require a lot of adrenaline, luck and some pain, too – but, I am going to go for it.
So, in what will probably be my final pre-race blog post, I want to thank all of you for racing alongside me, supporting me and laughing at me. This has been an amazing experience and I thank all of you for being a part of it. See y’all at the finish line!
P.S. – The real reason why I need to finish in less than 3 hours is Richard Cantor, of Scarsdale, a man who I have never met. I need to finish the triathlon in a sub-3 hour time because I need to finish the triathlon faster than Richard Cantor. Why do I care about finishing before Richard Cantor? Well, last year, at age 67, Richard finished the Westchester triathlon in 2:55. So while I’ve resigned myself to the fact that, at age 34, I am going to get crushed by a bunch of 40 year-olds, smoked by a plethora of 50 year-olds and beaten by a handful of men in their early 60’s. However, if I can’t swim, bike and run faster than all the 65+ year-old men… well, that means that I just need to work harder. Good luck Rich!!! I am gunning for you! Oh yeah, did I mention that if I finish in over 3:05, I will be in danger of having a slower race time than 76 year-old John Cook, of Stanford, Connecticut, who finished last year’s triathlon, at age 75 in 3:04. Truly, awe inspiring!
No comments:
Post a Comment