Upon returning from the trip it was just about time for the triathlon, and the preparations were all in place, I was fit as a fiddle. Although I must tell the funny stories of the trip home, first in the airport LAX someone thought I was Mickey Rourke, wanted an autograph and photo, I had to show my ID to prove I wasn’t. While I was quite flattered, they still wanted the photo and autograph in case I became famous. Hopefully they saw my commercial! Then the flight home, was an extremely turbulent one, the Midwest was full of tornadoes that season, and we felt it at 35,000 feet. Seated in the tail of the plane it was even more noticeable, as we made the approach for a pit stop in St. Louis due to lots of storms and circling Indianapolis awaiting a tornado to clear the area, the plane took a dip, a severe one at that, when we made the second crazy bounce the young lady seated next to me gripped my arm with the fiercest of grips, let out a scream and then a sigh of relief looked at me and said, OOOOHHH I’m so sorry, please don’t tell my husband he would be so mad, ha I asked if he was on the plane, she replied no, well I think your safe as I won’t be returning to LA for some time and I have no idea who your are, so it’ll be ok. Anyway, traveling has often been amusing, and always exciting.
The triathlon day was almost here, I had ran, I had biked, I had weight trained to build for the swimming as best that I could. Swimming was the weak point as I didn’t have a training facility for that, and its never been my strong point, I knew that and I was going with the mind over matter principle to get through it. I’ve always believed in the power of positive. I had to be on the road at 5 am to hit the race on time, I’m packing up my bike, when my father says to me, what are you going to do about swimming, you know you aren’t a swimmer? Well pops, I really hadn’t worried about that until now, now that you mentioned. It’ll be ok, I can get through don’t you worry about it.
I was going with the mind over matter. I've always believed in the power of positive
The race begins, and wow, what an adrenaline rush! I’m out in the water giving it my best, of course the triathlon club is passing me but I’m holding my own, at the 2/3<sup>rd</sup>s point all I see in my visualization is my father saying, hey you aren’t a swimmer, what are you going to do? I began to flounder, suddenly I wasn’t going anywhere, I paused and treaded water, and here comes the life raft. Oh no, this is not how I wanted this to go, they were ready to haul me in, and I asked for just a moment to clear my thoughts, shake out the negative and move on. Guess what? I finished the swim, and on to the biking, smooth transition. I love to bike, but man did the swim drain me, and right out of the gate I heard about ONE MILE HILL, I thought ok, I know of a subdivision called 4 mile hill so must be a landmark. I was wrong, as I turned the corner hit the highway that began ONE MILE HILL, it was ONE MILE STRAIGHT UP, I MEAN STRAIGHT UP! Ok maybe not straight but it was one large long hill I get over the top and find out my water bottle and supplement pack had fallen off, all I can think is surely they will have some water along the route, of which I thought WRONG! There wasn’t a bit of water on that bike run, not one! Not even a place to stop to buy some or beg but I made it, I caught people and passed several had my swim not been slower I wouldn’t have been that far behind, my goal wasn’t to ever really win anything but simply finish for the sake of saying I had done it, however now the competitive spirit hit me and I wanted more! Now it’s time to transition to the run, oh yeah, only 3.5 more miles but that’s ok, I can do this thing. THERE IS WATER! WOOHOO I NEEDED IT and someone had found my water bottle and supplement pack too and brought it to the station. Off to the run, there were 10 water locations in the 3.5 miles amazing enough, I hit every one of them. What amazed me most was the support of total strangers along the roadside, cheering us on approaching the finish line and various areas through the course. I think that’s what I loved most about it, was people encouraging people, unconditionally those people where excited in each individual athletes success! Yes, you are an athlete and you must think of yourself from this point as an athlete! I will talk more about this later as its very important to keep you on track from here on out!
The race is over, I won my age division for the 40-45 group and came in 3<sup>rd</sup> in the 35-40 group somehow I was in both since I hadn’t yet reached 40 but was within 30 days of my birthday. I finished that was my goal, and did it under 2 hours 45 minutes quite possibly 2:44 haha, but I finished. My heart rate monitor showed I burned in excess of 8000 calories and my body could tell. After the race I had the buffet of fruit, bagels, yogurts, cookies, water, more water and more bagels. Packed up the gear and left, after a wrong turn and detour of 30 minutes I was starving again, there was a Dairy Queen, it and a Blizzard called my name, as did a burger and it was great! Now I’m on the opposite side of Lafayette, Indiana 30 minutes later I’m on the east side and making my way home, and yes I’m hungry again, so two Big Macs called my name and now I can make the 45 minute drive home. 45 minutes and yes, I was starving again, and the Big Mac crave was on, I had 2 more and it was time for a shower and a nap. The shower felt amazing, the nap didn’t go that long and it was time for me to photograph a softball game, I prepped a healthy meal this time and off to work. The hunger was raging, the volunteer fire department was grilling burgers along the home team side, and I was downwind. I couldn’t resist I asked the guy how much, and he said 2 bucks, I said give me 3 man, I’ll be down between innings just add pickle and onion. The ballgame was great, I even grabbed a pizza on the way home! I deserved it, on the weigh in on Tuesday, I had lost 6 pounds and still felt great! Treat yourself once in a while, I had accomplished a goal, more on goals to come as we continue. (to be continued…..)
Candoit2.com is my journey from fit to fat to fit again, and again. I’ve had 8 years to look back on how I let myself fall from the fitness wagon, this has given me time to figure out where, and how I went wrong, and how I can do better this time. I know that I’m not the only person who’s ever struggled, this time I want to help others get back on track or simply start. January 9th, 2015 I officially committed to get fit, since then I’ve dropped 31 pounds and I’ve passed my International Sports Sciences Association Certified Fitness Trainer exam, and will be offering personal training services and more soon. Lots information and assistance will be coming to this site as well, progress photos, tips, recipes and family fit ideas as well. Be sure to subscribe and be the first to get the updates. Follow me on Twitter @LewCandoit2 for daily updates