Steve Speaks!!

So, let me say first off that the only part of this blog that Catherine contributed to was the title…she thought it was funny since I haven’t blogged as of yet. So here I am, the other half of a wonderful whole. I have to say she is the most beautiful and wonderful woman and person I have ever known. She is my best friend and now she is also my evil coach.

In January of this year I made one of those New Year’s resolutions that usually last a few months for some people. Now, I am a goals driven person. I can’t seem to function well without making a list of things that I need to do. In fact, I have lists for everything. Writing this blog entry is somewhere on a list. I used to judge how my day went by the number of items that I checked off. I slowly got over that but still use my lists because I have that mental disease called CRS…Can’t Remember Squat. But I digress from the resolution issue. After three years of watching my wife compete in triathlons culminating in her Ironman last year, I started having delusions that I might be able to follow her into competing. This was totally out of character for me since I am not normally a competitive person. I am not a couch potato by any means. I spent seven years in the Marine Corps and learned how to keep myself in a somewhat state of physical fitness. At almost 50 years old I can still pass a Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (PFT)…for a 17 year old. Still, competitiveness is not one of my traits. Catherine on the other hand has enough competitiveness for both of us…plus the rest of the neighborhood. I’m digressing again…

So, I decided I wanted to do something different with my fitness routine. I was already running, although most of my running had been on the treadmill where I could watch my favorite history stories. I thought that I could take this one notch up and start riding a bike. Hummm, let’s see…running and biking. Isn’t that a duathlon? Could I possibly train for one of these races and hope to finish? Naturally I put it on a list for an item to accomplish this year. OK, now I need to train for this duathlon. Who do I know that can help me? Catherine!!!! She knows all about training. I’ve watched and heard her talk about training ad nauseum for 3 years now. So at the beginning of the year as a New Year’s resolution I put on a list the goal of completing a duathlon. And I asked my wife if she would coach me. When I asked her I thought I had said something terribly wrong by the look on her face. It was a cross between shock, crying, disbelief and devilish mischief. She looked out the window and said “I think I see a pig with wings”. Actually the devilish mischief look was to come later. She looked at me for a long time to see if I was joking… I can’t hold a straight face at all (terrible poker player). When I didn’t start laughing she asked me “Are you SURE you want to do this? This takes time and lots of work.” The rubbing of her hands and cackling in the back ground reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. I was suddenly very afraid of what I was asking for.

I could say that my attitude about training has been 100 percent positive for the past eight months but that would be a stinking lie. In fact, I’m right now even griping about writing this blog because it takes so much time away from my history stories. But I have reluctantly listened to my coach for her training wisdom, persevered through her training regiment for me, and actually have seen a lot of improvement. Thank you honey! I can now ride a bike without feeling like I’ve gone numb in the lower half of my body. I have run faster then I ever have in my life. And I feel accomplishment after a sweaty workout. I am in better shape now than I was 31 years ago when I was in the Marine Corps. In fact, I was in the middle of boot camp 31 years ago. I weighed 113 pounds when I went in and 125 when I came out. Now at 160 pounds I can run a mile under 8 minutes. I never did that before.

So… I made a training goals sheet that had my races on them starting in March. I ran the St. Patrick’s Day 5-mile race downtown in St. Louis. Then April was my first DU in Columbia, MO. It was a 2.5 mile run, a 15 mile bike ride, and a 2.5 mile run. Next was May 10 and the Neoga DU of 2 mile run, 14.75 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run. Then Hillsboro, IL biathlon - a 5 mile run and a 20 mile bike. Last has been the August 3 MattoonMan DU of 3.1 mile run, 24.8 mile bike and 6.2 mile run.

Here is what I have learned so far:

1) Read about the sport if you are really serious
2) Wear proper clothing (cotton is rotten)
3) If you don’t use Glide you’ll ruin your shirt (think number “11”)
4) There are worse hills than St. Louis
5) Double knot your shoelaces
6) If you use toe cages on your bike, tuck your shoelaces in (chain rings love to eat them)
7) Rain in a blowing wind feels good. Cold blowing rain while doing 20mph into it hurts
8) It still feels good to finish near last, because you finished
9) Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate
10) A coach (even your wife) still wants to you to do your best
11) A loud ping is not a rock hitting your wheel, it’s a spoke breaking

I could go on with more things I’ve learned but it’s late and my coach tells me I have a 45 minute run in the morning before work. So I must wrap this up and head off to bed. I have already accomplished my goal of completing a DU and surviving. I actually have the desire to keep going and improve myself and my times. One step, one pedal, and one kick at a time. I may get into the pool eventually and turn this into a true TRI but that will be another story. The last time I was seriously swimming was many years ago with fatigues, a full field kit, and my rifle.

So off to bed I go to dream of my evil coach making me do evil things that really hurt…well, some of the time… :)