So it’s Feb 15th and expected to see a doctor in the next week or so. Still sticking to a mostly vegetarian diet but have started to eat fish and included maybe a bite of steak. Chicken and turkey seems to go down well also. The doctor originally thought I had an ulcer and come to think of it, I think he might’ve been right. Too bad I stopped taking the meds he prescribed.

Anyways, health-wise — I’m in a lot better shape than I was mid January so for the most part, I’m GOOD! I think in my prior post I said I was 140 lbs, but this isn’t accurate. Apparently my weight scale in my house is off by a few….10 lbs ! My weight now is 146 lbs, and lost about 14-15 lbs total in a month.

2011 Triathlon Goals

As far as 2011 Triathlon Goals are concerned. Usually, most triathletes aim higher — get faster, fitter, leaner, more time, more mileage, etc. I started to think about what I love about triathlon and came up with a top five list:

1) I love meeting new people

2) I love cross training because I can’t focus on one sport (undiagnosed ADHD?)

3) I love being fit (i.e won’t be out of breath when catching the morning train)

4) I love seeing improvement. It’s addicting!

5) And finally, I love competition.

And with every top 5 love list, there is a top 5 hate list. Here goes:

1) I hate that it takes up a lot of time

2) I hate how expensive it can be

3) I hate feeling guilty when I miss a workout

4) I hate getting injured (although, this is more my fault than anything else)

5) And finally, I hate competition

That’s a really short list as I can probably expand it ten-fold. My point is, I’m re-evaluating what my personal fitness goals are and after finishing one full year of duathlons/triathlons — I’m starting to re-consider. Do I see myself quitting triathlons? Never. It’s just too much fun.

However…

My focus this year will have nothing to do with myself. A big part of 2010 was the role I played as a volunteer guide at Achilles International. It was through Achilles, where I helped guide blind athletes at the Duathlon National Championship (Richmond, VA) and the Duathlon World Championships (Edinburgh, Scotland). I get a lot more value out of helping others. A LOT more…

I’ll probably dip my head in a few races as an individual to see where I’m at fitness-wise, otherwise my entire year will be dedicated to growing the Achilles Triathlon Team as a primary focus.

It’s going to be a FUN year. Stay tuned

I really wanted to BBQ

Anyways, as I was saying…Dinner came around and the dull pain was more noticeable. So I did what any doctor would prescribe, I drank…wine. A lot of it.

That did the trick, numbed it up real good. After eating a full plate of steak, salad, pasta, and bread…I still felt hungry like I haven’t eaten for days. So I ate another plate.

I went to bed around 10 pm and woke up at 1 AM. I was super bloated, constipated, and tried to “go” but couldn’t. Tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t sleep through the pain.

2 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM….three hours felt like years and finally dozed off and woke up at 7 AM.

The pain was still there. We planned to go snowboarding but I told everyone I couldn’t. So while Katie and my friends went out to breakfast, I stayed inside drinking delicious prune juice and had a laxative. Took about 1 hour for the effects to hit and I felt much much better by noon. (Don’t visualize it)

Anyways, took it easy for the rest of the extended weekend. Came home on Monday night, and I got the pain again. Tried to go back to sleep, and found myself incredibly thirsty, urinating often, mouth tasted like copper, and hyperventilating. I was so worried that I ended up researching the symptoms online and found it was similar to either diabetes or an ulcer. My family has a history of high blood pressure, diabetes, and gout.

Anyways, that morning was my birthday. January 18th and I’m deciding whether or not I need to go to the hospital. I never get sick, hardly ever see a doctor, and yet I’m in a position where my body is freaking out but don’t know what to do. I had a really complicated matter with health insurance which I’m not going to get into, but ultimately decided to go to the ER.

Checking in to the ER on my birthday is also fun

They took my blood test and vitals came back good. As far as they can tell, I was healthy. Makes me look like I’m a hypochondriac but I really am not. They simply told me I have high blood pressure with high propensity for diabetes but sugar levels were indicating it’s not diabetes (phew!)

They prescribed me Famotidine, which is supposed to treat stomach ulcers and acid indigestion. Long story short, it didn’t work. I’m pretty sure it was misdiagnosed.

Since January 18th, I’ve been keeping a log of what I’m eating and how my body reacts to it. As of now, all I know is I’m not able to process carbs like cereal, oatmeal, and bread. I’m also not able to process meat (steaks). So I’ve been on a strict vegetarian/juice/nuts/fruits diet and lost about 10-12 lbs. I’ve given up coffee, alcohol (i miss you), spicy food, fried food, meat (steaks/burgers) — pretty much everything I love.  I’ll go into how this diet affected my mood and energy levels as it kicked my ass in the first week but I’ll get into that in another post.

I’m hoping to see a doctor by mid-February and hopefully he can tell me why my body is acting up.

Training? Not even a priority. I’m cycling about 20-30 mins a day just to get my blood pressure in order but other than that, my priority right now is being healthy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03dFMG8nR4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl6SU2lx5rA

Had a long hiatus from blogging. At first, I thought it didn’t matter since I thought I only had a handful of visitors to the site but then I checked my analytics and was delighted to find that I’m getting a good 100 visitors a month. Who are all you people?! Welcome, and feel free to comment or send me an e-mail to say hello!

So where have I been? I did a bit of traveling – three weeks between Georgia and Las Vegas. Took a month off of any exercise and just got back into a routine this week. Haven’t swam in awhile and know I have a lot of work to do for next year.

To reflect more on my first season of Tri – I’m a bit annoyed at my injuries. I consider it to be a successful year overall, but know my improvements were limited due to three nagging injuries – shin splints, metatarsal fracture, and pulled hamstring. As an athlete, the great thing about training is you adjust your plan year after year. The second time around, I’m incorporating more stretching and weight training into my workout. Being unemployed means I have no health insurance, and sometimes I need to play doctor and figure out what the causes to my injuries were. I think it’s primarily due to flexibility and leg strength issues. Anyways, being injured really puts things into perspective. I’m so blessed to be able to continue to train without any major injuries. To be able to run, bike, or swim without any issues no matter how slow or fast you are — is a blessing.

As far as races are concerned, I’m disappointed to say that I will not be competing in the 2011 nyc triathlon. I had a guaranteed entrance into this race since I volunteered but couldn’t due to being unemployed. My race schedule for 2011 is up in the air until I get a steady income. So, I am trying to get one of the Achilles’ athlete to compete in the NYC Triathlon so I can guide them.

During my break, I gained 5 lbs which I think is normal. Keep in mind, I started at 165 lbs, got down to 150 during race season and am now 155. Not too shabby?

My mindset going into my second season of tri is so different from last year. Last year, I had no idea how to train or what my body was capable of. This year, I still have no idea how to train but at least I know more than I ever have!

My season is done. There are no more races for the year and while this is sooner than most, I’m welcoming it with open arms. For the past two weeks, my training has been minimal — maybe two runs at 3-4 miles each. I needed a good two week mental break and will now focus on strength training for the next month with minimal miles on the bike/run.

In terms of goals for next season. My goal is to win a race. Honestly, my mind thinks I’m fast but my body has yet to keep up with it. I KNOW I can and will be faster and unfortunately, it takes a lot of patience and hard work to see drastic improvement. Instead of 7:15/mile 5K’s I want to do at least 6:30/mile. Instead of averaging 20-21 on flats I want to average 23-24.

As for swimming, I’ll just be happy to get across without drowning!

It’s going to be an exciting off-season, and I will NEVER go back to my old ways of doing nothing.

Anyways, three minutes into the run going up Windham Mountain, I would say about 90% of the field started walking. WALKING! In a race! I was steadily climbing, passing several walkers, turned back and couldn’t find Tom. So I waited like any gentleman would do.

We climbed over walls, got on all fours (it’s not as kinky as it sounds) and crawled through a tube, and ran through a field of tires military style. Then, as we approached the “Slithering Swamp” or also known as 3-4 foot deep muddy ice cold water — I threw Tom in. SCORE #1!

The ice cold water was actually a welcomed treat after climbing up several feet of hills. Mind you, it was 55 degrees when we started but I was dripping in sweat.

Apparently, running through single track with trees surrounding you is another obstacle which I forgot to mention.

Then, we walked the plank. I jumped up and down to knock Tom off but it didn’t work.

My next opportunity to torment him more was on the giant slip n slide leading up to the mud where you had to crawl under barb wire. My plan was to jump on top of Tom and slide down with his as my surfboard but I completely missed. I however, made up for my lack of aim by throwing mud into his shorts through the mud crawl. It was so blatant, volunteers decided to call me out “LEAVE HIM ALONE!” which is another way of telling me “You’re doing a fabulous job!”

We jumped over some silly fire and crossed the line where I happily pulled down his pants. Of course, this wasn’t caught on video.

Overall, it was a fun silly race. We ran it in approx 45 mins (14 min/miles) which shows you how seriously we took the race. The winning time was around 23 mins, and had I taken it seriously I think I would’ve ran it in around 29-30 mins.

The after party was “interesting” – just watching the people in costumes was worth attending the event.

Was it as hard as they made it out to be? No…

But as always, it’s the experience that counts. Do the race with all your friends, wear silly costumes, get drunk afterwards = great race.

In about 4 days, we received close to 350 views and have been mentioned in USA Triathlon’s facebook and twitter page. Not sure how many views we have now but based on the outpouring of e-mails I’ve received — I’m guessing A LOT!

Which is great because it provides great exposure to para athletes or any person with a disability. Lamar’s primary goal was to send a message to all blind people, “You can compete in sports!”

Out of the millions of blind people in the U.S (something like 21.2 million blind people living in the U.S), only one (Lamar Brown) represented the U.S.A in the sport of duathlon. The para movement is growing rapidly, and Lamar is just one of the few paving the way.

Which brings me to another point — I’m extremely honored to have been part of this process. So much so, that I’m re-evaluating my 2011 season to incorporate more events to race alongside Lamar as a guide. There will be changes to the site to introduce a new category to bring awareness to guiding. Obviously, blind athletes can’t compete without guides.

Lamar, you bring in the blind people and I’ll bring in the guides. OK!?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9_GvKicUtg

I went up to the Berkshires on Wednesday for a mini-vacation with Katie. Her dad decided to get internet in the country house which I think is good because I spend most of my internet time researching what to do around here.

I love exploring new towns and today, I found a brewery in Great Barrington. They offered 5 shots (samples) of their beer for only $4.50. I bought four 22oz bottles of various local beers for about $13!

I’ve been playing tennis, basketball, biking, golfing, and grilling some awesome BBQ. Last night, we spent the evening in Tanglewood for Boston Symphony Orchestra’s last performance of the summer. Tonight, I’m taking Katie to a nice dinner in Lenox, MA. Tomorrow, I plan on leaving by 12 PM to visit a local winery and then head home to pack for Scotland.

By the way, I found out there are only 3 paraduathletes representing the USA. Two of which I’m traveling with. In total, there are 23 paraduathletes competing in the World Championships. Although this sounds like a small number, it’s actually leaps and bounders higher than past participation numbers.