YOU DON’T GROW OLD AND STOP DOING WHAT YOU LOVE,
YOU STOP DOING WHAT YOU LOVE AND GROW OLD!
How true the above observation is! I should know, it happened to me! As a matter of fact, this has happened to many people I know, and many people I don’t know, and in fact, it likely has happened to most people at one time or another in their lives. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will!
If it has, I’ll bet you can recognize a similar situation as applies to your life, in the following scenario that plagued mine.
THE SITUATION:
It was June 30th, 2002, a date that is seared in my memory. Though I didn’t know it yet, this Texas 1/2 Ironman would be my last Triathlon. As I started the swim, I had no idea that just a couple of hours into the bike, I would be capping off a 22 year training and racing career in the sport I had been so devoted to.
I had found myself on the bike, barreling downhill at 40mph with 10 riders behind me, heading for three options, neither of which looked good:
- Ram the back end of a truck stopped in the road,
- try to squeeze between it and a tractor coming the other way,
- go off a 10 foot cliff into a sea of cacti!
Well, I managed to extricate myself from that situation without getting killed, but I was scarred for life! I had visions of dying, becoming a paraplegic, or even worse. My heart literally jumped out of my chest, I could feel and hear it beating, and to this day, I have no idea how I rode those last miles, and then ran 13.1 miles to finish the race?
It is worth noting at this point, if you are not one of my subscribers, that I’m a Triathlete, and that I’m 67 years old. I’ve been a Triathlete since 1980, and I’ll be a Triathlete well into the next few decades. It will be helpful to read my history here so you get the context of what I’m saying.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
The important aspect to note here is that, like so many other people in such situations, there was a catalyst to create a response which translates to an abrupt end to a major devotion of life. In my case, this devotion and passion was the physical expenditure of training and racing Triathlons.
In my case, the catalyst of impending physical harm was rather brutal in nature. However, in many instances it can merely by an evolution of daily life. Having been a coach at the High School level, I have observed such behavior in many instances. It seems team sport athletes are especially prone to the response below:
After playing Volleyball, or Soccer for years on a team, graduation comes around and then the athlete quits the sport if only because there is no one to play with. There is nothing wrong with that, except that athletes used to eating vast quantities of food to supply the energy required of their particular sport tend to continue eating like they have always done in training.
And that is what precisely happened to me! I have talked about how this behavior could quickly lead to fat gain here, and to muscle loss here, and so I won’t belabor the cascade of negative points of such an orientation.
As I said, the critical observation here is that the act of quitting energy output cold turkey leads to a response of some type in the body. There is the physical response I just mentioned above, there could be a psychological response, there certainly is a physiological component as well.
I can’t speak precisely to others’ behavior, but in my case, I felt an incredible and ecstatic release at the conclusion of that race. Once I got over my shock and thought rationally, I was giddy for days and embarked on a familiar, rewarding, and delightful pastime- Eating everything in sight!
Of course, along with the above, relaxation and haphazard training followed. In fact, this new behavior seemed to devolve into more eating and progressively less training over the next few years.
It so happened that with this new found abundance of time, I swapped my triathlon fervor for ‘nose to the grind stone’ type dedication to develop my business. This meant lots of sitting at the computer, lots of learning and studying, lots of time spent cooped up inside of computer labs, lots of driving to classes, workshop, even more time studying at home sitting, etc.
In other words, all those things that are necessary to develop an online business. You can read more about all that here if you wish.
IT’S ON THE BACK BURNER!
Moving up to SanFrancisco in 2004, and for the subsequent decade, I would attempt to train in spurts, but it was mostly with feeding-my-face and indulging in the pleasures of fine cuisine that I found the most success. Along with haphazard training came lots of injuries. This then, would bring me to the start of my fitness Journey in 2014, after my move back down to Los Angeles.
But I’m getting ahead of myself though, so regressing a bit to that time I nearly got snuffed out in Texas on June 30th, 2002. Post that last 1/2 Ironman, I felt on top of the World!
I was in stellar shape still, even at 40. I was about 13-14% fat, I ran 7 minute miles in training without much effort, nothing hurt anywhere on my body, and my friends and family would marvel at how much I could eat. I was rather proud of that!
As months progressed into years, post that time I nearly got killed, I would not miss the opportunity to marvel at my gastronomic and lingering physical abilities. Those 22 years of hardcore training were proving their benefit in the civilian world.
But there were telltale signs that things were brewing! I noted them, but I wasn’t overly concerned because ‘I’d been an Ironman triathlete at the apex of the Sport’! What was there possibly to be worried about? Well, as you know, there was and you can read about this in more detail here on my About tab.
I was pushing all the insignificant glitches and occasional setbacks to the back burner. Muscle tears, knee issues, sprains, Achilles tendinitis, etc. After all, I was also experiencing sporadic successes running 5ks, I even completed a sprint triathlon on :date:
However, I had more important fish to fry than to compete! These post triathlon years were to be primarily dedicated to establishing and growing the business. After all, my reasoning was that I had spent enough years entirely dedicated to training, and I deserved a break!
So it was that 2 years post triathlon shape became 4, then 4 became 8, and that brings me around to those 12 years of sporadic physical activity, punctuated by multiple injuries. I call this time frame, the ’falling from grace’ years.
MEA CULPA, MEA CULPA, MEA MAXIMA CULPA!
For those of you who didn’t take Latin, the above means:
‘It’s my fault, it’s my fault, it’s my most grievous fault’!
Yes, I’m aware that there are life circumstances that are beyond our control. I, or you, might get up tomorrow and get run over by a Mac truck walking across the street to make a withdrawal at the ATM. Shit happens!
However, in my case, and the case of the overwhelming majority of people reading my novel here, we will never run up against Mac to have a life altering physical experience.
No, we created our own physical demise by thinking we were invincible!
We thought that youth and the unassuming ease with which we went through life’s challenges would be everlasting!
We thought that waking in the morning and bounding out of bed like children on Christmas morning to open presents was our right!
Well, I’m here to tell you ‘it ain’t so’!
Being 67, through no fault of my own I might add, has thrust reality smack dab in my face, and smitten my body all over!
Just as the book ‘Job’s Body’ has so well illustrated, the myriad of human afflictions knows no bounds.
ATTITUDE ADJUST!
Following that fateful day where I didn’t get snuffed, I could have rather thought about my situation and reflected on my future.
Perhaps I could have said something like this:
Wow, how awesome that I’m 40 years old in 2002, and that I can still train at the same degree and intensity I did when I was at the starting line of Ironman Hawaii in 1981, at 28 years of age! How cool is that?
But now, it’s 2002 and it is time to close a passionate chapter of my life and move onto what the future holds next.
Circumstances beyond my control have thrust me into making the decision I’ve taken, and so I have to reinvent myself while maximizing the blessings that I’ve been granted.
Whatever tangent I decide to pursue, I should continue with the training path I’ve fought so hard to successfully establish.
I’ll continue training in the same fashion, though at a much reduced volume and intensity which is commensurate with the fitness I need to be in order to be as healthy as I can be.
I’ll maintain a degree of fitness that is necessary so that if I ever decide I want to start racing again, just a few months of specific training will get me to racing shape.
This is the talk I should have had with my younger self in 2002, post that fateful Triathlon in Texas. Did I say or envision any of the above?
NOT EVEN!!!!!!!!
CONCLUSION
Oh how it would have been wonderful to reflect and have an attitude adjust back then in June of 2002!
Instead, I buried myself in stress developing my future business, I continued my gastronomic ways, and I pretty much sat on my butt enjoying my new found freedom from training.
Now, I have to admit that the above pursuits have some merit and are not necessarily evil; but to engage in these behaviors at the exclusion of a sane and pared down version of a training regimen was a downfall. These consequences are the combinations that would thrust me into contemplating my Fitness Journey in 2014 in which I hoped to rise from the ashes!
As I pointed out on my site here, it has slowly dawned on me that after 5+ years of this come back from behind Journey, that I basically have to start training from ground zero after being so inactive for 12years.
HOW MY FOOLISHNESS MIGHT HELP YOU!
Yes it’s your life and you can do whatever you want, when you want, and take whatever direction life pulls you towards. I massively overestimated my abilities at the start of my Journey in 2014.
If, once upon a time, you were an athlete but have been inactive, sporadic, or inconsistent in your training for any length of time approaching a decade, consider starting from ZERO! If you have never been athletic, a great place to start is at the beginning!
In my case, and likely that of many, one of the many lessons I’ve learned, is that whatever decision you make in life, there will be consequences to bear, maybe sooner, maybe later; but always.
Fortunately in my case, I know what to do, and how to raise myself from ground zero, so that is my Ace in the hole!
I hope you have an Ace somewhere, once you reflect and make the proper decision for you of course!