Gary’s Fitness Blog

In my last post, Why guys need to find fitness (and life) milestones., I wrote:

What do I have in mind for my “milestone” event?

In May, I made a post titled “Help me find my new challenge“. At the time I wasn’t looking forward to my birthday, but I think that as I come up with ideas, I will. The idea of riding across Nebraska is probably out at this point - but what I have on my mind right now would actually be more challenging physically - and pretty cool (IMO).

Stayed Tuned.

I think that I’ve been hesitating on telling people what my exact plans are because I am scared of - failing to accomplish the journey, I don’t feel fit enough, etc. etc. The whole idea is to take on a challenge that feels somewhat impossible and to celebrate living.

Nikki is 100% into supporting this event, so I don’t have any reason not to try. I figure if I put it out there, it may push me out the door some of these summer days that I don’t want to get out there.

Here are the things that I want to try and accomplish:

1. On September 6th, 2008 - complete the Great Illini Full Distance triathlon
2. Take the next week and ride my bike to Winona Lake, IN (from the GIllini location)
3. On September 13, 2008 (my 30th birthday) run the Lake City Marathon

We’ll see how the planning goes for this? Right now I can honestly say that riding that much would not be possible, no matter what the intensity would be. I also need to find some locals along the route from Illiniois to Indiana to give suggestions on routes and roads to ride.

Here’s the gmap … any suggestions? [edit note: the map below is a different route than gmap show in the full frame? The full frame map does not go through Indy..]

View Larger Map

The idea of "milestone" birthdays has been an increasingly large topic on my mind lately. I do not normally think about my birthdays and honestly hate the idea of a birthday celebration, but I think that the next few months are going to be interesting for me from a psychological / personal happiness point of view.

Why? Because I turn 30 in September.

I am not complaining, I do not feel old, I do not believe my days of "living it up" are over….. it just seems that as I think about the fact that I am turning 30, I begin to think about 5 and 10 years ago and all that I thought would have happened by now.

For those that know me, you likely know that I like operate on multi year plans. In general, my 2 year plan is pretty specific, 5 year plan is outlined and 10 year plans are fuzzier mile-markers. Here are a couple examples of plans that are easy to point to and that I am currently in the middle of:

a - 5 year Ironman plan. I first shared the sketch of this plan back in September of 2006 in my post, "4 days to first 140.6 triathlon ". It has obviously changed to a small degree, but even when life variables change I try and stay steady. We’ll see how much it changes when Nikki starts school full-time?

b - 5 year business development. One of the reasons that Nikki and I wanted to move back to Kentucky is that it was going to offer us the ability to start our own business. Moving back here in August of 2005, I thought that it would take around 3 years for us to both be able to step away from "regular jobs" and try being on our own 100%. Nikki went full-time in April of ‘06, I went in April of ‘07. So things have been moving quickly and we’re as passionate as ever to serve others in health, fitness and performance.

Other guys do the same thing:

1. I was recently listening to Competitor’s Radio and heard an interview they did with Dean Karnazes . They talked about his journey to becoming the "Ultra Marathon Man" and how it began with him running 30 miles on his 30th birthday (from a bar I believe). I haven’t read his book, Ultra Marathon Man: Memoir Of An Extreme Endurance Athlete but Nikki has and she said this event is discussed in the book also.

2. This past week I got an email from Bill Anders , who had some questions about training for his goal to run 40 miles on his 40th birthday. He said he got the idea from the site, B-FitB-day . Because Bill is in Iraq, he’s modifying the standard goals for B-FitB-day and just running his age (did I say "just" run his age!).

And the list of events like this goes on. It makes me wonder, why is it that guys find it a necessary step in life to prove that a birthday (or passing of time) has not proven their mortality? I guess the most famous defiance of age over the years has been the events that Jack LaLanne has done on his birthdays.

In the book, "Timeless Healing " by Herbert Benson, PhD, he discusses how men tend to die around the time of their birthdays. Specifically, men tended to die prior to their birthdays because looking ahead towards their birthday as a sort of deadline. The paper that Benson referenced was actually titled, "The Birthday: Lifeline or Deadline?" by Dr. David Phillips from the University of California, San Diego.

It’s interesting as I look at my own thoughts about the upcoming 30 year "deadline", there are many things that I thought were in my 10 year plan during my 20’s that have not happened. The biggest item that I had on that list was getting my Ph.D, which still comes up a lot within my mind as a source of dissonance.

What do I have in mind for my "milestone" event?

In May, I made a post titled "Help me find my new challenge ".  At the time I wasn’t looking forward to my birthday, but I think that as I come up with ideas, I will.  The idea of riding across Nebraska is probably out at this point - but what I have on my mind right now would actually be more challenging physically - and pretty cool (IMO).

Stayed Tuned.

What milestones have you faced?

It doesn’t have to be a birthday, but I’m interested in hearing others fitness or life milestones that you have encountered.  How it impacted you?  How it propelled you to better places?  Etc.

See you on the roads!

I’ve discussed a lot about how I didn’t want to spend a whole year focused on a single race… and so far it has went well. The last month has been a little crazy with the two marathons and last weekends century ride in Asheville, NC (podcast coming soon).

One thing I discovered this past weekend is that I’m not even sure I want to do another event this year. My soul needs something a little more stimulating, yet I would still like my body to be physically challenged.

So I am trying to find, create or discover a challenge that would meet this desire. To put is simply, I would like to do something that pushes my body to its limit, challenging my mental strength, inspiring enough to uplift my spirit and where it doesn’t require me to wear a race number or championship chip.

I have not come up with many ideas, but here is one: Ride Across Nebraska. I grew up in Nebraska and have lived in many places throughout the state, so it would be fun to try and cycle through the state (maybe try to run, bike and swim?) and visit those places.

Here’s a link to the google map of those locations: Ride Across Nebraska?

Please help me get some ideas!