“Look in the mirror, that’s your competition.”

Triathlon:

“W-w-w-what?  Todd, where you last left off with your story, you were a guy with a rapidly expanding waistline, and horrific eating habits…  Now you spring Triathlon on us?”

Why yes, yes, I did.

Why I’m doing so will be clear in a few moments…

In 2011, I found a renewed interest in cycling.  If you recall, in The College Years  I mentioned that I was an avid cyclist through high school, but lost interest in college.  Well, 2011 was a pivotal year in my life.  I had a lot of changes, but the one I’m going to focus on today is a renewed interest in bike riding.

In August 2011, my soon to be sister-in-law Heather, asked me for some advice on bike riding, since she had a triathlon in a few weeks.  Nicole, in passing, let her know that I used to ride a lot when I was younger.  I had a bike in the garage, a Hybrid, which I had probably ridden at most 50 miles in the 4 or 5 years I owned it.  So, much like the treadmill in A-Ha! Moment #1, I dusted it off, and made sure it was safe to ride. 

The first ride…

Heather showed up at the house with her bike.  At the time she was riding what looked to be an old mountain bike which was in way worse shape than my hybrid.  Oh, and it was about 3 sizes too small.  So, we had Heather on the too small, not right for the road mountain bike, and me on my way underused hybrid.  In knowing how far we both have come since that day, I can’t help but look back and chuckle. 

We took off down the big hill I live on, and inwardly I cringed because I knew we would have to come back up it when we came back.  I let Heather lead because I was supposed to be giving advice on riding, so I had to see how she rode.  Well, I don’t think I have told her before now, but I had a hard time keeping up.  Here I was, the one who was supposed to know more, and had a history of cycling…  I’m the one having trouble keeping up right off the bat even though my bike is the right size and meant for the road.

Well, that sparked a bit of a fire in my guts. 

I was better than that. Well, I used to be better than I was then, so I vowed to myself that I was going to do this again. Riding was going to be a was going to be a path to recreating a better version of myself.  To say that I was pretty fired up was quite the understatement.  I was supposed to be watching Heather, so I could give her tips. However, my internal dialog was such that I was trying to coach myself into being able to survive this ride so there could be another one, and then another, etc. 

We had covered about two miles, and I was dying.  TWO bloody miles.  I used to do 40-50 without issue, and I’m dying after TWO.  Then we got to a hill.  This is where my experience came into play, shifting.  When you ride a bike, you have gears for a reason, when you go uphill, you need to shift, otherwise you will end up grinding to a halt because you just can’t push the pedals hard enough to continue to go uphill.

Stubborn Determination.

At this moment, I learned what stubborn determination looked like, and I wasn’t looking in the mirror.  I had fogged up my mirror because I was huffing and puffing so hard, and I had shifted into my lowest gears to make it up the hill.  Heather didn’t shift.  Sure, she had mountain bike gears, but I don’t recall seeing her shift once going up the hill.  I think I even mentioned that she needed to shift, but I think her response was a laughing “I don’t know how!”  Oh, how far we have come…  Stubborn determination, in both of us. I wanted to survive, and I think Heather just wanted to get up that damn hill.

One of the benefits of putting in all that effort to get up the hill is that you get to go back down.  We circled in the parking lot of the school we rode to and decided to go back down.  One, it was where home was for me, and where her vehicle was for her.

Wheeeeeee!

The joy of going downhill after all the work getting up was well worth it.  I laugh now, but I think I hit 25mph on the way down. I was certainly no Peter Sagan! Since the hybrid wasn’t really meant to go that fast, it shimmied and shook quite a bit.  I slowed down out of nervousness.  We continued back to the house and I was forced to confront, what even today remains, my nemesis, the dreaded “Gettysburg Hill.”  It’s short, and pretty steep, but since you must turn onto the road, you lose all momentum.  It turns into a slog to just get up the hill, another chance to exercise brute determination.  Even today, my heart rate gets up into the 150’s on that hill, back then I didn’t track it, but I’m willing to bet I was about 3 beats away from dead.

We survived.  Oh, and I didn’t walk the hill!

My first bit of advice to Heather when we stopped and caught our breath was that we both needed new bikes.  Second, she needed to learn how to shift, otherwise she was doomed to walk some hills.  She told me she knew the race she was doing in a few weeks had a short but very steep hill in it.  Shift…  you must shift!  In that one area, I certainly knew my stuff about cycling, if you don’t shift, you will not make it.

After we made it back from our 10 miles of grueling torture, this is where it gets interesting… 

Heather asks me if I can swim. 

My response is something like “I can keep myself from drowning.”

“Well, that’s a start…  How about running?”

“Ugh, I hate running, and do I look like I could ever run?”

I don’t recall the exact words, but the impression remains clear. Everyone starts somewhere, if you can ride a bike, swim, and run or even walk, you can become a triathlete. 

I looked into the mirror and said “Game on! Let’s do this triathlon thing!”

What I have learned through doing Triathlon is that unless you’re one of the people who is going to win, you are only in competition with yourself.  Thank-you Heather for inspiring me to take this next step in my adventure to better health.  I appreciate it more than you can possibly imagine.  Thank-you for helping me rediscover my passion for riding, and to be a better version of myself.

-Todd