[drcoastline]

They say it ain't a goal until you reduce it to writing. So here it goes. About five and a half years ago. I moved roughly seventy five miles away form my home town in order to exercise my right to have my daughter on a 50/50 time basis. I reduced that goal to writing and after a nearly three year court battle I prevailed. The original goal was to bring her home but I realized that couldn't be reached in a reasonable amount of time so it was altered to 50/50. This past May another milestone was reached I became parent of primary residence.

As many could imagine the move changed my whole life in more ways than one. Mostly for the better but there have been some tradeoffs. I moved to a town where I knew no one. I didn't work in the community and all of my interests were seventy five miles away. I immersed my self in my daughters life to try and make it better. I got involved in PTA, School, her extra curricular activities, etc. and of course the occasional court skirmish that is what my life has been. I went to the gym for a while but that gradually waned. I bought P90X about two years ago used it once. I did the abs and chest work out it kicked my a$$ so bad I couldn't brush my teeth for a week it hurt so bad. In March 2008 I ran into my high school crush that I hadn't seen in 20 years or so at an event back home for one of our school mates who worked for Cantor-Fitzgerald and was killed in the World Trade Center attacks. We began dating and are now engaged to be married. I have always enjoyed cooking and with hours of free time on my hands I would cook home made meals every day. After my daughter would go off to school I would go to the super market or the Italian market in Philly (yes the street Rocky ran down and my mother grew up on) and buy fresh produce and meats. I cook breakfast, make my daughter lunch to take to school and cook diner. We eat well. Lack of exercise and eating good food even home made food can take a toll. Of course the Martini's and Miller Lights haven't helped either.

When I moved here I was 42 years old. I weighed 148 lbs. I had a 29 inch waist and 3% body fat. I am 5'7". My whole life I was in excellent physical condition. Today I am 48 (49 in November) I am 165lbs. my waist is 32-33 inches and g-d only knows what my body fat index is. I have a gut and man boobs. Small ones but none the less. I am always tired and I tend to put things off until tomorrow rather than charge ahead as I have always done

THE GOAL

For the past 10 years my home town has hosted an event called "Tri-the-Wildwoods". It is a mini Triathlon. It consists of a quarter mile swim, a ten mile bike ride, and a three mile run. This event begins and ends on the beach two blocks from my house, the bike course goes right past my front door. I have watched the bike event for the past ten years from my front porch while sipping coffee. Last year I asked a few questions of an official about the race. As he was answering I thought to myself there was a time I could do this. For the past year when ever I see would someone running or the streams of bicyclers in their garb riding on the side of the road I think about the triathlon. Yesterday I decided to looked up the race web site for more information.

This morning I registered in the "first timer" catagory. My goal is not to beat the 17 year kid who won last year finishing the race in a time of 1:04:30. My goal is to finish in the top 10 of 45-49 year old men. Last year 1st place time was 1:09:29 and tenth place was 1:22:49. My Achilies heel will be the run. I am confident I can get myself into shape for the swim and bike ride and achieve decent times.

I have just about ninety days to get in shape. P90X says it can whip a person into shape in that time,. So I am going to use that as a guideline. It also has a good dietary guidline, stretching and warm up warm down schedule I will use.

Any help from the runners, bikers swimmers, strength trainers, dieticians, stamina experts, flexibility guru's, etc. is welcome.

Here are what I see as my strengths and weaknesses.

Strength- I am an excellent swimmer. In the past I have had excellent stamina, concentration and determination. I have always had good metabolism, it's a bit slow now but I think I can bring it back around with exercise and diet. I can block out pain.

Weakness- I hate running long distances I have never liked it. I am about 17 lbs over weight as I see it. I need to learn how to breathe for long distance running and cycling.

I'm off for a physical.