Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Sorry but I ain't leaving!

Sorry!
 I started  the day with an email from a fellow Daily Miler which I just had to share!



29 days to 75mile

    Colin E. wrote:

    feb 05 2012 at 10:06pm | Report

    You seem like a awesome guy... but you average like 100mi a week and it seems unfair for you to join my group when you finished it in 5 days.

    Can you leave the group, so the others can not feel defeated.


So I posted it on FaceBook and got a lot of great responses. It seems that most who know me know why I do what I do. They also know my journey which I doubt Colin knows. While I understand where Colin is coming from, I think he has it all wrong. I believe my mileage inspires and does not demoralize others.

I join all the challenges on Daily Mile because they are there and I have meet many because of the challenges. Sure many are for beginners and I complete them in a very short time but to say I am 'defeating"  people is kind of sad. Sad in that the author has such a low opinion of his fellow athletes.

Showing off?
Anyways, I do not plan to leave the group and plan to enter all the challenges I can. Am I showing off? Sure, I have an ego and I like the recognition that goes with piling on the miles but that is not the main reason I do it. it is pretty far done the list.

Why I do what I do list:
  • To Save My Life! Not just from dying before my time but to live my life to the fullest. In 2009, I was pushing 300 pounds despite walking 60 to 70 miles a week. I did not eat a lot but my diet was a mess. I ate what I thought an endurance athlete should eat (carbs etc) and I was huge. I would go to the doctor and all he would do is try to put me on meds. I did not want to take that crap for the rest of my life and really hate that the medical profession has gone this route. Screw preventative medicine and just take a pill. Do not tell people to change their lifestyle, just pop a pill. 
  • Well I said good by to the doctors and their prescription pads and pulled a Forrest Gump and just started walking. Since I have a degree in biology, I decided to research diets and find out what might work for me because what I was doing was not. funny how my doctor never even said a thing about changing my habits, he just filled out prescriptions for me.
  • Basically, I realized insulin was the devil and to reduce my levels I needed to cut out the carbs. I read quite a few books and then found The Paleo Diet for Athletes and it was the blueprint to getting me to 235 pounds so far.
  • Live My Life! Besides being grossly overweight, I was really out of shape, sure I walked some marathons and did some big hikes but I was not athletic at all. I could not move at all and had little strength besides putting one foot in front of the other. So with the help of Joe Petersen, I started becoming athletic again. His boot camps damn near killed me but two years later, I started to become athletic again.
  • Set Goals and Achieve Them! I have always wanted to do an ultra marathon and knew I had to lose weight and put in a lot of miles to do both. So starting in 2009, I slowly built up from 70 miles a week to the 100 plus mile weeks I do now. I did this by walking every where I could.
  • Inspire Others! In the fall of 2009, I saw Joe at Yokuts with his boot campers and came up with the idea of the Bakersfield Distance Project. I have been involved with endurance sports since 1979 and have always been a student of endurance sports as well and knew I could help people with their goals. I had just finished up coaching cross country and track at BHS and wanted to use the tools I had developed there to help adults achieve their goals.
  • As a coach, I wanted to walk the talk so to speak and used myself as a guinea pig as well. Hence the mega mileage. I wanted to prove to others that it could be done and you would not die doing it. That if you train intelligently and with a plan, you could achieve your goals.
  • Promote Endurance Sports! In 2006, I started covering local high school cross country and kept expanding my coverage. Part of my plan to promote the sport was to document my journey from a 300 pounder to a 100 mile finisher. With FaceBook and the Daily Mile, this was really easy. I could post my workouts and races and hopefully inspire others to JUST DO IT!
  • Make My Passion My Job! I have been fortunate to do this my whole adult life. First with Andy Noise the Record Store and now as Andy Noise the coach / webmaster / blogger / photographer / race director/ sherpa / etc. I appreciate all the support and love what I do.
  • I could add more but you get the idea I hope.
ANT FARM FUN
So that is why I do what I do but the real reason is I love doing it. Today I went out on a crazy windy day where it could start raining at any moment. I got to Hart Park and no one was there. I could of bailed on the workout but it was a lovely day in my eyes. There was trail to workout on, goals to train for and fun to be had!

Having Fun!


1 comment:

  1. Proud of you Andy -- your story is important. We aren't kids anymore are we? Life isn't a padded race and no one should just enter races they expect to win, right? Yeah, we get what he is saying but there are other challenges out there too. We win some and we lose some. Doing what you do takes LOTS of time and effort and that in itself is a major challenge. Thanks for always inspiring and going out of your way to help out. Trace

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