Tuesday, February 28, 2012

2011 Cross Country Archive

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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!


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