Wednesday, January 23, 2019

My Journey Continues!

Why? 

My why from 2013, sometimes you need to be reminded of why you started. 

Well here you go

"My why started 6 years ago (2007). Our first son was born. I stopped working out and starting eating bad. I was always thinking I’ll start working out again, but never did.
Then 4 years ago, we were blessed with Identical twin boys, but life changed greatly. 16 weeks pregnant and my boys were diagnosed with TTTS. It’s a virtual death sentence. We had to rush down from Atlanta to Miami to have an emergency surgery (in the womb) to save their life. The weight started piling on, along with the stress.
More bad news, they were born 3 months premature. This brought on a whole new set of problems, they were struggling for life. They were in the Intensive care for 3 months. They finally came home. I thought this was the time to start getting better. I tried Insanity (on my own) and only got through 4 weeks and then stopped. More weight and more bad eating habits.
1 month after my boys being home, my father was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. He fought for 2 ½ years. I had hit the heaviest I've ever been in my entire life. Then one day I saw a video on the beachbody facebook page. It was a young man explaining his why: Christian, he awoke something inside of me. I contacted him and he became my BeachBody coach.
On Nov 3, 2012, I began my journey with insanity again, this time with a Coach and a challenge group. I got to the 4 week mark and hospice was called in for my father (Ironically, week 4 is where I quit the first time). He only had days to live. I stayed at my parent’s house those entire 9 days. I didn't miss a workout and I didn't eat poorly. In fact, I did better.
My father was a man who always felt that I could do whatever I set my mind too. He always taught me, “no excuses”. If you set a goal, get it. My father passed away on Dec. 26th of 2012 and I finished my round 1 of insanity on Jan 5. I lost just over 20 lbs. As of today i'm at over 30 lbs lost and I won $500 as a Beachbody Daily challenge winner
I know he would be proud. I realized through all of this, that many people have problems, much worse than mine. I realized that these saying, “you have one home, your body” are in fact true. These sayings aren't just words. I realized that this is life and I want to be around to see my boys grow up, get married, have families of their own and be there for my family. I want to keep a promise to my father to keep a watch on my mother. This made me think, if you cannot look out for yourself how can you take care of others"

Now What?

Obviously, life doesn't go as according to plan. Since writing this post in 2013. I've gained the weight back and gotten divorced. I've realized I can overcome the physical nature of the past, but I neglected the mental aspect. So many ignore this. I don't believe I've ever dealt with with the mental aspect of of my past. 



2019, I begin again. I'm down -7.2 since January 1 and I've started going to therapy. Therapy has been something I've been missing from from overall health. Mind and Body!!! It's a strange process. I often feel better immediately following a session, then it wanes. Then I feel better and again it wanes. There isn't a scale to measure my improvement. 

This mental aspect is the key. I must get there in order to be a better father, ocr enthusiast, boyfriend and hopefully I will regain the title of husband. 

Please feel free to comment below. 

Thursday, January 10, 2019

2018 My OCR Journey...

A New Year!!

It seems as we get older, the years pass by quicker. 2018 was no different. The year was filled with many highs and many lows, but I got through it, like I do every year. Here's a recap:

Obstacle Racing

Compared to 2017, I ran far fewer races, but challenged myself to longer, endurance type events. May 5, 2018 Toughest Mudder South (Austin, Texas) was a blast. It was an 8 hour, 5 miles, 25ish obstacle course, in which you complete as many laps as possible. The race starts at Midnight and finishes around 8:30am. Yeah!! I know, it's longer than 8 hours. :-) Best of all, I travelled with one of my friends JD. The travel was as fun as the race.



Officially, I complete 4 laps (20 miles) and realized I had a number of areas to work on. I tired quickly towards the end and obstacles were hard to complete, but never fear I had a plan. The plan seemed quite simple. Run more, lift more and increase that grip strength. 

Let's just say, things don't always go according to plan. 

Something happened on my journey and I fizzled out. I wasn't sticking to my workouts and life just go in the way. 

August 2018, NorAm (North American OCR Championships). This was a goal of mine for 2016 and 2017, but I couldn't manage to qualify. In my 2nd race of 2018, I qualified by winning my age group at Bonefrog Talladega. I was shocked. I must have printed the results sheet 5 times and it never changed. An unexpected surprise.



NorAm consisted of 2 individual events, a 3k and a 15k event. It's also a mandatory obstacle completion race. It's simple. You receive a band and if you fail an obstacle, you give up your band. You do have multiple opportunities to repeat the obstacle. (I lost mine both days)

The 3k race was quite fun. I was soaking up the surrounds and admiring all the great athletes. The 15k was a different story. The event takes place on a ski resort in Stratton, VT. The day of the 15k was horrible weather, rain and fog. The distance and elevation highlighted my lack of training. Something happened and I'm not sure what. I lost or left something that day that I wasn't able to get back this rest of the year. 

The continued lack of training led up to Worlds Toughest Mudder (WTM). This has always been a dream of mine. A 24 hour, 5 mile loop course. For me, this is the event of events for a Journeyman OCR athlete. It was an opportunity to test myself and push myself beyond anything I've ever done. 

A freak cold weather spell rolled through Atlanta that week with below freezing temps. I certainly wasn't expectation that. I won't bore you with the details, but I quit. I simply gave up around midnight. I was a beaten man, cold, sore and no will left in me. It was my first and only DNF.



I don't know what's in store for 2019 yet. I have signed up for a few races. My training has picked up in the last month or so, but I won't commit to WTM until I can be more consistent in my training. 

What  bothers me most isn't being ill prepared, its quitting. I felt broken and defeated, but I do have pride and want to seek redemption. Will this be my motivating factor? Stay tuned in 2019!!!!

Shannon