The only easy day was Yesterday

I'm a cynic. I hate sappy stories and contrived situations to create drama.  As such I despise reality TV.  With one exception.... Navy SEALs BUDS Class #234. A Six Hour Series for The Discovery Channel that follows 80 candidates of Class 234 and their efforts to become US NAVY SEALS. You WILL feel the pain after watching the physical and mental challenges these candidates are faced with.  It is inspiring and motivating. 

They have a motto in SEAL training, "The only easy day was Yesterday". Which makes sense when the candidates are being evaluated and trained by hardened SEALs operators.  They aren't just looking for potential SEALs, they are looking for potential team mates.  If you were picking someone in who's hands you might someday put your life, you'd be hard on them too.   Of the 80 who start day one; 17 make it and become SEALs, including a 17 year old kid (he turns 18 by graduation but still).   The training is unbelievable, but so are SEALs.

I'm training someone on whom I have to depend, whom I must trust with my very life.  I'm training me.  I can't choose another candidate, I'm stuck with me.  I now realize I'm taking it way too easy on this guy.
After being a spectator at the IronMan 70.3 in New Orleans this past Sunday I realized a year is nothing.... I haven't got a second to waste. I'm horrifically out of shape and being fit enough to just finish the race will take all I have to give this year....and more. I need to drive myself like my life depends on it and actually...it does!

But enough about me, back to BUDS Class 234:

All these guys are in great shape but that's not enough.   It's the mental toughness that seperates a SEAL from just a really fit guy.  The SEALs want guys who can push past pain, past exhaustion, past mental fatigue and find reserves of strength unavailable to the average man.  Endurance athletes share that ability, to withstand pain, to ignore the little voice in your head that tells you to quit. 

Here is an illustration and one of my favorite moments in the BUDS Class 234 show; OK picture this; You've been running, carrying a huge rubber raft with your team all day and into the night. Now, about hour 14, you're on a 5 mile timed run in fatigues, you're "wet and sandy" (soaking wet clothes and covered head to toe in sand), at night in the cold. You are miserable, and tired and cold, every step is sandy, gritty, wet agony.

The instructors get on the bull horn and tell you to quit. They say. "It's OK to quit", "Not everyone can be a SEAL", "Say the word and you can come stand by the fire and drink some hot soup." "I wonder what your wife is doing right now...I bet she'd rub your feet and tell you it's OK" And on and on like that.

Then the instructors explain to the camera they don't want quitters they want mutants who can ignore pain and discomfort and harsh conditions and keep going.

I do not have that trait, I am a quitter. I hate to be in pain. I will not stand up to adversity. At the first sign of difficulty I fold like a Dollar Store umbrella in a hurricane. I am finding a way to change that, though. To learn to love the whip. To embrace the pain.   I always loved that Marine motto "Pain is weakness leaving the body". (ya know for a cynic, I do like my bumper sticker wisdom)

I don't have a cadre of veteran SEALs operators to train me.  I have me. But I'm smart and resourceful and most of all I am willing to learn. 

I have to step it up if I'm gonna make it to the finish line next year. Every day has to be more than the last, harder, faster, stronger. I am making progress.

I looked at the difference between my last work out and my first few.  Here where I was:

And now... 

The treadmill doesn't show the time but it was 70 minutes 4.41 miles and 939 calories.  This morning I did 4.2 miles in 60 minutes burning 870 calories.  Not bad for 6 weeks.    Next month starts 5 mile runs, 15 mile bike rides and swimming.

I'm not looking back.  4 miles an hour is weak and sad, but I am caring an extra 100 pounds more then the average triathlete.   Let see those skinny basterds run 6 minute miles lugging around two 50lb bags of dog food.... 

If I'm going to finish this race next year I have to step it up.  Focus on increased cardio and weight loss.  Six days a week 60 minute plus work outs (bike, swim and treadmill),  go up a mile a month on the run until I hit the distance, no matter how long it takes to do the miles.  I'm at 4 miles now a mile a month will put me at 13 miles by January; just in time for the Mississippi Blues half Marathon.  I'm at 12 miles on the bike, adding 5 miles a month will put me at 56 by December.  Don't know where I am on the swim but I'll update as soon as It's warm enough.

I need to step up the diet and get even stricter (I've gone a bit non-dairy crazy with the veggie chips and toffuti cream cheese).  

And most of all always be pushing forward. 

I am going to finish the IronMan 70.3 and then set my sights on a full distance IronMan.  I can lose this weight, get fit and live....like a boss!