A Love of Ironman Triathlons Helped This Cyclist Lose 200 Pounds
Age: 54
Occupation: Teacher
Hometown: Detroit, Michigan
Start Weight: 400 pounds
End Weight: 220 pounds
Time Cycling: Six years
For the first 47 years of my life, I lived a very sedentary lifestyle. There were moments I’d have some athletic involvement, but nothing really stuck. About six years ago I had some pretty severe medical issues, which prompted and encouraged me to make an immediate lifestyle change.
I started by doing really slow walks around the block, which eventually turned into me heading to a gym. There, I’d commit myself to spending 45 minutes on the treadmill, walking and eventually running. After buying an issue of Runner’s World, I saw an ad for the San Francisco Marathon.
I live in Detroit, with no connection to San Francisco, but I turned to my wife and I said, “I’m going to run over the Golden Gate Bridge.” Sure enough, I signed up for the half marathon, trained hard for it, and completed it later that fall (2014).
I’m a teacher, and that same year at parent-teacher conferences, a parent came to table wearing an Ironman jacket. I told him, “That would be a dream, I would love to do that. But I just ran my first race and it was only a half marathon.”
But he convinced me that that it would be something I’m capable of completing. So, a few months later, I got my first bike. The following fall, a year after I first spoke to that parent wearing the Ironman jacket, I did my first half Ironman. And over the course of training that year, I lost the first 180 pounds.
Around that time, I also started making changes to my diet; At first I went vegetarian, but I became completely plant-based—100-percent, hardcore vegan—now for six years.
I looked at my diet and realized about 85 percent of the food I was eating too much of was animal products, like ice cream, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and things like that. So, I had an epiphany—if I just go vegan and plant-based, I get rid of 85 percent of stuff I’m getting in trouble with. Now, I’m in it for both ethical and health reasons.
Once I made that commitment to go vegan, I also dialed in my nutrition choices, and tried to make better decisions. While I’m not going to deprive myself of a brownie, I just don’t have one every day.
At the end of the day, when you’re almost 400 pounds, it’s like your imprisoned in a body and you don’t realize what you’re sacrificing and what you’re not able to do because of the choices you’re making in your diet.
A year after finishing the half Ironman, I attempted my first full Ironman in Chattanooga, Tennessee—on the hottest day of the year. In that race, the bike portion is 116 miles instead of 112; I made it 115 miles, one mile from the finish of the bike portion, and passed out on the bike.
But I didn’t let that deter me. I signed up for the 2017 Ironman Santa Rosa in Santa Rosa, California. When I rode in that race, which goes through Napa Valley, the first half of the bike portion was the most beautiful ride I’ve ever done.
Losing all the weight really encouraged me to challenge myself and to see that I was capable of doing something like that. I knew that being active was something that was really important to me, and if I wanted to keep the weight off and be committed to this lifestyle, I had to make activity a meaningful part of it. Which is why I choose to train for and participate in triathlons.
When I’m training for an Ironman—I follow a very structured, well-scripted 24-week training plan—I’ll run at least three days a week and swim two days a week, plus ride at least three days a week. Some days, I might have a couple of sports overlap, where I do two or all three in one day.
In the off-season or if I’m not actually training for an Ironman triathlon, I still usually ride at least three times a week. Being on a bike is the best part of the day, because of the things that you see and the places it takes you.
I think it’s really important that people never limit themselves and not allow their size to limit them either. Biking is such a beautiful way of giving yourself the gift of physical activity.
Additionally, the triathlon and Ironman community is an amazing group to be a part of—and a way to meet great friends. They do a great job of being inclusive of people who are trying to make a improvements in their life. I encourage people to take advantage of all biking has and all it can offer and how it can help you make a transition in your life.
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