The journey to recovery from pre-diabetes blood glucose levels usually involves diet and lifestyle changes. Lifestyle changes usually include increasing or changing physical activity, and increasing fitness has been a big part of my journey. Whoever said “The best exercise is the one that you’ll actually do” knew what they were talking about. That’s a common theme as you look at where I started—I just picked things I liked to do and then looked at ways to take them to the next level, including competing.
I’d always been active doing things like hiking, jogging, playing golf, surfing, and snowboarding, but I was never into going to gym. The closest I came to competing in an event until the last few years was playing in an occasional golf tournament with friends or my dad. Today I swim, bike, run, and lift weights, and I do a swim, bike, run, or obstacle course event or race every few months. It took me a gradual progression to get there, and I’m now more fit than I have ever been (just set a PR in a half marathon in February).
How I picked up my biking
When I needed to increase my physical activity, I had to find things I wanted to do and that I could plan into my already busy days and weekends. For example, a part of my commute to work Monday-Friday was a shuttle from the train station to my office, and so one of the first things I did was get off the shuttle and on to my bike. There is nothing more motivating to bike fast than missing your train when the next one is in an hour!
How I picked up my running
The first running event I attended was a school fundraiser for one of our nieces. We were running laps around a school track, with each lap raising more money for the school, so the motivation was there. I ended up doing 40 laps, and then figured out that was 10 miles! Just a few months later, a road race came to our town for the first time, and it was a 10-miler, so I signed up for my first race. It was fun to train on the same route that was published for the race since part of the route was just a few blocks from our house. After that race, I was determined to sign up for another race and improve my time. Before long I had done my first half marathon.
How I picked up my swimming
My wife has always been a swimmer, and she shared that interest with our nieces and started taking them to the pool and teaching them to swim. I started going with them and remembered having fun enjoying the water when I was a kid. We also took them into the open water for snorkeling and surfing. Before long, I was finding additional time to get to the pool to swim laps and rediscovering my freestyle stroke.
How I did my first triathlon
You can probably guess where I went next—I was swimming, biking, and running, and I was doing running races, so why not sign up for a triathlon! I took a year to train since I was adjusting to openwater swimming with a wetsuit, saving to buy a competitive bike and learning to race with it, and training to have enough gas in the tank after swimming and biking to be able to run. Once I did my first tri, I then set my sights on doing a “bucket list” triathlon, which for me was the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. I finished it three times.
How I got into the gym
Swimming in the pool got me to the gym, and while I was there, I started to run on the treadmill and do spin classes. I started to do a bit of strength training at this point if you count pilates classes, both on the mat and the reformer, but my training was primarily cardio, and I was able to keep my blood glucose levels in healthy ranges with all this physical activity.
How I started to lift weights
Cardio is great at burning calories, but it’s not so great at promoting bone health. Several years ago I was diagnosed with osteopenia, which is low bone density but not as far along as osteoporosis. My doctor recommended adding weight-bearing exercises, and so I decided to add weight-lifting. I found a personal trainer at my work fitness center and finally started lift weights. I found it quite difficult, primarily because I was still doing a lot of cardio. The weight-lifting sessions would make me sore for days, so I could not keep up all the swimming, biking/spinning, and running. I found myself at times over-training.
How I got into obstacle course racing
I knew I needed to continue the weight-lifting, so I decided to scale back the cardio and stopped doing triathlons. My commute had changed, so I stopped biking, but I still enjoyed swimming and running. The strength training and running set me up to try obstacle courses, and I found some great classes with great people to improve my functional fitness and tackle various obstacles. Next thing you know I was doing Obstacle Course Races (OCR). And that’s where I am today, also doing some running races along with openwater swim events. I also do bike events like the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure.
