From XL to XTERRA

It is already December, and while John and I are happy that we have recently passed the one month anniversary of our commitment to living a healthier lifestyle, we remain ever conscious that with every day of training completed falls away another day of our protective barrier.

With one eye on our calendar and the other on our loops, I have come to realize that John is improving on a daily basis to become a more capable training partner, while becoming less of a man—16 pounds less to be exact.

Whether he has been in a pool, on a bike, or on the track, the big lug has been there every stroke, pedal, and step of the way—the steps have just gotten a lot softer. With a change in diet and the return of a fitness regimen to my life, I am happy to say that I have shed eight pounds of gut myself.

As much as I would like to celebrate the loss of needless flab, one long swim in the pool zaps me back to the reality that my journey is less about the weight loss and more about building endurance.

Luckily, we have had a ton of people come out of the blue to aid us along the way. The president of the Northern Marianas Islands Triathlon Federation, Stephan Samoylof, has sent numerous emails laden with tricks of the trade, and has offered to share his wealth of knowledge of all things triathlon.

After joining the NMITF at the first Enticer Triathlon, I have been welcomed into a group of people who are all too willing to help me along the way. Samoylof said that the $25 entrance fee would pay for itself with the discounts that members get on the local races, but he didn’t factor in all of the priceless information that the members share between them.

The group has certainly made the transition from fat to fit an easier one, but living on an island that allows for year-round training has to be one of the biggest advantages. One example of the unique ability to live and train on Saipan is the lunchtime tank swim.

When the clock strikes noon every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a gathering of swimmers meets on the beach next to AJ’s Restaurant in Susupe, and conducts a swim around the World War II era tanks that have been quietly guarding the lagoon for 60 years.

How can you beat that? You can’t. So this past Monday I joined this bunch of open water swimmers on their journey, and now I’m hooked. Swimming in a pool is great, but there is nothing that compares to the workout and the wildlife of the tank swim.

Better yet, swimming in the salt water is way easier than in the chlorinated lap pool. I have found a new passion for swimming in the sea, but the only problem is that it is the smallest part of the XTERRA.

The mountain biking is going great as well, as my mean machine from Romey Luanza at Saipan Bike Pro is smooth as silk. The running has also been great, and there seems that there is no stopping this dynamic duo. The only real obstacle to our training so far has been the rain. It is easy to stay in bed on the days when the rain is pounding on the windows—at the very least it’s a reasonable excuse to cancel training in lieu of catching a cold.

It is really easy to rationalize the importance of staying in bed when it’s 4:45am, but with the time flying by, it is not in our best interest to start loafing now.

When John and I met to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, we were disappointed that the run had been postponed due to all of the rain. I didn’t mind so much because Thursday is normally our rest day, and I was fine with the idea of getting out of the weather and taking a hot shower.

Initially, John didn’t take the news so well. Having psyched himself up for the 4.2-kilometer journey to the top of Saipan, John suddenly was faced with a dilemma.

“I felt happy and sad simultaneously. I was prepared to run, but felt my stomach unknot knowing I could go back to bed and enjoy the rest of turkey day. Some of the other would-be runners were also disappointed, and the most hardcore of the group were still planning on making the ascent.

“Douglas, you’re doing all this training—are you in?” said one doctor friend.

“Well I’m not sure, you see, my lower back’s been killing me, and I don’t want to exacerbate it by running this morning. You’re a doctor—can you tell me what I can do to help my back?”

“Here I had just psyched myself up for running, and I was maneuvering for a way out of the thing. As he began doing knee bends and calf stretches, the good doctor shouted. Yeah Douglas, the best thing to do for your back is to lose some weight!”

“This was not the answer I was looking for.”

John didn’t follow the fearless group up to the top on Thanksgiving Day, but when Saturday rolled around, he was there with bells on. The funny thing was that the rain in the rescheduled day seemed to be worse than it was on the original.

As I recall, my mind began to wander as I began the long road up to the top, and as the rain sent waves of water down the long and winding road of Capitol Hill, I likened my journey to that of a salmon swimming up stream.

Just like we planned, the both of us made it to the top, but John relayed to me an uplifting moment as he neared the island’s peak.

“By the time I was approaching what I felt like should’ve been the top of the world, I realized some of the ‘true athletes’ were now dashing back down the hill toward a gravity-aided end point. Feeling bad, I avoided making eye-contact with them, but to my surprise one of the athletes bellowed out “way to go Douglas, keep it up,” and earnestly gave me a quick hi-five.”

While we know that we have to rely on each other to get our goal accomplished, experiences like that are the kind of things that refuel the tank. Knowing that my friend John is getting a lot out of this aside from the weight loss is another—just listen to an excerpt from the big guy’s training diary:

“Everyone in the community has been so supporting of me, and my goal of completing the XTERRA –which seemed like a dream at the beginning, but now seems wholly possible. With one month finished, I find myself 16 pounds lighter, a plethora of muscle richer, and a happier guy. My girlfriend is proud of me for doing this, and I seem to be a better person daily for being healthy and fit. But even a healthy weight loss of 16 pounds doesn’t get me out of chubby land yet. I’m going to have to work ten times harder in these next months to finish Xterra.”