Posts Tagged ‘family’

Being a Bikram Yoga newbie is not easy, I’ve been practicing now for almost a year and it doesn’t get any easier. One day you can have a great practice where you seem to progress and then the next session feel like the very first time you’ve been in the hot room. 37-41 degrees with 70% humidity. But even on the bad days it’s better than not doing it all.

I had a two week layoff due to work and travel and got back into it last Thursday, tough class. Good Friday was awesome, Saturday was strong at a new studio in Melbourne’s Bayside and then Sunday was a bit rough. You just never know what you’re going to get.

Today I took the young fella off to the South Melbourne studio for the 9.30am class, and we were joined by former Richmond footballer Nathan Brown doing his very first class. He hung there all the way without sitting out any postures, a great effort for a first time. It was hot and humid in the room, I found it really tough and obviously had added a few cms as I struggled with postures I can normally achieve.

ex Footscray and Richmond player Nathan Brown's first Bikram Yoga session. Pictured with Declan, myself, Jacqui and Karen.

Nathan now does some work for Triple M Melbourne, and I think this session was an on air challenge of some kind. After class he interviewed Declan, who had joined the class for the floor series, and also Maggie the studio director who has been an amazing supporter of Saving Alan. So tomorrow, sometime between 4 and 6 pm we may hear Declan and Maggie on Triple M. If they podcast the section I’ll post a link later.

I love Bikram Yoga, some days not as much as others, but if I am away from it for more that 2 days my practice really suffers, so I need to find ways of making sure I can get there every second day as well as building in the personal training gym that I am also enjoying. The last piece of the puzzle is food, they say that food is 80% of weight loss, and my experiences are telling me that that is right. So it’s time to put some serious effort into getting the food balance right and watch the kilos strip back off.

Now to get my family members into the heat, so far I have three of four willing to take the step, anyone else up for joining a Saturday morning session? – I promise you’ll love it!

I’m sitting in McDonalds at the moment!

Talk about a test of will power, the smell of fried food is overwhelming and I would love to scoff down a hash brown or two. The simple reason I am here is because they provide free wi-fi, so it is a chance to post the occasional blog.

I’ve just been out for a 50 minute walk along the beach and cliff faces at Mornington, a great way to start the day, and the good news is no blisters on the feet. But I have worked out I can walk about 50 minutes with no problems but if I push out to more than an hour I’ll have the same old problems, so I’ll top and tail the day with a few different walks of around 40-50 minutes.

Last night I went for a walk with my beautiful niece Gemma. It’s always amazing to spend time with nephews and nieces and just to marvel at the adults they have become from the beautiful little babies and todddlers we played with and spoilt. She’s a wonderful and strong woman and a credit to her mother’s sacrifice and struggle (as is Eve of course). I am looking forward to continuing the conversation on tonight’s walk and importantly seeing her spend time with my son and watching their bond grow and develop. One thing is forever .. family.

Sitting in McDonald’s drinking a bottle of water (I had to buy something to overcome the guilts of using their wi-fi) I remember in the late 90’s living in Sydney and catching the ferry to work every morning from Mosman to Circular Quay. There is a McDonalds prominently located between the wharf and the office in Pitt Street and I recall seeing people flocking in there for their breakfast. I could never understand the fast food brands, I was never a fan of McD, Red Rooster, KFC or any of the other corporate fast food joints. I was a more fish and chips sort of guy and that is definitely not a breakfast food, even for me.

One morning I decided to see if there was anything I’d like in McDonalds – error No.1.

I discovered the celebrated hash Brown (celebrated in my mind).

So I bought one, unsure whether I’d like them, added some salt and whammo what a good start to the day.

This soon become a morning ritual, but 2 Hash Browns soon turned to three, then to four, then to six. I’d hide down the corner of the store and eat them in case anyone from the office or that I knew would see me consuming what I knew to be a poor choice breakfast.

Six was about the maximum I thought I could eat, but sure enough it soon became eight Hash Browns for breakfast. I could see the look of surprise and disgust on some of the staff’s face as I ordered, they knew it was just for me, no matter how nonchalant I tried to be.

So there I was, in no time flat I went from 1 to 8 Hash Browns every morning. I was so hooked that when I went and got the newspaper on the weekends I’d nick down to the local McDonald’s and knock back another eight Hash Browns.

Today, I’d still like to have a Hash Brown or two, but the fact is one turns in to eight pretty quickly and the fact is while I like Hash Browns, Hash Brown’s don’t like me!

This could be titled “The Tale of Two Brothers”, I’ll leave the other two aside for he moment, yes I come from a larger family of six children, four boys and two girls.

The six of us were born over an 18 year period (’54 – ’72) and all have a pretty good relationship with each other, at times testy, but that’s to be expected in a family of any size.

My younger brother has never dealt with weight issues, although no doubt has confronted his own challenges over the years, as a father of three and separated he has some of the same situations as me, but thankfully a pretty good relationship with his ex-wife.

As kids growing up I was closer in age to the brother above me and as we reached adulthood we had a lot of friends in common and so became quit tight, whereas little brother was 4 years younger and the relationship not so tight as kids. That has changed and developed as we grew older and no doubt will continue to.

I am incredibly proud of my little brother, he is the Ironman to my Wobbleguts – first let me explain Wobbleguts.

When I first started on the Saving Alan journey one of my forms of xercise was Aqua Aerobics, keeping the weight off my ankle joints and feet which were really suffering due to my size.

One day after class my son and I played in the wave pool and mucked around with a story about a super hero and a villain. I decided to give the superhero the name of Wobbleguts, because ion the swimming pool my belly wobbled like you can’t imagine, much to said sons amusement.

So I am Wobbleguts, he has lived on since that day in the pool some nine months ago through our bedtime stories. We create stories around Captain Wobbleguts and his merry men including Monster Guy, Dark Knight and Golden Ninja – a formidable foursome of force.

When we first started the stories, all my son wanted to do was kill Captain Wobbleguts, but we made a deal that we could only let him die when my belly was pretty much gone. So Wobbleguts, your days are numbered!

Back to my brother. A few years ago he started going to the local gym and getting a little more serious about his body shape (enter vanity comments here …), dropping his golf off which I never thought he would do as he was an avid golfer and was able to get his handicap down to single figures.

He seemed to find a little community and click at the gym which motivated him and the change was evident. From being just a normal lean 40 year old he started to develop some serious guns and went shirtless at every opportunity – so would I with the shape that he developed and how hard he had obviously worked.

But something else happened, the kid who was never into running started to get a bit serious and before I knew it he had clocked up a couple of marathons, sheer lunacy in my book, but little did I know that was just the start.

The next thing to appear was a racing bike (bicycle) and out came the lycra – well it was a great opportunity to show off the physique and the tan! He told me he had joined a Triathlon Team called Tribal, this was going to be interesting because couldn’t really swim very well, how was ever going to survive the swim leg of a Tri?

With gusto he threw himself into the training and now 12 months later he just completed his first (I fear there will be more) Ironman length Triathlon. I am so incredibly proud of him and what he has been able to achieve, how he has gone about it, his single-mindedness to prepare his body and mind plus his ability to juggle his everyday life and still deliver on being a father to three gorgeous kids, a worker, brother, friends and partner.

Our stories are similar in that we have both set out with a goal in mind and are focused on the journey and what we have to do to get there. We both needed to learn more about food and diet, exercise and how our bodies work and their current limitations, and we both need to plan ahead to be able to get everything into our sometimes complex and confusing lives.

So last Sunday I was tracking his progress via the web, saw that he had a great swim, a couple of minutes under his expectation, but the bike didn’t seem to be panning out as expected and so I thought he must have gone into complete meltdown after going too hard in the swim. I’ll let him pick up the story from here in an email he sent around last night;

Hey Everyone,

I am now officially an IRONMAN!!

Didn’t quite break 12 hrs. It was 12hrs 18min. But I am absolutely rapped.

The day was hot and windy. 30+ degrees, sunny and windy. Not ideal conditions. At least the water temperature was under 24 degrees so I could wear a wetsuit.

Did the swim in 1hr 18min. A couple mins quicker than planned. I swam really well. Controlled and easy. It felt awesome for a guy who couldn’t swim 100m 12 months ago. 143rd out of 194 in my age group (there must be 51 absolute nuff nuff swimmers…lol). This was by far the biggest thing I achieved. I have carried a fear of swimming and deep water for 30+ years.

Everyone wants to know about my 12min transition. That is embarrassing. But by the time i did my hair!!! I cant believe it was that long. Something to work on!!

The ride was a little disappointing. I rode to heart rate (77-80% of max heart rate) and just couldn’t get the speed up to what I wanted because it felt like we were riding into a head wind all day. It was probably a cross wind that was only a tail wind for a few km’s each lap. I decided to keep to heart rate rather than speed and destroy the legs for the run. I had a little mechanical problem towards the end of the first lap. Had to stop twice because the cadence sensor came loose and was hitting the pedal/crank. Fixed it ok the second time. Struggled on the bike around the 140-150km mark. Didn’t help that they ran out of sports drinks at the drink stations and only had warm/hot water or cola left. So I had to adjust the nutrition plan a little (Kath taught me well). But I coped. So I did a 6hr 20min 180km ride. 144th out of 194.

The run was fantastic, if you can say that after 180km ride. During the first 2km, I was thinking Olympic distance tri’s are a lot better option (10km run)…lol. But I got into a really good rhythm. I worked out I had to run a sub 4hr marathon. But it would have meant pushing my heart rate beyond 85% for the whole run. I again decided to run to 78-80% of max heart rate so I wouldn’t blow up. Which meant at the end of the first lap (14km) I knew I wasn’t going to break 12hrs, but I didn’t care.

I felt strong and was moving really well. But the run leg was like a battle zone. People doubled over with cramp, vomitting and struggling to just walk. I can’t believe how many younger and fitter guys I ran past (they all went too hard in the ride and paid the penalty). But the highlight was interacting with the crowd. I played it up alll along the run. Ordering beers, hamburgers, taxi’s, singing, high 5ing kids, and generally joking with different groups. I did this so I would look forward to seeing these groups at different parts of the course.

The last lap i started to feel it in the legs a bit and slowed. But it wasn’t about time at that stage, it was about taking it all in. And not walking at any stage, which I am happy to say i didn’t walk….ran all the way. Running down the finishing chute was unbelievable (the true highlight of the day). The support crew was towards the start of the chute. Hi-5’s all round and then sucked in the last 150m. It was awesome coming over the line. I felt like i could have done another lap. I was not in distress at all. So i ended up doing a 4hr 20min marathon which I was rapped with considering the amount of people i passed. 43rd out of 194 (266th male out of 966). Somehow running has become my strength.

So over all 12hr 18min. 90th out of 194 in my age group. 463rd male out of 966. And i am now an ironman, and planning the next.

Kath gave me some fantastic advice on Friday night. If I wasn’t smiling for 95% of the time, I shouldn’t be there. It was so true. So I decided to take that into the race. So I joked and chatted my way around the whole bike and run course. And it just puts you in a different mindset. It made my day so enjoyable. There were lots of people who went quicker than me, but I doubt that there was many who enjoyed it as much as I did. The spectators and volunteers were awesome.

The Tribal (the Tri squad i am a member of) cheer squad was awesome to. It was great to see Kath and a mate Nathan every lap. There smiles almost matched mine. It was great to have someone special watching along the way and at the finish and to talk about it afterwards. The coach was over here to and was great to have him here to keep an eye on me.

The house I am staying in is a Rockstar party house. So it should for $5000 per week (thank god we filled it with close to 10 people for most of the week). Wait for the pics on Facebook. Although there are 19 stairs to my bedroom. They have been a struggle until today. The legs are recovering well. I have shared the house with 2 Pro triathletes (one competed at the Olympics last year). And a few others have come and visited and it has been a great week. Just the 3 of us left now and heading back to Melbourne tomorrow.

So it has been an incredible journey and experience particularly for my first ironman. Now I have to prepare for my next. Port Macquarie. Very hilly and demanding, but it will a great challenge. Sis has already volunteered to come down as support.

Well that’s all for now. look forward to seeing everyone very soon. And i can tell you all about it in person. Thanks for all your messages, they have been appreciated.

Paul (Official Ironman)

The moral of the story – if anyone notices me starting to follow little brothers path – stop me! It’s starts with a bike and ends in lunacy.

The real moral of course is I just need to do things in the moment, for the fun, for the enjoyment, for the journey. I need to enjoy the personal challenge and you never quite know what I’m capable of.

So my journey continues with no defined events to compete in etc and I’ll pick up new things as I go and discard others as ell, most important is that I find things I enjoy and that enthuse me.

At 158 kilos no form of exercise got me excited, but things change if just give yourself a chance, schedule your world a little, live in the moment and with intent amazing things can be achieved.

Bro, thanks for letting me post your email, you inspire me.