Who I Am, and Why it Matters

Every athlete toes the start line with a story. All of them are unique, each of them are inspirational to others, in some way.

I am a truck driver. I belong to a profession that is not known for the fitness of the people who stay in the industry for a long time. Wait, let me amend that. Truck drivers have a reputation for their fitness level, but it is not a good reputation. The consensus view, even among other drivers, is that truck drivers tend to be grossly overweight, smokers, sleep deprived, with more of a penchant for barbecue than a brisk walk around the truckstop.

The image is not unwarranted. According to a study performed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in 2014, long-haul truck drivers are more than twice as likely to be obese as the general population (69% vs. 31%). We are also more than twice as likely to be morbidly obese (17% vs. 7%), and to smoke (51% vs. 19%). We are twice as likely to have diabetes (14% vs. 7%).  All of this is taking place in an environment where federal regulations are growing stricter on just how out-of-shape someone can be, and still safely operate a commercial motor vehicle. Sometimes, though, it takes more of a wake up call than than the government telling you that you are unhealthy.

As a third-generation trucker, I was not surprised that when I first went into driving, I began to put on some weight. Driving is a demanding profession, and at the end of a long, stressful day I only wanted to grab a bite to eat and hit the sleeper berth. When I met my wife in 1989, and we started driving team, the challenges only increased. Driving around 22 hours a day, we did not have the time, nor the energy, to exercise and learn to eat right. My weight went up way past the point that I did not like what I saw in the shower-room mirror. I hit a point where my energy was low, my back hurt all the time, and I would get winded just by climbing up a few stairs. We decided to make some changes after a trip to Alaska in 1992.

A short hike will allow visitors to Exit Glacier, on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, to climb up to the ice fields. The hike is considered moderate in difficulty. We wanted to see the ice fields, but knew that “moderate” may have been beyond our limits. We had always planned to get back in shape “someday.” For the first time, a possible adventure had come up, and we were not fit enough to enjoy it. Out of our frustration, we decided to set a goal. We wrote our goal on a piece of paper and posted it where we would see it everyday. We wanted "To be ready for whatever may be in store for us!" We began a journey that involved learning about nutrition and exercise. The small changes we made became bigger changes and then bigger goals. About thirteen years later, I set a huge goal. I wanted to train for, and run, a marathon.

Most marathon training programs call for building up weekly miles of running. I changed my priorities to suit my goal. If the truck was stopped, I was running. My weekly miles progressed up to twenty miles per week, then thirty, then even a forty-mile week. Although most runners would consider me woefully under-trained, I completed the Rock-N-Roll Marathon in Phoenix in January of 2006. Running turned out to be a great way for me to exercise on the truck. It was efficient, I could get my heart rate up quicker than seeing blue lights in my rear-view mirror. Running provided a great break from driving. Only minimal gear was required, so not much space in the truck was taken up with exercise equipment. Now I have completed five marathons, two half-marathons, a number of 5Ks, two sprint triathlons, an Olympic-Length triathlon, and I am about to try my longest race ever, a Half-Ironman. 70.3 miles of swimming, cycling, and running. Cindy and I still like to eat barbecue, but we make daily decisions to be active and watch what we eat.

I do hope my story is inspirational. Currently, it seems that if we drivers see a fit person driving a truck, we think he is new to the industry. We see a heavy person driving a truck, and we think they are a veteran driver.  If we see a four-hundred pound person anywhere, we think that they must drive a truck for a living.  I have a dream that we can change that line of thinking.

I would like to see a scrawny person driving a truck thought of as a brand-new driver.  A heavy person driving a truck will be thought of as a newbie, one who has not quite gotten it together yet.  When you will see a fit person getting out of their truck in running shorts, you would think that he is a veteran driver who has figured out how to live on the road.

Resources exist, and are being created, for drivers who have decided to make a change. We have to get the message out to them that they can make a difference in their lives. If I can do it, they can do it. If getting the message out involves swimming, cycling, and running around the beautiful city of Chattanooga for a day, I'm in.

A construction worker starts driving a truck, circa 1988.  On my way to over 280 lbs.

Finishing my first marathon, 2006. Back in 1-derland.

Olympic-Length Tri finish. Over 90 lbs lighter.

Looking More like a Tri-bike.

Aero bars?  Who needs that nonsense?  I used to think that.  Then I fought a fifteen mile-per-hour headwind one day on the way back to my house from a swim workout.  I was a little tired, but I felt like I was riding straight up a steep hill.  Whew!

45 bucks on Amazon for these clip-on Aero bars.  I spare no expense!

We did a bit of adjusting to get the fit right.

Swim Workouts on the Road

Driving through Florida, I often look at the inviting lakes and streams, dream of going for a swim, and then wonder how you can tell if there are any alligators in a particular lake.  I assume that the people who live there know where to swim, and where not to swim, but to us travelers, it can be a mystery.  A mystery you don't want to solve by getting nibbled on by a ten-foot long prehistoric critter.

The swim part of the Half-Ironman is 1.2 miles in open water.  In a 50-yard lap pool, that is about 42 laps.  The first time we got home I swam 1.6 miles in about 70 minutes in our local recreation center.  I also got in a mile at a YMCA that is across the street from a truckstop in Weatherford, Oklahoma.  I wanted to get in some kind of open water swim, and kept looking on Google, and Google Maps for places to go.  We have observed some swimming areas near truckstops over the years.  There is the Columbia River, near Troutdale, Oregon.  Also the lake near the TA in Sparks,Nevada.  The state campground is right across I-15 from the Flying J in Willard, Utah.  This early in the year many of the swimming areas are not open yet, because it is too cold to swim.

We had a day off, waiting for a load, in Sacramento, California.  Cindy agreed to run with me down to the Sacramento River, wait while I swam, and run back with me to the 49r Travel Plaza where we were parked.  I found a website that had river temperature information on one of their links.  The river was 58 degrees.  Sounded chilly.  The Chattanooga River is supposed to be 72 degrees during my race.  Sounds nicer.  As it turns out, 58 degrees is CRAZY chilly.  Not bad for wading, but I was glad Cindy was there to encourage me to get in.

I look like I am checking my equipment in this picture, but I am actually working up my nerve to get in the water.  BRRRRR!

Dang, when we get by home next time, I am grabbing my wetsuit!  I will also be praying for loads to Florida.  Maybe those gators aren't such a big deal after all.

Facebook Alert: It's Official...

Most of the comments were encouraging, with some misgivings for my safety.  About what one would hope for from a group of friends and Facebook friends.

Click here to see the post.  

You Want Me to What?

On March 7th, 2016, I received an exciting (and frightening) email from Human Resources at our employer, US Xpress.

Anxiously, I clicked on the link.  I was thinking that a challenging race late this summer would set me up for a nice PR on my December marathon in California.

May 22, 2016

May?  As in May: not next month, but the one after that?  I double-checked.  Yep, May of this year.  Conflicting thoughts raced through my head. 

 Don't people train for months for Half-Ironman races? Free! As in, "no entry fee?" Don't those things cost $300 or so?  Didn't I just have the lowest mileage months of running in years in January and February?  Yea, but free!  And no time-off counted against you. Let's see, last bike ride was October of 2015, and last swim workout was in Costa Rica in September of 2015.  Hey, last time US Xpress offered you free entry into a race, it was an Olympic Length Triathlon occurring just a week after a marathon.  You pulled that one off.  But a Half-Ironman is more than TWICE the distance of the Olympic-length triathlon.

I came to the conclusion that I would have to be an idiot to sign up for such a challenging race with so little preparation time.

So.  Of course I signed up.

See you in Chattanooga.

Race Report REV3 Triathlon

REV3 Triathlon

Anderson SC, October 2012

Two reefers, a van, a tanker, and three bobtails were parked in the corner of a busy parking lot that was not really designed for truck parking. Your local Walmart? A NASCAR race? Would you believe it was the parking area for the racers at the REV3 Triathlon in Anderson SC?

The first annual triathlon started in 1978 in Hawaii. The race incorporated three events, a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike race, and a run of 26.2 miles. Since then, the popularity of the sport, with varying distances, has grown every year, and was included in the Olympics in 2000. Perhaps many recreational runners and cyclists looked at the race as a new challenge to replace the 10K runs or century rides they completed in the past. But truck drivers? Who would have anticipated truckers competing in races that can strain the best of athletes? Pilot/Flying J, in cooperation with US Xpress's Highway to Health thought so. In summer of 2012 they posted on the U.S. Xpress Drivers facebook page that drivers would have a chance to compete in a triathlon in October.

I had tried out a couple of the shorter, sprint-length, triathlons in the past couple of years and I was excited that I could be in a longer event.  Especially a longer event where Pilot/Flying J would pay my entry fee.  I did have a few concerns, though.  I had very little chance to swim while driving over-the-road.  I did not own one of the race-style road bikes used in triathlons.  Most importantly,  I was planning to run a marathon in the month of October. 

Do not get the impression I am some kind of fitness fanatic that happens to drive a truck, though. As a third-generation trucker, I was not surprised that when I first went into driving, I began to put on some weight. Driving is a demanding profession, and at the end of a long, stressful day I only wanted to grab a bite to eat and hit the sleeper berth. When I met my wife in 1989, and we started driving team, the challenges only increased. Driving around 22 hours a day, we did not have the time, nor the energy, to exercise and learn to eat right. My weight went up way past the point that I did not like what I saw looking back at me in the shower-room mirror. I hit a point where my energy was low, my back hurt all the time, and I would get winded just by climbing up a few stairs. We decided to make some changes after a trip to Alaska in 1992.

A short hike will allow visitors to Exit Glacier, on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, to climb up to the ice fields. The hike is considered moderate in difficulty. We wanted to see the ice fields, but knew that “moderate” may have been beyond our limits. We had always planned to get back in shape “someday.” For the first time, a possible adventure had come up, and we were not fit enough to enjoy it. Out of our frustration, we decided to set a goal. We wrote our goal on a piece of paper and posted it where we would see it eveyday. We wanted "To be ready for whatever may be in store for us!" We began a journey that involved learning about nutrition and exercise. The small changes we made became bigger changes and then bigger goals. About thirteen years later, I set a huge goal. I wanted to train for, and run, a marathon.

Most marathon training programs call for building up weekly miles of running. I changed my priorities to suit my goal. If the truck was stopped, I was running. My weekly miles progressed up to twenty miles per week, then thirty, then forty. Although most runners would consider me woefully under-trained, I completed the Rock-N-Roll Marathon in Phoenix in January of 2006. Running turned out to be a great way for me to exercise on the truck. It was efficient, I could get my heart rate up quickly. Running provided a great break from driving. Only minimal gear was required, so not much space in the truck was taken up with exercise equipment. I ended up running another marathon in 2009, and was training for the third when I read about the REV3 triathlon.

We got a kick out of seeing the trucks parked in the racer's area. We wondered if the other racers thought that it took several semi-loads of equipment to put on a race. One of the trucks looked familiar. A distinctive owner-operator's paint-job made it stand out. Cindy remembered that we had met the driver at another race, the “Big Rig 5K” at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas the year before. We also saw the “fittest trucker” in the America, a triathlete named Siphiwe Baleka, who now works for the health division of Prime Transportation.  We received a warm welcome from the representatives of Pilot/Flying J. Dave Parmly asked me if I wanted some “racing skins.” Sure. What the heck are racing skins? It turns out they are a set of clothes for racing triathlons.

I had somehow I managed to get in a couple of swim workouts since summer. I had also acquired a road bike on Craigslist. I had finished my marathon without hurting myself. As we arrived at the race area I was sore, unprepared, and with a bike I had only ridden two miles. But I had a goal. I was going to finish an Olympic-length triathlon.

The first part of the race is the swim part. The length is 1500 meters, a couple hundred yards short of a mile. I swam in high school, and planned to get out near the front of the group of racers I was starting with, then I would not have too much traffic to deal with.  We were to swim out from shore, around four large buoys, and back to shore. I must have forgotten that I was not in high school anymore, that I had not raced much in the water in 30 years, and (oh yeah) I was a sprinter in high school, not a distance guy.  By the end I was thrilled to have just survived as I moved into the transition area to start the 40k bike part. Cindy cheered me on as I washed down lake water with some Gatorade  got on my used bike and headed out to see if we could survive for 25 miles in hilly South Carolina.

I had paid $400 for my bike. While shopping I had discovered that racing bikes cost anywhere from $800 to $4000, and most used bikes were close to $1500. I clicked pretty well with the cycling part of the race, and started counting the total value of the bikes I passed. Me and my "vintage" Cannondale passed about $40,000 of fancier race and tri-bikes. About two miles from the end of the cycling part, I finally had a mechanical challenge. The front chain came off the gear. Reaching down, I thought I could get it back on while rolling 22 mph. After a few tries, I decided to stop and fix the chain before I hurt someone. Especially me. Then when I stopped, I forgot that I had on toe-clip pedals that keep your feet on the bike. I just barely kept from crashing to the ground before finding out that I could not lift my fatigued leg over the seat of the bike on the first try. So much for dominating the cycle course. I looked more like a Three Stooges routine. Chuckling at myself, I quickly got the chain on and took off again. 

Cindy was waiting for me at the second transition area. She encouraged me while I dismounted the bike, grabbed some more Gatorade, and took off onto the 10K (6.2 miles) running course. Six miles did not sound that tough, after all the marathon training. I started off pretty strong, but then walked through a few of the aid stations and up one of the hills. During the run, some of the racers who were doing the longer Half-length triathlon caught up to me. They had started an hour before me, had just swam, biked, and ran, about 65 miles, and were blowing my doors off. I may have walked more, but a couple of them encouraged me to keep it up. As I rounded the corner and saw the finish line, I regained some energy from somewhere and finished the run a bit faster than I had started.

Swim 43:52, T1 5:27, Bike 1:27:39, T2 1:19, Run 1:02:39
 Finish 3:20:56

I had reached my goal. I finished two races in the month of October. I am always excited to see the programs rolled out by Mary Augustino, Wellness Coordinator with US Xpress, that teach us to set goals and learn to eat right. I have come a long way from being seventy pounds heavier, addicted to tobbaco, and unable to run a single mile. It all goes back to setting small goals, learning consistency, then setting new goals. My wife and I are glad to be working for a company that continues in a leadership role as an advocate for driver health. The Highway to Health brings to drivers an awareness that they can take their fitness goals beyond just losing a few pounds. Maybe I will even get a chance to try that hike up Exit Glacier someday.

Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon

Goal #1, survive and finish.

Goal #2, post a slow time so that I can be assured of setting a new PR at my next race.

All goals accomplished!

A triathlon is an event including swimming, biking, and running.  A sprint triathlon consists of a 500yd swim, then a 30K bike ride (a little over 18 miles), followed by a 5K run (3.16 miles).

I expected the swim to be easier for me.  I had swam in high school.  Admittedly that was a few years ago, but isn't there such a thing as muscle memory?  Truthfully, there was too much muscle memory.  The surf is pretty rough off this coast, and we swam out into eight-foot surf with water temperatures in the low 60's.  I came out of the first couple of waves and started stroking and discovered immediately that the low-rise head turn I had cultivated during school to minimize effort of taking a breath does not work well in surf.  Coughing and choking, I dodged the attendants that had already been pulling people out of the water.  Jim and I had planned out angles of attack to keep the rip current from taking us off course, and I made it efficiently, if not quickly, around the two buoys and back to the beach.

I was surprised to see Jim coming into the transition area as I was leaving.  He had started in the next wave behind me, and was not planning to have a fast swim.  He has about 20 triathlons under his belt, and experience is a big help.  He ended up passing me in the first five miles of the bike part,and his split time for the biking was just under an hour.

 I kept up a steady pace in the biking.  I had borrowed Jim's mountain bike, and we had forgotten to adjust the seat to my height.  With the lower gearing compared to the road bikes, I did not let the people passing bother me.  My split turned out to be 1:20:00.

I did not have a lot of gas left for the run.  I tried to maintain 10:00/mile pacing, but could not.  Jim is a talented runner and did the 5K in 26:28.  I managed only a 37:46.  I was sure glad to see the finish line!

My final time was 2:23:03, which was last in the mountain bike division.  In comparing my times, though, I found that I had beat at lease one person in all the civilian male divisions over 25 years old.  Not bad for a first timer.

I am looking forward to another tri.  My slow performance may even have encouraged Jim's twin, Joel, to give it a "tri".

July Update

Miles were a bit down this month, as house projects went up in priorities.

I ran nine, then seven, then thirteen, then eight.

The positive in training came when we visited my brother-in-law in Southern California.  We had planned to visit his family next month, at the same time his twin brother was to be going out from Colorado.  He happened to mention that he planned to run a Marine Corp triathlon while we were going to be there.  I found that the event was open to civilians, and committed to compete with him.  (As opposed to competing again him.  That would seem to imply that I may be of some competition. I am not.)

So, August 6, the date of my first triathlon.

Having an event really sharpens my workouts. When I am training with a purpose I push harder and more consistently.  When I train with a porpoise I get wet and eat raw fish.