I somehow find myself being inspired these days by an 80-year old Ironman triathlete named Lew Hollander. I first saw his profile on last Decembers Ironman triathlon championship in Kona, Hawaii that I had on the DVR (and have since watched several times since). Since I watched it so many times, I just had to do more research on the person who at that age can do something that I can only ever dream of doing (at this point) and he’s done it 16 times after the age of 55 … thats just amazing.

So whats his secret … well, one secret is the title of this post… “Go Anaerobic everyday”. Each training season I find a motto by which I train against, and I think i’ll try this one for the summer. But what exactly does this mean to me? Well, most days I find myself being anaerobic just in the workout i’ve built, however on the days when I don’t have it built in already, i’m going to add it. Even if its only for 15 minutes a day, it is still going anaerobic. I figure that even though the knowledge out there states that it won’t necessarily help my endurance, but I really think it will and actually help my standard aerobic exercises and help get me to the next level.

Another secret that Lew live by is “I never eat anything I can’t identify the parts to” .. like hot dogs or stuff like that. Thats an easy one for me to follow because I rarely eat anything I can’t identify, its mostly fruit and poultry that I eat ..

Here are the other secrets he lives by, take from it what you will, I know I will:
1. USE IT OR LOSE IT.
2. Go hard, live long.
3. Eat well, fruits and vegetables with abundant supplements
4. Set your plans well in advance and have achievable goals.
5. Have a stress free relationship.
6. Keep socially active and interested in life and it’s challenges.
7. There are no fat old people so watch your calorie intake.

Well, enough about him, its funny how you get inspired in weird ways, I hope I can be like him still doing endurance races at age 80.

So this was my first recovery week in the 10 week training prior to the Wilkes-Barre triathlon. I have just under 7 weeks to go and so far so good. In addition to adding a fueling plan to my training, i’ve added something that I call “pain management”, actually my massage therapist Ruth called it that. Pain management refers to getting adjusted, getting massage, taking my supplements so that I can recover (I take my vitamins, magnesium and glucosamine) and as always mix in my ibuprofen. I’ve found that by adding a good session of stretching after my workouts, it keeps the pain away. This is now a daily ritual.

I’ve been happy with my cycling and my swimming so far in this cycle. I managed to get a 1 mile plus open water swim in on Saturday out at Blue Marsh Lake and it felt great. Yep, 38 minutes straight in the open water, which is more than the next triathlon distance I have to swim. The extra swim time is definitely paying off.. i’m up to 4 days a week, including a quick lunchtime swim one day a week, which turns out to be a real cool swim (and a nice way to break up my day at work).

I don’t actually get to post too often anymore, i’m not sure if I even have an audience these days like I used to, but I’m still at it. I just had to stop and share the story of Lew Hollander, I hope his website and attitude towards life inspires you like it has me.