A Year In Plain View

New shoes + new goggles + new pump = fresh start. Yes, December 1 marks the beginning of my yearlong Ironman training program. I use the term 'yearlong' loosely because, well let's be honest, there's only 9 months until my race. Not to worry though, I haven't just been sitting around lazily, carefully deliberating my attack on the next 277 days, I have been swimming, riding, and running with relentless vigor. That's right, so far I've been driving across North America without a map, backpacking through the Amazon without a compass, climbing Kilimanjero without . . . you get the idea.

One day sprints, the next day tempo, then intervals; I do lactate threshold rides and hill repeats (okay that last part is a joke, everyone knows there are no hills in Florida), long runs, long rides & countless swim drills; I have been working. I took 3 whole minutes off my 10mile time trial. I can run 6 miles with no little to no back pain (90% true 50% of the time). I can pretty much complete a mile in the pool without drowning. I am awesome without direction. Don't judge me!

Those leisure days are over, I now have direction, targets, volume & intensity goals. I, Eric Barber, have a plan. First, the Miami Marathon - 1/2 or full, I'm not sure, but I know the race is on a Sunday. Then comes my Oly in Tampa, when is that again? From there, the 70.3 or (aka Half-Ironman) in May; Orlando bound, I think. A couple of sprints in Key Biscayne later, my good friend Brandon's wedding, and bingo-bango, Ironman Canada will be upon us. As you can plainly see, the magic is in the details my friends.

All kidding aside, the yearlong training program is beginning to take shape. No more haphazard approach to training under the guise of training for 'speed'. I know have periodization, structure and testing to look forward to.

See you in August, that's right!

Emery Behavioral Medicine

I used to be a big fat guy. I like to think this message really stood out in my last post, so I will use it as an elaborate segue into my unabashed self-promotion of the business Christi and I own, Emery Behavioral Medicine. Brace yourselves, this will get ugly.

When I proclaim that I was fat, I don't mean a couple of pounds overweight. And no, this is not just a little self-deprecating humor used to put a smile on your face. I am 6'1" and I weighed approximately 250lbs. If you look at any height-to-weight charts - that's FAT! My life consisted of restaurant food, beer, late night pub fare, beer, and copious amounts of other "calorie-dense" foods. I didn't mind too much though, I was enjoying myself immensely. Besides, I met Christi at that weight and she loved me for the Chris Farley lookalike I was, not the Charles Atlas wannabe I would eventually become.

Some of my fondest memories are associated with that lifestyle, the relationships that were fostered and continue to aggrandize today. It wasn't until a few short years ago that I happily traded in my 4am bed time for a 4am alarm clock. (There you have it, my first blogger segue. Not terrible, right?)

Being a business owner and personal trainer usually provides me with the scheduling freedom to precisely coordinate my Ironman training program. Most days I pummel the snooze button for the first time at 3:45am, by 4:25, after a quick shower & shave, I am eating a hearty breakfast and by 4:45am I am out the door to train. From my understanding this is pretty consistent with the insanity brought on by Ironman training, but my situation is a little different. Instead of heading out the door for an early morning hills session or tempo run, I am off to the office to train my first client of the day at 5am.

Christi and I are fortunate enough to own a private weight loss and personal training facility in beautiful Weston, Florida. The manicured landscaping and sprawling royal palms create the perfect backdrop for Emery Behavioral Medicine, located in the heart of our far from quaint town. Our facility provides a behavior based weight loss program as well as highly tailored personal training to the people of Weston and other local communities. Our clientele consists mainly of people seeking to increase their fitness and lose weight but we also have the luxury of training professional & amateur athletes, former Olympians, marathoners and triathletes. After all, variety is the spice of life.

I love my life and where the dusty path has led me. I must mention that without my mother, Christi's parents (all of them:-) and Uncle Gord, none of this would be possible. For this we thank you and please know that we are eternally grateful.

The take home message of the day: It's time to accept that 4am is wake up time, not bedtime.

Ironman Canada

First post, ever. Wow, I don't know what I am doing. Hmmmm? The word narcissist keeps coming to mind. Oh well. As these words begin to take form into a real post, I am at a loss. Where to begin?

I was once a very fat individual. I refused to believe it however. I thought I looked pretty good, maybe a little extra cottage cheese around the mid section but I was confident I could sell tickets to the gun show. Luckily, I met a wonderful woman, who I might add is now my wife. Christi is whom I credit my personal transformation. With Christi's help I will complete the transformation from a 245 pound compilation of chicken wings and beer to a (let's hope) super fit Ironman.

Over the summer of 2008, Christi and I enjoyed a 12 day road trip driving from sunny South Florida to the Great White North. Although the first 2 days of the trip is still a blur, comprised mostly of driving, Red Bull and . . . no, that's about it, the remaining 10 days were highly enjoyable. We ended up in Penticton, BC for the trip's main focus -Ironman Canada 2008. Ironman, due to its wildly increasing popularity, has the 'sign up for the event a year in advance' clause. There is a plethora of reasons that Ironman would instate such an inconvenient rule, but I imagine the main motivator was to mitigate the likelihood of the 'less serious' individuals from signing up. Either way, we were there, and it was freakin' awesome! The whole weekend was a collage of athletes, tri bikes, sweat and running shoes.

We were fortunate enough to bear witness to what can only be described as the single most motivating endurance spectacle in my experience. It made camping out in the rain to get in line to sign up for Ironman Canada 2009 the next day very enjoyable. There is something prodigious about hearing the announcer, over the loud speaker, bellow the words, "Eric Barber . . . YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!". (Obviously, the announcer did not say my name, but that is how I choose to remember the situation, who are you to judge anway?).

So, as I sit here, typing away diligently, I have come to the realization that there is a little less than 7000 hours remaining for me to train. I better be going now, but before I do I want to say one thing. I owe a great deal to my lovely wife, who has supported me 110% from the beginning. I couldn't do this without you Christi! I love you and thank you!!

Stay tuned for the trials and tribulations of my impending journey to Ironman Canada 2009, it should be a good one.

Post 1 complete, boo-ya!