One of the reasons that I like to stay in shape is that I am trying to inspire the people around me. In my pediatric practice, I try to lead by example when it comes to healthy lifestyles. When I’m talking to kids about eating a healthy breakfast, instead of telling them what to eat, I simply say, “This is what I eat…” The parents and kids have seen me lose 40 pounds over the last few years, and that makes it a lot easier to give nutritional advice! Many of my friends have also witnessed this transformation – and they want to know my secret. I often answer, “Join me on a bike ride and find out!”

A good friend of mine, T, recently took me up on my offer, saying he wanted to try this triathlon thing. Years ago, T was a high school state champion long distance runner but a lack of activity has taken its toll on his physique in recent years (that’s putting it gently). A successful career with long commuting hours had not left much time for exercise, but T wanted to make a change before his health started to suffer.

We picked a short “sprint” triathlon that was about two months away, and I told him to run twice a week, bike twice a week, and swim twice a week. He was able to find a few extra minutes each day to get some quality exercise time. This was during the time that I was seriously preparing for my Ironman, and we would meet about once a week to talk about how our training was going. It was fun to watch him go through the rapid improvement phase that I enjoyed a few years ago.

Just yesterday was the race, and we both had a great time! For me, it was nice to do a much shorter triathlon – the whole race only took me 58 minutes to complete – an essential sprint. Compare that with the six hours of half-Ironman which required careful planning and energy preservation strategies (which I am still trying to get a grip on…); this sprint triathlon was much easier. Simply swim as fast as you can for a quarter mile, then ride your bike as fast as you can for 10 miles, then run for 3 miles… you guessed it: as fast as you can. Simple. Easy. And not a single cramp! Apparently I have a lot more fast twitch muscle fibers than slow twitch because I finished in the top 10% of the field verses where I finished the Ironman (about 50%).

My buddy, T, surprised everyone by winning his age group even though he was riding his mountain bike! Driving home from the race, I could tell that he was hooked as he talked about getting a real triathlon bike and moving out of the beginner category! We’ve put together a race schedule for the summer with a sprint race about once a month – just often enough to keep us motivated to train.

-Dr. Jim

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