meet christian
INTRODUCTION
My name’s Christian, and I’m from Baltimore (I actually went to high school with Chris, our cyclist.) I’ll be doing the 10k running leg of the triathlon in August, which has been a subject of some concern for the team, because let’s just say college life has been a bit rough on my fitness. In high school I ran the mile for the Junior Varsity track team junior and senior year, never posted a time below five minutes, and routinely lost to scrawny freshmen. I also had a lengthy campaign as a bench-warmer on the varsity soccer team, and a JV wrestling career (145 lbs.) that petered out due to repeated skin infections after only one season (apparently you’re supposed to take showers after practice.)
I’m not ashamed of this resume at all, because for me it’s never been about “functional” or even “sport-specific” strength- or speed-training. Sure I wanted to get faster and learn how to throw down a mean half-nelson, but at the end of the day, fitness was important to me because I was all about feeling hard-core—“building the house” as my weight-room mentors used to call it. You build yourself a nice palatial estate, heavy on abs, chest, and biceps – and who cares if you can’t do anything with it? At least you have the satisfaction of knowing you built it. But now I’m about more than that – Chris has been lecturing me about “base training” (more on this later) and “tapering” and I’m trying to change my ways (and curb my love for eating.) There’s plenty of motivation, because I know runners are a dime a dozen – if I roll in on August 7th with a Coke and a donut in my fannypack, there’s ten mercenary cardio-fiends in Ithaca that my teammates will be able to replace me with. And then where am I going to be? Enjoying my snack on the sideline, while my two teammates and my surrogate bring home the crown for b.good.
CHRISTIAN ON CHRIS: Well, I went to high school with Chris, so I’ve seen where he came from. Before he even knew what a bike was, Chris was practicing the violin three hours a day and thinking about a career in music. Good bow-work and solid fingering doesn’t build hard bodies. I was pumping iron, going high protein and running intervals while this kid was still trying to find a stand partner who could put up with him. When he contemplated putting down the violin and picking up a bike seat, he came to ME for nutrition and training advice. Now the tables have turned, and he’s been training hard, but I’ll turn them back. That’s what this summer is for.
CHRISTIAN ON ALEX: This guy’s a hit with the ladies, but I’ve never really understood that. I’ve got the muscles and the abs. He’s got what? A weird tie-dye shirt and some bleached out hair? His team shaves for competition, but for him it’s hardly a necessity because he doesn’t have any hair on his chest. Let’s just say I have a hunch that Alex Meyer stock is going to be falling on the singles market when I hit Ithaca in August in my skimpy b.good skinsuit.
TRAINING ENTRY 1: Thanksgiving break is usually a time for…thanksgiving. For me, it was a time of reckoning. I had a hunch what was up when all the new jeans that my mother bought for me to go away to college stopped fitting after a few weeks – but the thrill of eating bowls of rice krispies with chocolate milk and having soft-serve frozen yogurt at two meals a day was too overpowering to deny on the strength of mere suspicion. Unfortunately, I couldn’t ignore it when I saw my doctor for a physical the day before turkey-fest and saw what the scale read: 162 lbs. For those keeping track at home, that’s seventeen lbs more than the trim 145 that I carried throughout much of high school and the summer following. The physician’s expression said it all: pursed lips, a shake of the head, and a simple question, “What have you been doing?”
17 lbs. in a little over two months was a low point, but I’ve tempered my eating somewhat, and I’m ready to get training — if I can just get back to my high school weight, I assume that will represent a rise in fitness such as will be acceptable for the 10k. Running has not yet become a regular thing – once or twice a week, I go out there and go all out; mostly I lift. Chris is not pleased with this arrangement. We are currently in negotiations and are working out a plan that (if we can come to agreement) will be outlined in the next update.
