If you remember your high school physics this is Newton’s second law of motion that explains the relationship between and object, its acceleration or velocity and its mass. The F stands for force, the m stands for mass or weight and the a stands for acceleration but for simplicity we will call it velocity. With a little algebra we can quickly say that and object’s velocity is dependant on the forced applied. That is the force we applied on the pedals on the bike or the force applied during the push off phase while we run. The bigger he forces the faster the velocity if everything else stays the same. In training we work on making this force bigger and maintainable for a long time during our race. However the other part of the equation is the mass. That is how much we weigh. The more we weight the slower we will go with the same force applied.

This pesky little m has always been my biggest challenge even from my childhood age. When I was in elementary school some of my friends and even their parents will call me gordito. Gordo is fat in Spanish and gordito is a way of combining a term of endearment with the fact that one has extra pounds. I suppose if we did that here in the US now days we will get sued for something. Back then I never thought much of it, all I thought was that if any one messed with me it would not be for long. :-)

So since I was a gordito you would think that I would choose a sport or activities were I could exploit that fact. But no, who wants to make things easy. I fell in love with endurance sports. In the 6th grade back In Colombia there was a ½ marathon race which was about 10 loops around my small town and one of our teachers was running in it. So my friends and I though we would take turns and try to run with our teacher for one lap. I can not recall how long I hung on for but that is where it all started. My teacher showed me about endurance sports. Read my post from yesterday about this.

Since my childhood years my weight has been up and down many times and my athletic performances have been going up and down with it. Today as I embark in my quest for Kona 2006 that little m is still my biggest challenge. If I can lose the weight my performance will be there, if not it will be a struggle. Can the coach, coach himself? I will give it a try. My training runs and rides are getting faster by the week and it is all because I am losing weight. My aerobic heart rate is much easier to maintain with a smaller fat tire around my waist. It is motivating me. My Ironman PR in 1993 was done with my weight at 163 lbs. I doubt very much I can get that skinny again. I am hoping for 175. Right now I am at 197 and that is 15 down from this summer. I better pull some of my skinny clothes out of the closet.