Ricky and Dick Hoyt: Heroes

I ran across this today. After reading the article view the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE


[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.
Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'’ Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an Institution.'’
But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,'’ Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.'’
“Tell him a joke,'’ Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!'’ And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want To do that.'’
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker'’ who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,'’ Dick says. “I was sore For two weeks.'’
That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,'’ he typed, “when we were running, It felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!'’
And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
“No way,'’ Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a Single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'’
How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you Think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,'’ he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling'’ he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.
“No question about it,'’ Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.'’
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,'’ One doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.'’ So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
“The thing I’d most like,'’ Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.'’

Favorite Quote

My favorite all time quote for race day is by Gordo Byrn from one of his training camp posts pre-Kona 2005.

Make peace with yourself, head out there and enjoy the day. A quiet mind creates quiet power and that is the key to putting together a good race. You finishing position is the least important aspect of your race. Stay calm. Be strong. Race with honour.

Here is an article on the qualities needed when racing especially when doing an Ironman race.

http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20061026_THS_Head_Right.html

Why do you tri?

Here is a good article on what got people into triathlon... My story coming soon!

http://active.com/story.cfm?story_id=13561&sidebar=26&category=triathlon

Workout schedule for this week

I am working on running this week. My goal is to run 4 times this week. My goal is to run at very low intensity and just work on building a base so I am literally running slower than 12 minute miles right now. I'm trying to be OK with that but its hard.

Good news is that I am back into weight loss mode. I am hoping to have lost 10 pounds by Thanksgiving.

Monday: 90 min Bike, 75 min run
Tuesday: 90 min Bike, 90 min Swim, 20 min Run, 45 Strength, 45 TaeKwonDo
Wednesday: 90 min Bike, 45 min Swim, 50 min Run
Thursday: 90 min Bike, 90 min Swim, 20 min Run, 45 Strength, 45 TaeKwonDo
Friday: 90 min Bike, 45 min run
Saturday: 180 min Bike

My oth goal is to get back into the swing of strength training and working it back into my routine.

Ugh!!! Strength Training

Today I did my first strength training session in almost a year!

I did a 20 minute warm up on the treadmill and then did the following:
Lunges
Shoulders
Triceps
Lat Pull downs
Standing shoulder press
Upright row
Leg press
Leg extensions
Leg curls

Lactate Training

I listened to a podcast the other day from a trainer at Peak Performance. It made alot of sense. You can hear it at: http://switchpod.com/playing.php?action=view&id=9145&ftp=yes&fuser=gymskinz&puser=

The jist of it was that as an IM athlete you need to train your zone 1 to be higher and to train so that you can exercise at your lactate threshold longer. She made a good argument that for endurance athletes we spend too much time training in our Zone 2. During base the time is to focus on increasing you ability to go longer and faster in zone 1 and increase the time you can spend at your lactate threshold.

So today I ran. SLOWLY!!!! I ran slow enough that my HR never went over 144 beats per minute. I had to slow all the way down to 4.6 mph to stay under that but I tell you what I could have stayed there all day long.

I did have caffeine that morning which may have affected my HR upwards but my HR just standing was only 54 so it shouldn't have been that big of a factor.

I plan on looking into this more extensively over the next few days/week.