Why I tri


Well, I’m not entirely sure, why I tri – but it might be a good time to explain it to myself. It’s a huge drain of time and energy. It’s really a battle with yourself and those are not smart to wage without a good reason.

In the time following my accident, a lot of encouragement came by way of suggestions for physical things I should do. Back then I really wasn’t that interested in most options. A racing wheelchair, for example, was not something I looked at as a fun challenge. Other things like golf, were tainted by difficulties and my mother’s advice to just strap myself to the side of a golf cart. My main focus was to get mobile, regain independence, and carry on with life. I don’t think, or expect, anybody (save for a few of my peers) to have any idea just how hard it is for me to walk. It has taken a while to crave other physical challenges.

I bet if Prague, CZ had a more active craigslist community, I would have started training earlier. It wasn’t until I returned to the States a couple years ago that I found a piece of equipment cheap enough to buy. It was a racing chair. Thanks to my generous sister (as opposed to the selfish one…wawink) now I have a handcycle and just finished my first solo tri, an olympic distance two weekends ago.

Last September I completed a half-ironman with a teammate who did the cycling leg. Morning of, I stood there looking at the swim course, off La Jolla cove, in the Pacific Ocean. I was pretty sure I could handle the 1.2 mile loop – but I was far from positive. Looking way out at the big yellow pyramids, I could only think, “that’s far”. I did it in less time than I was hoping (39 minutes) and it was intense – no disappointment.

I shake my head just thinking about a full Ironman. For those of you who don’t know, that’s a 2.4mi swim, 112mi cycle, topped of with a full marathon – 26.2 miles. Triathlons, especially long ones are daunting. That’s what I like about them. They have bragging rights, they have obstacles. They demand toughness, discipline, and so many other things that make you fight. That feels good. It is an outlet and an exercise, and not just a physical one.

So Kenny Powers isn’t trying to be the best at exercise. That’s a funny line and I get it. Triathlon is a lot different than other sports. For one it’s no spectator sport. It is definitely a participant sport and the spectators are mainly there to provide support. Thanks Mj! The internal war of a competition and training is awesome – the insight into self and struggle makes it a satisfyingly hellish experience. I’ve got a long ways to go and very little to base this all on – but it’s growing into something and each achievement so far has propelled me to the next one.

In addition, you get to travel! In 4 weeks, I’m off to Texas with the whole family for a half-Ironman. While Lubbock, TX might not be everybody’s ideal destination – there are events in just about every beautiful and interesting place around the globe. If not just yet – there will be soon. How does Nice, FR sound? Or Mallorca, Costa Rica, Sardinia, Croatia, and the Vineman triathlon in Sonoma County. If I do well enough in Texas I qualify for the World Championships in Hawaii and, well, this is how I convince my wife that she may benefit from all this nonsense.

So yeah – I think I’ve convinced myself to continue the grind. Thank heavens for afternoon coffees, Pandora, the joy of going fast, and my only corporate sponsor (so far…and it is a great one) Platinum Performance!

Camp Get Enough Support.

***Please help us make Bianca’s Birthday Wish come true. Donate to Youth Camp!

When I go to a swimming pool, I am that different guy. Sitting on the ground after popping off my legs and hopping along on my arms, I cannot help but be self-conscious. I clearly remember the first day, after nearly 3 months (aka- eternity) in the hospital, out and about in my car with hand controls. Straight to the hardware store I went, out to do whatever with my regained independence. There was a moment when I wheeled into the large establishment that it hit me, how I must look. A legless dude, sitting in a wheelchair trying to get along as normally as possible, yet looking can’t-help-but-notice peculiar. There was a real sense of pride when I realized it simply didn’t bother me enough to keep me from going and doing whatever I needed or wanted to do. There’s been a lot of those moments in my life. It feels good and right – to push out concerns of other’s perceptions or my own discomfort with who I am. This has absolutely allowed me to enjoy life more.

That’s why, when my sister Bianca suggested to me, “Let’s volunteer at the Amputee Youth Camp”, I was in. Not only did it mean so much to me that she wanted to be involved, but it made perfect sense to me – being an amputee (while escaping this added complication while traversing adolescence) I could understand how much this opportunity could mean to the kids.

Last summer we went to Camp Joy and took part in an absolutely amazing experience that has us both totally committed to this cause and eager to not only go back to camp but to try our best to make sure that all kids with limb loss or limb difference can attend. I wish you all could experience it but I’ll just take a shot at providing a glimpse:

Think of me, an adult trying to get a workout at a local pool and worrying about self image and the logistics of it all, coping pretty well but having a good deal of life experience to aide in that effort. Now imagine a 10 year old, at the pool, surrounded by 100 other swimmers that all live their daily lives confronting similar issues in mobility, inhibition, and a whole host of other small and large issues that other people simply aren’t aware of. That’s one example of what camp offers.

My hope is that every single child who has lost a limb to trauma, disease, or was born with a limb difference, gets to come to this camp to learn, try new things, and share experiences with those who understand. Camp and all travel expenses for the kids are paid for by the Amputee Coalition. The facilities are excellent. I’ve been to summer camps as a kid and this still felt like camp. While being accessible to every camper, nothing is too easy. Getting around camp takes effort and creativity. The Camp provides an atmosphere for positive growth and gives the children (and volunteers) an amazing outlook for their daily lives. It is truly inspirational; it made me want to live better and do more.

My sister’s Birthday is Saturday. She has made it her wish this year to raise $34,000 to help get kids to camp.
Please give a little, it will go directly to camp and it will do a lot!

Bianca’s Birthday Wish

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Need Juice? Gotta Squeeze!

I suppose sitting here on the side of the road, waiting for my wife to come pick me up, can be shown as yet another example of can do versus will do. I definitely set out on this handcycle ride with the can do attitude. That wasn’t enough and after 33 miles – I just couldn’t go any farther. Let me see,

Can do:

Ride east, go far, turn around at some point and ride home. Pretending it was race day, I set my fastest pace yet and was pretty excited to have crossed the 30 mile mark in record time. However, I did this even though I stayed up late and drank an amount of – let’s leave it at some – wine the night before. I didn’t bring enough fluids with me and I had no source of sustaining calories. I think the can do attitude gets you only so far…right now that’s 10 miles short of home.

Will do:

Plan, prepare, execute. When I say that I’ll do something I not only have to believe that I can do it but I have to include what I need to do to give it a real shot. What is this going to take? How much am I going to need to give? Setting goals, dreaming up fantastic endeavours, it all counts for crap if you don’t also make it happen – day in, day out.

There is more to determination than want. My goal is to go down to Texas and earn a spot in Kona. I’ve tried to play it off as unlikely and that this is simply a fun event that I want to enjoy and complete. It is not what I really feel and I  must be attuned to my desires…otherwise, there will be a time, as there has in the past – when all I can say is “I could have“. The size of that goal comes with even larger demands. Training isn’t just sweating a couple times a day, eating right, and planning for the physical task ahead. More is required, yet it’s easier for me to go out for a ride than it is to get all my stuff prepared for the next day, after a ride. Diligence pays those dues.

As Rudy Garcia-Tolson advised:   train hard – stay focused. If that’s your juice man……….then  we should all drink up!

This bicep brought to you by handcycle, wheelchair, and swimming as an amputee.

Laid off? Get Fit!

Ahhh, the joys of free time. I was handed this gift by my former employer recently. It wasn’t really intended as a gift, but everything is what you make of it. For me, it has meant a lot of training and some spiffing up of the old blog. When I met a buddy of mine over Christmas I begged him to “please, enjoy your time off and don’t spend your days worrying about not having a job.” That was a mistake I made back when I was looking for a paycheck. I didn’t spend that time so well and I didn’t find that great of a job either…

Anyone hear of that guy who got laid off from Boeing and his big plan was to break the Donkey Kong record, set back in 1982? Well, he did it and it seems that made him happy. I didn’t quite last through the entire documentary but it was entertaining for a stretch.

The point is that goals, momentum, and positive attitude always have and always will do a lot more for me than focusing on things I can’t control.

As to the narcissistic photo up there – all I want to say is that growing up I just could not make muscles. Based on my experience, I encourage you to go buy a cane, a wheelchair, and a handcycle. Maybe you should also start swimming with your legs Indian style (Turkish style for the Euros). I promise you won’t need to lift weights again…I never do.

Always remember, there is never a shortage of possibilities.

*Also, don’t forget the Platinum Perfomance – it’s the best.

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San Diego Triathlon Challenge

Got down to San Diego early Friday morning, rented a car, drove to La Jolla, swam in the cove, ate sushi, slept, worried, waited, and then swam 1.9km and ran(rolled) 21km. It was beautiful, fulfilling, and inspiring – you can do it too! Just sign up – this is an event worth bringing friends, family, or your own team to!

It is for fun and for an incredible cause!

Sign up now for next year – it is a great way to Force yourself to workout (so, don’t wait until the last minute to sign up like I did =)


Challenged Athletes Foundation

Fishin’ for a Mission

awesome music + so-so film = Pește Nebun!

king of the quaryii

Training

One of WillGoDo’s missions is to help people do whatever it is that they want to do and to accomplish their goals. I am not an exception and there are many things I need to get myself to do.

In this spirit I will be participating in the Challenged Athletes Foundation’s San Diego Triathlon Challenge. With seven weeks of training I will complete 2 legs of this half Ironman (for anyone confused the fraction refers to the distance). My teammate will cycle 56 miles on a handcycle in between my 1.2 mile swim and 13.1 mile runroll (my term for the racing wheelchair “run” portion). It will not be easy to complete, even with a good rest inbetween legs but with less than 5 weeks remaining I am positive that I will do it.

I have set the goal of completing this and following up with a solo half ironman in the spring with a full 140.6 mile ironman to follow – hopefully within a year of this post. It will take a lot of grinding an a lot of support. Anybody interested in sponsoring any portion of this effort can contact me, I will work with you to ensure it is money well spent. If anyone out there would like to join me in San Diego,

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The Start – Andre Kajlich

There are so many reasons for this I could simply list them, explain them, and bore the snot out of both of us. Who cares why? This is for me, it might be for you too.
“i did everything i could do”

Ever since I said this to myself the other night, it has taken me on a bit of a ride. A short ride, admittedly, but it has shown potential and even sums up many reasons for typing at the moment.

If this actually breaks the ring of family and close friends, I will be amazed. However, in case of that I will explain a few things that might otherwise lead to some confusion.

It took 4 of the 5 cars of a modernized Soviet 81-71M metro train to do it, but I lost the entirety of one leg, and everything to just above the knee of the other. The lack of 1 hip-joint, 2 knees, ankles, and a couple of feet does make it pretty difficult to get around, but after 6 years I’ve gotten pretty used to it and don’t even remember, from time to time, that I ever got around differently. Well, I don’t often forget that I was ‘normal’ for 24 years (debatable) but the actual feeling has slid far away.

You’ll have to trust me, it gets more interesting than that.

Not that getting over the darkside of trauma was easy, but I sure thought my life was going to be a lot different once I did. This is good and bad. I give myself a big thumbs up for a lot of things but…Boo-hisss and a big thumbs down is my playful way of saying I still live like a moron all too often, as if I was blissfully ignorant of my narrow escape from total wipeout. I can still muster up a pretty good chill if I try to figure out how I actually survived that one. Truly a lucky fool.

I don’t dream about running, jumping, squishing grapes between my toes, or many other activities. Fact is, there are still infinite possibilities and I have yet to run out of things I can do. For some reason pigeage (or grape squashing to me, until just a second ago) was never on my wishlist in any case. A more accurate picture of want is to be a person who is where they want to be, or even beyond. Do you think of a goal or ambition that you could have ‘easily’ reached by now if you had really done what you needed to do and thought about how great living would have been? From time to time I am very pragmatic and I know that productive thinking is the way to move forward, so I am not depressed about this and I certainly am not stuck in the “what if?” game.

Thinking about all of this lead me to the end. At the end of my life, at the end of today, this minute, even this sentence, I’d want to have done something. My path is far too uncertain – variables rule our life – for me to really know what those wants will be. What I can say with near certainty is that I will have wanted to do what I could. Moments which make me most proud were not those that showcased my mental laziness, lack of effort, or even perfection for that matter. The right tracks in my life have been laid by trying new things, working my arse off, experiencing things beyond my comfort, giving a rat’s patoot about self-consciousness, loving people and empathizing with others (or attempting as much), and generally thinking…keeping that internal dialogue going and being honest with myself.

And so, at any moment and on every time-frame I am trying to ask myself: “am I doing everything I can?”.

It doesn’t have to be literal, the answer only needs to be thoughtful. I’ve been thinking about it and it has made me feel better about a lot. I’m typing because of it and for the good of my friends and family out there that I don’t stay in contact with. It may even be for the good of any passerby who could waste time anywhere on the web but is doing so here =) Really it’s for me. I don’t need feedback, readers, bashers, smashers, deadbeats, creepy crawlies, or applauders. I had completely different ideas for this website, but I had to start something – now. There’s no plan, no concrete ideas of what will be showing up on these page(s) but I will be moving forward and willing, doing, going – and a bit of rambling too =)

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