Weigh-In, Pictures, and Measurements!

June 28, 2007

434 lbs.

May 25, 2008

282.3 lbs.

June 28, 2008
434 lbs.

May 25, 2008

282.3 lbs.

June 2007

Weight: 434 lbs

Neck: 20 inches

Chest: 60 inches

Waist: 67 inches

Hips: 62 inches

Thigh: 31.5 inches

Calf: 19 inches

May 2008

Weight: 282.3 lbs. = 152 lbs LOST

Neck: 16.5 inches = 3.5 inches LOST

Chest: 49.5 inches = 10.5 inches LOST

Waist: 54.5 inches = 12.5 inches LOST

Hips: 51 inches = 11 inches LOST

Thigh: 28 inches = 3.5 inches LOST

Calf: 16 inches = 3 inches LOST

Weigh-In and Picture Time!

It has been about a month since my last weigh-in and picture post. I have seen ups and downs the past month or so. My weight is still moving down, but it has been volatile the last month. I had gained about 4 pounds until two weeks ago and I shred off some weight leading up to Memphis In May triathlon.

It has been an experience and I have a SHORT distance to go for the finish line. As I think everyone knows I began this challenge at 442 lbs and did my first triathlon at 415 lbs. In June of last year I weighed in at about 435 lbs.

Today – 382.3 lbs

The Measurements are pretty crazy too.

I have 72 lbs. to go and I will be at my 210 lb. weight. The goal is to be there by September 1, 2008. THREE MONTHS and counting!

Thanks to everyone for your support and words of encouragement. I had my Gallbladder removed this past Wednesday so I was unable to race this weekend, but I went to a race in Mandeville LA to cheer folks on. IT WAS AWESOME! I had at least 5 racers tell me they go on this blog to check in on me. You guys will never know how much that motivates me. Thanks.

Keep on truck’n. I will be out of it for another week and I hope to get on my bike next Saturday and run a little on Sunday. If that goes well I will train a little before I race in Heatwave the weekend of June 7th.

Peace Out!

No More Gallbladder

Say Good Bye to the Gallbladder!

It is about 9pm. It has been a long day. Surgery went well and all seems good to go so far. I am on a steady dose of pain killers and the pillow will be calling me again soon.

Amanda has been a jewel as she always is and she has made this horrible experience bearable.

We have received a many phone calls wanting to know how things are and things are good. Thanks so much for all the prayers and kind thoughts, they mean a lot.

From here:

I have a really large liver and this caused the incisions to be larger than normal and this means longer recovery. I hope to be jogging by next Wednesday and I am going to try and ride training group on Thursday.

I think I will be good to go by Heatwave Triathlon in Jackson Mississippi June 7. We’ll see.

Thanks all – Goodnight

I thought you might be interested?

I had a friend send me a message asking about my bike speed these days and what specific training I was doing to get my speed to where it is today. I thought it might be helpful for everyone to have an idea of what I have done.

My bike speed has gone from 12.9 mph in 2005 to over 22 mph today. Even earlier this year when I was only 30 lbs heavier than I am today I was still only averaging about 18.5 to 19 mph on the bike in races.

HERE IS WHAT I WROTE TO MY FRIEND SCOTT IN RESPONSE TO HIS QUESTION:


I do several things, or should say, I have done several things. I am sure the weight loss is the number n help, but as for training on the bike . . .

I would enjoy grabbing some chow at some point and covering it with you and then a ride, but that may be a couple weeks since the doctor is cutting me wide open tomorrow! Therefore, here goes . . .

1. build time in the saddle at VERY LOW HR. At the advice and direction of Rocko my coach, I spent October till January riding loops around River Road at Heart Rate no higher than 125, BUT BUT BUT!!! You need to find out your Max HR. I will help you do that too if you don't know it. Once you know it, then we can figure out your "green" zone or low HR and you ride at that HR for about 8 weeks 4 days a week at about 3 hours a ride, which was about 4 loops on RR for me. I saw my speed go from 13 mph to 17 mph ALL THE WHILE my HR was still no higher than 125.

2. Once I built the base I began adding once a week intervals. I would do one loop (about 10 miles) at my 125 to 135 HR. Then the second loop I would do, 3 minutes at "green" zone, then 2 minutes at max HR (which is about 171 for me) over and over for the next loop and then a third loop at "green" zone HR. I began doing this on one of my four days of riding, the other three days I continued LOW HR riding, not always below 135, sometimes I would get it up to 140, but never higher. I did this through Jan, so about 4 weeks.

3. I reduced my road training to 3 days (2 low HR days, one interval day) and ADDED a trainer day inside at the house. I did 30 minutes non-stop one foot drills which was - 5 min warm up regular cycling then, UN CLIP right foot and ride with ONLY left foot clipped for 1 minute HARD, re clip right foot and un clip left foot cycle with ONLY Right foot for one minute HARD, re clip left foot and ride easy for 3 minutes, REPAEAT one foot 3 more times (4 total) and cool down 5 minutes. It is hard at first to find balance with only one foot doing the work. I find it easiest to put the UN Clipped foot back on the actual trainer for balance, other people simply let their foot hang or dangle . . .

This is what I did through April and mid April have reduced my cycling to 3 days TOTAL, two on road - One day low HR, One day intervals and then one day on trainer doing one legged drills.

Recently, I have begun racking the miles at a LOW HR on my runs and in July I will begin interval work on my run.

I have surgery tomorrow to remove my gallbladder. I hope I don't lose too much of what I built over the last few months. Once I have recouped I am going to hit the bike hard for two to three weeks than back to building my run.

I hope this helps.

Being that you are in the middle of the season, you may want to move into the last phase of what I am doing now which is three days a week, two on road and one on a trainer (if you don't have a trainer go to the YMCA if you re a member and get on a stationary bike and do it) BUT I would suggest that when the season is over, take a few weeks to relax and don't do much of anything, then around Dec, begin from scratch as I did. I am going to do the same regiments this off season as well, but LONGER base building for my first Half IM in April.

Keep on truck'n brother and if I can do anything to help you, let me know!

Chris

Memphis In May 2008

2006 Result

1264 Christopher Boggs - 4:43:56 2:16:34 22:00 72:54 23:31 63:40 20:33

http://www.besttimescct.com/results/mimtri06.txt


2008 Result

733 Christopher Boggs - 35:03 2:07 39 1:05:00 22.6 3:26 163 1:31:17 14:42 3:16:51

http://www.besttimescct.com/results/Mimtri08.txt

I reached a new height today. No, I am not getting taller.

As you can see above, I did Memphis In May Triathlon in 2006 and again today. In 2006 I finished this race in . . . Hold onto your sock, 4hr 43min.

Today I finished in 3hr 16min!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My goal was sub 3:15, but I m ok with my effort today, not to mention the almost 1hr and 30min I knocked off my time in 2008!

My bike is really coming around. Today I averaged 22.6, but I think the course was about 1/10 of a mile short. My Garmin 705 Edge said my bike split was 22.3mph.

I worked hard on my run the past month and a half, no improvements to speak of yet, but hopefully when I recover from my surgery to remove my gallbladder next week is complete I can get back on my run training and see real improvement. I have the goal of having a sub 2min per 100m swim, a plus 20pmh bike and a sub 10min mile race THIS SEASON! It will happen! I am seconds away from the swim goal, well above my bike goal, it is that darn run thing I have a long way to improve on.

I saw my friend lane prior to the race . . . Great to see you Lane, thanks for the cheers. I also met Chris (boss I think is his name on BT).

My swim was event-less. Nice pace, nice cool water and I almost capped off a sub 2min per 100m swim, OH SO CLOSE. I came out of the water trucking (for me).

I took off on the bike, but I forgot that there are actually a couple steady hills on the bike course, but I handled them OK. I hit 33.8mph down this long stretch of the bike course at around mile 18. I was FLY’N!!!!

Run sucked. I felt heavy (I made a funny!) and tired. The first 3 miles went by fairly easy, but the last 3 kicked my tail. I don’t think the finish could have come sooner!

My little sister Grace came with me to this race and she cheered her little heart out for me, as did her friend Jamie. (Jamie, sorry I wasn’t much for conversation after the race, I was trying not to pass out!!!)

I crossed the finish line and headed straight to the nice cool lake and took a swim/wade in the water and it felt great.

I was very pleased with my race.

If you click on the first link I have listed above you can scroll down to the bottom and see I was DEAD LAST in 2006. This year not only was I not dead last, but I beat a few folks in my on age group, woo hoo.

Thanks everyone for your support and encouraging words.

Also, my weight as of last Wednesday – 273lbs – only 63lbs left to lose!

CRAWFISHMAN 2008

It has been a while since I have posted a complete race report. Sorry.

So far in this year 2008, I have successfully completed 10 triathlons and I have made vast improvements over previous years. It feels GREAT!

For those of you who have been following my blog since I began this thing called triathlon in 2005 you have seen BIG changes in my life and racing. It ain’t over yet!

The latest test of my health and endurance was CRAWFISHMAN in Bush Louisiana. This is a mixed size course consisting of a 1000m swim, 18mi bike, and a 4mi run. This is one of your more hilly courses in Louisiana, but a fun race and very close to home.

I have a goal for 2008. It is to finish a race in this race season with a sub 2 min per 100 swim average, a plus 22 mph per mile average, and a sub 10 min per mile average run. I am so close . . .

I am right at the sub 2 min swim goal, I am RIGHT THERE, on the plus 22 mph bike and still FAR from the sub 10 min run goal. The issue with the run is not so much my heart as it is my stomach size and the pain it causes on the run. As I am losing the weight (remember when I began training for my first triathlon at over 440 lbs and completed my first at 415 lbs!? And now I am weighing in at 281 lbs and counting!) back – as I am losing the weight my stomach is remaining bout the same BUT the skin is getting more and more loose and when I run it is very painful and when I run fast (for me) it feels like I am being punched repeatedly in the gut and back at the same time . . . Not too much fun.

A note on the loose skin. I plan to have surgery to remove the skin. It will most likely be in November. I want to reach 210 lb and hold that weight for 3 months before having the surgery. Also with my business, November/December will be the best time.

CRAWFISHMAN!

I was staying in New Orleans spending time with my Momma and little sister so I woke and drove north to Bush LA.

My bike was already at the race site since it is a bit of a rock star being one of only a very few available right now. Steve at the Spokesman fine tuned it for me and showed it off over the weekend, then hauled it to the race site for me.

I set up my transition site. This was the ONLY complaint I had for the race. There was very little room to rack on your assigned spot on the rack. If we would have all been able to rack our saddles on the rail it would have been fine, but the rack rail is very low and your saddle was too high for it so you had to rack your bike with your aero bars and it was TIGHT.

I left transition and came back and someone had knocked all of my stuff over moving my bike. I was a little miffed. I reset my transition left – returned and my stuff was knocked around AGAIN and my bike had been moved. I left my bike where it was moved to (about 3 inches to the left, but I understood since it was tight) and reset my transition AGAIN and headed to the swim start.

Swim was ok. I felt strong towards the end of the swim?????

Transition #1 was good. I got out and on the bike pretty good.

Bike was hilly. I was smoking on the down hills (obviously) and keeping about 23 to 24 mph on straight-aways, it was those darned hills! I need some work on the hills. I ended up with a 21.2 mph average. I will take it!

Transition 2 was a BLAST! Someone who has no spine, but a great sense of humor decided to goo my stuff! I picked up my race belt and there was GOO all over it and all over my race number. At first I thought it was one of mine that may have burst, but then I saw that it was meticulously spread ALL over. I have no idea why someone did this, but I thought it was pretty funny (and spineless).

Run was also hilly,. But I held my own. My goal was to go sub 12 min miles, but I couldn’t quite pull it off . . .

My finish time was 02:06. I wanted to go sub 2:20. Goal Reached! When I did this race in 2006 I finished with a time of 02:53. I will take a 40 minute improvement!

I will do a weigh in and picture log on this Thursday and post.

Thanks everyone!