Iron will

My triathlon coach Pete Alfino of Mile High Multisport is awesome. I'm really grateful to have such a knowledge person in my corner who's only concern is to make sure I become an Ironman. I've had a bad coach before. After 5 months with the bad coach I was slower than before I had hired him. I am especially grateful for Pete because I've seen what an unmotivated coach can do to an athlete. Coach Pete is a GREAT coach!

I got an email from coach Pete recently stating I should stop worrying about completing the Silverman by the cutoff time. He said out of all the years he'd been coaching he'd only had one athlete DNF. & that athlete brought it upon themselves by not finishing scheduled workouts etc. Not his exact words, I'm paraphrasing. He told me to think positive. So I sat down today & thought about all the things I'd done to ensure I'd complete the Silverman.

-I ran & biked religiously, rarely missing either.
-lets see....um....uh....there has got to be at least one more thing!Sorry coach. This just has not been a good 4 months for me.

I've skipped almost every swim in the last 10 weeks. I've gained just shy of 40lbs. I'm working 86 hrs a week. I'm not sleeping anywhere near enough.

So then I go over the numbers of my expected Ironman debut. I keep coming up with the same time.

18 hrs.

1hr 45 minute 2.4 mile swim, that is IF I have a great swim.

On my bike I average just over 12 miles an hour on my training days. That's 9 hrs 20 minutes on the bike if there are no problems at all. Just mile after mile of feeling good.

On my training runs I have been averaging 14.45 miles in 3 hrs. That's a 13 minute per mile average. My training run is relatively flat. The Silverman has 3900 feet elevation gained & lost. So if I take into consideration that I'll be running tired from a swim I haven't trained for, & a bike w/ 9300 ft of elevation gained & lost I'm guessing a marathon time of 6hrs 45 minutes.

10 minutes worth of transitions.

Exactly 18 hrs.But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter when it comes to me. I'm a hard headed stubborn SOB. I have determined to finish this race. & when I am determined to do something I have ALWAYS gotten it done. My high school football coach called me a gamer. He told me when he saw me practice he thought I'd be 3rd string offensive lineman if I made the tam at all. I was only 170 lbs as a freshman & I seemed to get pushed around allot in practice. Luckily the first game of the season we were winning big time. So he started taking out his 1st string players so other kids could play. I dominated the rest of the game. The next game he decided to put me in on a few plays because our starting left guard was struggling against a particular opponents dominant defensive lineman. My coach didn't think I'd do well because our starting left guard was 225 lbs., I was only 170. If he couldn't stop that guy how could Cody? But he had to try something. That defensive lineman he sent me in to block outweighed me by over 30lbs. I shut him down the rest of the game! I started all 4 years of high school football. My coach had said there are some people who just show up on game day. Some people whom competition awakens some kind of beast inside them. I'm one of those people. It's not that I don't give it my all in practice, I do. But on game day I play beyond my means.

I was on the State penitentiary's Emergency Response Team (ERT) for 5 years. My rookie year on the team they brought in the State Police's ERT to teach us how to do a proper riot line. Apparently they are the states best @ conducting a riot line. I won't argue w/ that. They were dang good. They had our biggest ERT members try & break through or take them out. None of our guys could & we have some VERY big/aggressive guys on our team. As I was watching the state police completely dismantle out teams biggest & baddest my competitive side came out. I kamikazied their line & took out their whole right side. All that was left of the right side was a pile of bodies, batons, & scattered helmets. I paid dearly. Can someone say police brutality? But I folded their line like a stack of cards!

A couple years ago the team was called in to do a cell extraction on an inmate. They assembled a 5 man team to do the extraction on an inmate. 4 of the biggest Officers in the state Penn, & me. This inmate had been in prison his whole adult life. All he did was lift weights & eat. He had arms like legs & legs like people. This inmate has many priors for hurting officers. The team was stacked biggest to smallest. Our 1st officer in line was Aaron B. He was an offensive lineman for UNM & heavily scouted by the pro's until an injury ended his career. His specialty is moving anything that should be too big to be moved. Next in line was Robert P. He could bench press over 500lbs & shortly after this extraction he tore some ligaments in his arms while doing curls. The amount of weight he could curl was so much his body just couldn't handle the weight. They were all huge except me. At the time I was only 225. When the door opened we all charged in to restrain this convicted felon. From the rear of the line I saw one officer after another go down. Some hurt, some just tossed aside like a rag doll. Next thing I know the inmate & I are the only ones standing. He charged me & at the time of impact I saw bursts of bright stars, I was nearly knocked unconscious by the impact. But somehow I held on to that giant son of a gun. I threw my arms around his neck & put him into a standing front naked choke (same thing as on this video, but done from in front of opponent). My legs weren't touching the floor as I held on to his neck he was so tall. He started to sway back & forth. After what felt like forever, but in reality was only a second or two he fell backwards, unconscious onto the floor. Game over. Check mate. End of story.

I have no doubt I'll be an Ironman by midnight Nov 11th. All of my training shows I won't finish in time. But I know better. I will be an Ironman.