A little bit about me...

Hello. My name is Jason Molyet. I turned 40 years old recently and I am married with no children. Most of my life I have considered myself an overweight athlete. Maybe I am delusional, but I have always felt that I was 40-100 pounds away from being an exceptional athlete. Right now my "delusion" is that I am 40 pounds away from being the triathlete I desire to become. Part of the reason I am writing this blog is to chronicle my daily life and monitor the good AND bad habits that will factor in to me achieving my goal.


Officially my goal to lose weight and become the athlete I desired started in 2008 after making a deal with my boss at work. I am a photojournalist at a mid-sized newspaper. I proposed writing a daily blog, narrating my efforts to get in shape for a 230 mile, 5 day tour through the mountains of Virginia on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This five day ride included 5 mile climbs with almost 100 pounds of gear towed on trailers behind our bikes. Our bike trailers contained our food and drink, our tents and sleeping bags, and a spare of just about anything that could break on a bike. I am happy to report that I completed that adventure and had an amazing time that I will never forget! I lost about 45 pounds getting ready for that trip.


Later I made another deal with my boss. I would continue my blog, this time my goal would be to complete a half distance marathon in December of 2008. Once again I blogged everyday and completed my goal. I don't remember my time, but it was over two hours, something like 2:10 or maybe even a couple minutes more. I didn't care about my time, I was just tickled that I was able to finish that grueling event! I have completed that half marathon two more times and knocked over 20 minutes off that first effort.

This is me after finishing the Rev3 and me
before I started blogging and losing weight.

In 2009 I asked my boss if I could extend my blog again. This didn't take much convincing since my prior blog was honored with the award of "Best Blog" for the state of Ohio by the Associated Press. This time I would challenge the hills of Mohican in a 100K mountain bike race. The race called the Mohican 100 boasted 11,000 feet of climbing through some of the steepest, rootiest, rockiest terrains in the area. That race challenged my mind and muscles more than anything I had done to that point. With five miles left I lost my rear derailleur and chain to a tree branch. I had to run an push my bike across the finish line.


In 2010 I brought my blog back again, this time to document my attempt at becoming a triathlete. It was the most rewarding experience of all the above. I never felt like a the climber I needed to be in Virginia, and I am certainly not the runner I wanted to be in the half-marathon. Mountain biking is fun and an incredible workout, but I am never  too comfortable on knobby tires, ducking under branches, and turning up switchbacks in my granny-gears. Being a triathlete feels right. I love the many facets of the sport. I love its extreme nature. The people I have met are the most positive and impressive people, they don't set limits on themselves, and the sky is the limit in their minds. I have only competed in one half-ironman, but it was one of the best days of my life!


As I write this blog, I am training to compete in a full ironman in September. My last weigh in I was 238.8 pounds. I can't tell you what my ideal race weight is. I am 6 foot 3 inches and have a pretty large frame. My gut (no pun intended) tells me that I should be under 200, maybe 185-195 on race day. I am going to see how close I can get to that before September, I should have plenty of time to lose it safely and responsibly with diet and exercise.