My name is Miguel Vieira and I am a loving father, dedicated husband and an amateur triathlete. This is my blog and I will use it as a training log and tool through which I will share the pain I encounter on my efforts to, hopefully, become an Ironman!
We have all seen those documentaries about the world famous Ironman triathlons and I, for one, always thought those people were crazy for getting themselves through so much pain in order to cross that finish line. MY idea was that only a certain elite type of athlete could entertain the idea of swimming 2.4 miles, ride 112 miles, and finish it off with a marathon. They had to be crazy, right? Well...I am about to find out.
I was born in Angola, a southern African country, at a time of instability and war. I lived in Portugal for ten years before I returned to Angola to stay with my parents. During my 5 years in Angola my sister and I started playing tennis at the local tennis club as it was one of the few things kids could do to past time (not much has changed by the way).
After a few years of club lessons and playing with my father, my sister and I were ready to take the game seriously and in 1992 my parents decided to take us to Florida to play at the world famous Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. During one year we lived at the academy, which was part boarding school part tennis academy. We made great friends, many of which play on the ATP Tour and WTA Tour today, and for one full year we had a little girl as our next door neighbour who used to run to the academy and back every day. She then became famous for never winning a major WTA title and, most recently, dating pop star Enrique Iglesias.
When it was time to decide what to do at the age of 18 I had to chose tennis or university. Well, that was an easy decision as I knew I was not going anywhere with tennis. I went to University of South Florida, got my BS in Physical Education and moved to Barcelona after graduation in 2000. In Barcelona I was the High School Physical Education teacher at the American School of Barcelona, and Co-directed the after school and sport activities with my another teacher who eventually became one of my best friends in Spain, Mr. Jordi Casas.
It was in 2002 that I met Sonia and absolutely fell in love with her. We had two beautiful daughters, Sofia and Alexia, and after I finished my MBA we eventually moved to London because of my job. Needless to say, at this point I decided to quit my career in education. No more 3 months of vacation a year, and no more playing sports with the kids. It was the latter which had a hefty price on...well... on my belly! With life in London came long commutes, late home arrivals, little time to spend with my family, and NO time to spend on the gym. Well, that's what I told my self anyway.
It was in March 2010, 5 months before our wedding, that I decided to register for my first triathlon. I had always been a very competitive person involved in sports all my life, and I had the urge to compete once more. I knew that if I registered for a triathlon, I would put in the hours in order to at least not make a fool of myself on race day. One morning I got out of bed and told my wife "Cariño, me voy a apuntar a un Triathlon". Oops, sorry guys, that means "Baby, I'm going to register for a Triathlon" in Spanish. Sonia looked at me and said "What are you talking about? A triathlon? You?" My thoughts were that should I have a date in mind where I had to compete with other people, I would put the time and effort to swim, bike and run. And so I did! My first triathlon was the Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon in May 2010 which I finished in 1h 27m 34s. At this point I got the bug and registered for a few more races in 2010.
I am now on the road to, hopefully, becoming an Ironman. I will use this blog to log my training and thoughts on what is bound to be an exciting and painful road to my first Ironman finish! It is not easy to juggle a career, family, and the ambition to finish an Ironman race one day. Stay posted and, please, do comment as I am sure I am not the only daddy who swims, bikes, runs... and hugs his daughters after the races. As Robert Frost said in one of his famous poems "...two roads diverged in a wood and I... I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference."
We have all seen those documentaries about the world famous Ironman triathlons and I, for one, always thought those people were crazy for getting themselves through so much pain in order to cross that finish line. MY idea was that only a certain elite type of athlete could entertain the idea of swimming 2.4 miles, ride 112 miles, and finish it off with a marathon. They had to be crazy, right? Well...I am about to find out.
I was born in Angola, a southern African country, at a time of instability and war. I lived in Portugal for ten years before I returned to Angola to stay with my parents. During my 5 years in Angola my sister and I started playing tennis at the local tennis club as it was one of the few things kids could do to past time (not much has changed by the way).
After a few years of club lessons and playing with my father, my sister and I were ready to take the game seriously and in 1992 my parents decided to take us to Florida to play at the world famous Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. During one year we lived at the academy, which was part boarding school part tennis academy. We made great friends, many of which play on the ATP Tour and WTA Tour today, and for one full year we had a little girl as our next door neighbour who used to run to the academy and back every day. She then became famous for never winning a major WTA title and, most recently, dating pop star Enrique Iglesias.
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| American School of Barcelona - Flag Football Team in Italy |
It was in 2002 that I met Sonia and absolutely fell in love with her. We had two beautiful daughters, Sofia and Alexia, and after I finished my MBA we eventually moved to London because of my job. Needless to say, at this point I decided to quit my career in education. No more 3 months of vacation a year, and no more playing sports with the kids. It was the latter which had a hefty price on...well... on my belly! With life in London came long commutes, late home arrivals, little time to spend with my family, and NO time to spend on the gym. Well, that's what I told my self anyway.
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| Sonia and I on our wedding day in Santorini. August 2010 |
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| Me after finishing my first triathlon |
how tall are you --- I love the bike and think of getting one
ReplyDeleteHey, Im 179cms and I got a M frame on the E118. You should definitely get one! I absolutely love it and recommend it.
DeleteMIg! Love you story! ;-) Miss Almond
ReplyDeleteHey !
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