About Me

They say it’s important to know your audience when starting a Blog. That’s a little tricky for me. I really don’t know who my audience is!

Maybe a quick story about me will help you decide if my life’s experiences may be worth following as they unfold. I’m just an ordinary, [upper] middle aged guy. Next to being married to a wonderful woman and raising some amazing children, my passions have always been focused around fitness and health. I’ve also got a ton of hobbies for example: boating, fishing, kayaking, SUP’ing, R/C, Drones, home fix-up, etc, etc.

I’m a middle-of-the pack, age-group runner and triathlete who started with shorter, sprint triathlons back in 2015. That first one was a complete fail! I DNF'd (that stands for Did Not Finish, fyi). I had a panic attack about 100 yards in, couldn’t catch my breath and had to be hauled out of the water into a rescue boat like a speared Tuna. But I got past that humiliation, and quickly graduated to a full IronMan triathlon in 2017 which also happened to be my first marathon ever. Excellent advice to combine your first marathon with your first Ironman, said no triathlon coach ever! But that’s a story for another time.

But I digress. In addition to running, biking, swimming and lifting weights, I’ve also considered myself to be conscious about my diet. I’m a big plant based, whole foods believer. But believing and doing are 2 different things (wink wink, dark chocolate, potato chips, Tates Chocolate chip cookies). But I’m getting better.

So for the last couple of years, I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a blog focusing on health and fitness. Maybe some hobby and gadget stuff thrown in for fun.

But then everything changed for me at the end of 2020. Just when I thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse or stranger (think Covid and murder hornets), I received a bombshell diagnosis that I had stage 3 prostate cancer. Needless to say, this became my number one priority, but I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to beat this.

So I’m not sure where this blog will go. A lot depends on how my treatment and results go. But I’ll try to make this interesting with some real life thoughts around fitness, health and dealing with illness. I have no medical or science background beyond college, but I do love researching and tinkering, so maybe I’ll uncover a few nuggets that will be of value to you. I hope you will join me on my journey!

ps - You don't look like a 'spike'. What's with the name?. 

Well, it actually goes back to the early 2000s when I used to take my kids to a laser tag place in Marlborough Mass called Lazerzone. I believe it is long since closed. But at the time, all the kids would choose nicknames like "007", "Austin Powers", etc. Because I was a participant too, I just gave them my name, Mike or Dad, I can't remember exactly. The kids said "no way" you need a real nickname. Not wanting to hold up the line, I just went with the first thing that popped into my head: "Spike" of course! Huh? Anyway, cool name in hand I thought I was quite the commando out there, ducking and weaving. It turns out, I was just a big target that all the kids would use to rack up points. Winner, 80,000 points, 2nd place 55,000 points. Spike, -20,000 points. 😞 But, the name sort of stuck and the kids would occasionally pull it out on various occasions. "Iron" got tacked on in 2017 by my son after I completed the Mont-Tremblant Ironman. So, now you know!