Featured Athlete: Michael Ives

• Name:

Michael Ives

• Your website:

https://likepantsonamonkey.wordpress.com/

• What is your day job, and do you have other hobbies?:

Until recently I was the Canadian Liaison for a book publishing house in Boston, I am still with the company but am now in a special project assignment. I don’t think I could accuratley describe what I do and keep any of you engaged enough to keep reading that and I find my job boring and tedious and am looking to change it. As far as hobbies and other interests….Working outRunning (trail and road), hiking, cooking (believe it or not), Being “abused” by Dr. Evil, reading (when I have the time), music, music and more music and  writing (and I never seem to have the time I want to do this).

• Age:

45

• When did you start obstacle course racing? Tell us about your first race.:

I started an interest in it in 2010, but I was still in the “yeah I should do that” phase. My first race was a Spartan Sprint in Amesbury in 2011, I was still overweight and not in very good shape and it took me 1:50 to finish it. I was so tired that I fell asleep in a chair at a family birthday party that afternoon. I am running Amesbury this year and plan on crushing it!

• What was your biggest accomplishment at an obstacle course race? What made it your biggest accomplishment (overcame a fear, injury, disability etc?):

Well just finishing an OCR back in 2011 and early in 2012 was an accomplishment…the biggest accomplishment since was at Fenway: the sandbag carry, an obstacle that I struggled with at Tuxedo earlier that year….I threw that SB on my back and before I knew it I’d blown throw it, never slowing down and passing many along the way.

• What attracts you to obstacle course races? Why do you keep coming back?:

I think I enjoy the “pain”, seriously what other answer could there be. I love the physical challenge and they remind me a lot of the course I had to ran in the Army (go RECON!). Since finding the Spahtens, I feel a real sense of belonging and outside of being a dad being a part of this team, this family gives me purpose.

• What are your training and/or diet routines? Do you have other athletic pursuits?:

I train 5 days a week working different parts and I try to run at least 3 of those days. I am hoping to find some training partners in my area (South of Boston) because where I have improved greatly there is always room for more and the more the merrirer! OCR’s are many only focus and will be until I can’t do them anymore. Dieting is tricky…I basically think lean and I eat a lot of chicken, fish and turkey (be it ground, bacon or burgers). Vegatables and fruits everyday and I don’t drink (much) anymore.

• Were you always athletic? If not, what athletic changes have you made to keep up the obstacle course race lifestyle?:

Always athletic….not until the Army and discovered rugby in Germany and I played some in college. I stop playing when my body said enough and then didn’t do much. I tore my right achilles trying to play on my company softball team in 2008 and that’s when I ballooned to 232….OCR’s have literally saved my life and all I had to do is eat right and toss some weights around *grin*

• Who, alive or dead, would you invite to run an obstacle course race with you?:

Not staing the obvious of family or friends lost or unable……I would love to spend an afternoon tearing up the mud with Henry Rollins, the man is an animal. Someday I’d love to run one with my daughter (she’s 6 months), which means I am going to rely on my fellow Spahtens to keep my focused….

• Tell us a fun fact about yourself that we may not know!:

FACTS: I can affect most accents is for comedic or serious purposes. I once bought Frank Sinatra a drink (not AS cool as you might think). There many, many, many more but I’ll leave those for pre/post races and whenever we may run into one another.

• What are your goals? Next race, next season … what’s in your future?:

I am looking for constant improvement in my performance and am looking forward to Amesbury 2013 to see how much time I can shave off from my 2011 performance (my 1st ever race).

This year I set out with the goal of earning a Spartan Trifecta (Montreal, Amesbury and Killington) and that has been my focus, though I do want to run about a dozen races this year in total.
My future goals are multi trifecta’s in a season and running a long endurance race before I turn 50.
I am in this till you bury me.