From: Chris Murphy
FitView by Efren Martinez It wasn’t till JC Cox’s mid 60’s that he decided to live an active sports lifestyle. I met JC at one of my Triathlon events and I was immediately impressed with his fitness endurance abilities. Since then, our friendship has grown and I quickly found out that we both have walked down similar paths in life having much in common; our love of fitness, our passion for living a healthier lifestyle and we both had heart attacks. But just like myself, it wasn’t always about a healthy lifestyle.
Back in 2005 JC had a massive heart attack and had to have 3 heart catheters and 2 stints put in to keep him rolling. JC shared with me that when he was released from the hospital, he couldn’t even walk one block without feeling fatigued. Sure it took him some time to recover, but JC was determined not to let this get the best of him. While recovering, JC would go out each day for very short walks and mark his progress on the sidewalk. As the days went by, the markings on the street got farther and farther and his walks got longer and longer and in no time JC was done walking and turned to bicycling. JC loves to ride, and it was his cancer survivor friends from Team Triumph that empowered him with the courage to do better and live his healthy lifestyle no matter what.
They continued to support and inspire JC, that regardless of their setbacks or struggles in the fight against cancer they were out cycling giving it their all. Well, much has happen since those short walks in his neighborhood; JC is now a Tri-Athlete. Thus far he has completed 10 Triathlons, 20 Duathlons, 4 cycling time trials and 20 running events including The Modesto Marathon. OMG Modesto View friends, he’s also a proud member of The Shadow Chase Running Club because even though his cycling is his strongest of the three in a Triathlon, he felt he need to work on his running skills. These days you will find JC training 6 days per week for a total of about 15 hours and his nutrition includes a lean diet, no sugar with very little bread, butter, beef, and pork. When he’s not riding or swimming, you will find JC doing speed work on the track with his running club. Sounds like a professional training schedule, well rumor has it that he’s picked up some fitness sponsors. In a Triathlon, if you’re not paying attention, to this 71 year old rock of man in fitness, he will kick your astronauts in the competition. I’ve competed and trained with him, trust me on this, he can hold his own and even though his heart may have been weak before, I’m happy to say that his heart is a lot stronger today and it doesn’t just have to do with his fitness and nutrition but more so because the man has a loving heart of gold.
On October 12th you can meet JC and his other cycling club members of The Stanislaus County Bicycle Club at this year’s Century Ride. It takes place at The Fruit Yard outside of Modesto and in consists of 3 different distance rides. For more information on this fabulous cycling fitness event, fallow the link here. www.stancobike.org
Fitness Tips
* To maintain your cycling strength during the winter, invest in a spin bike or enroll in a spin class. * Doing 5K’s on a regular basis will help you with better times in a Triathlon * To prevent a running injury, invest in new running shoes every 300 miles (visit On The Run) in Modesto. * Maintaining your bike throughout the year will save you money and may help prevent a cycling accident do to a loose adjustment on your bike. (Visit Fun Sports Bikes or The Oakdale Bike Shop)
