By Ben A. Neiburger, Attorney, Generation Law
In the November/December Newsletter, we reported that for 2025, Ben decided that it would be meaningful for the first part of his 2025 athletic season to be a part of a team that would both do something epic and raise funds for the good things that the American Lung Association does. So, in June 2025, he will be racing in one of the most difficult bike races on the planet, Race Across America (RAAM), covering 3000 miles from sea to sea.
We also reported that in September 2025, Ben will be heading, at age 56, to the Italian and Swiss Alps to complete the infamous ICON Livigno Xtreme Triathlon (swimming in an Alpine Lake, 15,000’ of climbing on the bike, and a trail marathon up a mountain) where he will scout one of the 2026 Winter Olympic venues.
We promised to give you updates as the season (and his exhaustion) progresses.
The Challenge
The main challenge with these races is to have the fitness to complete them and be able to go fast enough to meet team expectations.
First, to pedal faster for his bike race (the team wants to average 18 mph cross country) and to be able to climb European mountains on his bike, Ben would either need to get stronger in his mid-50’s or weigh less, or both. Knowing that he can’t build too much muscle at his age, he hired a sports nutritionist (Heather Fink @ Nutrition and Wellness Solutions) at the beginning of November to help him lose his “food baby” pot belly. She told him to limit his calories to about 1800 per day (with a 40% carbohydrate, 30% fat, and 30% protein mix) and stop drinking tasty craft cocktails with abandon. The trick is that the 1800 calorie limit is independent of how many calories he burns with his training (his workouts burn an average of 800 calories per day). Three months and fifteen lost pounds later (and still missing his cocktails – well, he is cheating once a week or so) he is still trying to keep his calories low and is failing by 300 to 400 per day, but the lost weight is staying off.
What does it take to get an older body ready to bike all day for a whole week and then to do an another all day swim/bike/run in the mountains? Lots of training time, but not too much (or something will break). Plus, you still need to work at your job and have a life. Ben has been training for triathlons since 2014 with his first long distance crazy race in 2018. His body has a lot of time building a fitness base to start training on. Ben also has a Triathlon coach who he has worked with since the beginning. Elizabeth Waterstraat out of Multisport Mastery in Naperville has been making sure Ben doesn’t hurt himself for over 10 years (and in the last 10 years Liz has helped Ben reach almost every single goal he set).
Each week, Liz uploads workouts to Ben’s calendar within a Training Application called TrainingPeaks that are a combination of swimming, biking, running, and strength exercises. He started out training eight hours per week and is now pushing to 12 hours per week of training. Here is what a typical week looks like:
Ben started ramping up his training in November after a four-month break of super easy workouts following his crazy 2024 race in the Scottish Highlands. After each workout, Ben’s smartwatch uploads workout metrics to TrainingPeaks app along with making subjective comments on how the workout went. Liz reviews these, gives Ben feedback, and changes future workouts based on all of that.
The gradual increase of stress on the body along with periodic rests increases his fitness slowly until the race in June. For additional preparation, Ben will need to go away for a bike camp or two and spend a couple days simulating the bike race by pedaling for 20 minutes, taking an hour break and pedaling for another 20 – for an entire day or two.
As Liz said to Ben at the beginning of his current journey, “Why do you do this to yourself?” When the idea of “epic” is not quite enough of an answer to keep Ben motivated, raising money for an amazing cause gets him through the day.
Will you help? We appreciate anything you can give!
Thanks to your generosity Ben is already just over half of the way to the 30K goal. Please consider donating to help him get the rest of the way there. Remember all contributions are tax-deductible. Click here or the button below to make your donation. Thank you so much!
