Words, Music, & Outdoor Adventures

The only thing you have to be sure about is that you want it. This is a 2.4-mile swim. A 112-mile bike ride, and a full 26.2- marathon run. This is Ironman. So think hard… It takes a year of your life to prepare for one day. A year of training like you perhaps never have. A year of becoming something you likely have never been, but from that day on will always be…. Know that this journey is a bet you place on yourself. You can’t fake it. And if you try, it will find you, and it will eat you alive where you stand. It is unforgiving. It doesn’t care about your schedule or your problems. It only asks if you have what it takes to get to the starting line. And if you do, it may let you have a chance at the finish.

Ask youself. Are you ready to begin?

Now that I’m done triathlons for the year, I’m feeling a bit goal-less. In my mental wanderings the last day or two, I’ve been thinking about a marathon. If I were ever to do a full Ironman, I need to be able to finish a marathon, so it’s my new goal. I have 38 weeks until the Steamboat Marathon. The training starts on Sunday.

Considerations: 1) achieve weight goal by 1/1 2) start weight training 3) use heart rate monitor for all training sessions.

2:16:44 

351 

31:50 

42:27 

2:49 

234 

1:03:33 

18.9 

2:29 

265 

36:04 

9:01 

Overall***** S-Rank Swim** S-Pace******* T1*** B-Rank Bike********* B-Pace* T2**** R-Rank* Run**** R-Pace

I felt faster this year but the times don’t really reflect it compared to last year. I was faster in T1, 5 minutes faster on the bike, 1 1/2 minutes faster on the run.

This is the last race of the year. I’m so ready for it all to be done. Next year I won’t do so many tri’s and work on getting faster.

http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2006/aug/25/countdown_race_day/?sports

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
*

And in a way — that’s really the point to being “Ironfit.” It means that I know I can swim, bike or run a pretty crazy distance and not feel tired or worn out. More importantly, I think, no… I know, that it also means that I have more energy and drive in the other parts of my daily life. It has become a lifestyle choice for me because I get so much more out of it than I put in.

I could spend 10 hours a week watching television or reading a book, but instead I spend it swimming, biking and running. And the really great trick is that I still have time to read, write and watch television.

How? Because I spend a lot less time being sick, because I sleep better, because I eat better, because I can concentrate better at work, because my mind stays sharp and my emotions stay level and because I get much more joy out of life.

So now what?

the higher you climb
the greater the pressure.

those who manage to
endure
learn
that the distance
between the
top and the
bottom
is
obscenely
great.

and those who
succeed
know
this secret:
there isn’t
one.

I’ve been walkin’ in my sleep Countin’ troubles ’stead of countin’ sheep
Where the years went I can’t say I just turned around and they’ve gone away

I’ve been siftin’ through the layers Of dusty books and faded papers
They tell a story I used to know*And it was one that happened so long ago

It’s gone away in yesterday Now I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers change direction Across the Great Divide

The finest hour that I have seen Is the one that comes between
The edge of night and the break of day It’s when the darkness rolls away

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/running/article/0,1713,BDC_2413_4915716,00.html

*

I FINISHED!!!!

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/get_out/article/0,1713,BDC_8836_4909645,00.html

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/08102006/mainenews-ph-e-girls.nation.html

Envision oneself as a strong and wise racer, pacing well and staying hydrated, approaching the lab as one of the big challenges of the race, the area where you decide you will have a good race.

And as Stuart Smiley said, “I’m good enough, smart enough, and dog-gone it people like me.”

*

It’s been said that you can never put your foot in the same river twice. Rivers are alive, flowing, and in constant motion. The river that was there a moment ago is long gone. The same is true for music, art, and movies. We never really hear the same song twice or see the same piece of art twice. What we bring to a second or third or hundredth exposure to a song or a painting is always different than the time before. We bring memories, feelings, and sensations. And the effect is cumulative.

Why is it then that runners think they can run the same route or same race twice? And why do runners think that comparisons made between running the same distance on different courses, on different days, has any validity at all?
In the future, will you be a faster runner? Probably, if you make weekly speedwork a priority. Will you be able to run farther? Most likely, if you gradually increase your weekly mileage. You have a say when you focus on where you’re trying to go instead of where you’ve been.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-187-0-0-9342,00.html

Her father was the critic and essayist Clifton Fadiman, and she grew up in a literary household, making castles out of the books in her father’s library. She became an obsessive collector at an early age, keeping butterflies, beetles, snakeskins, seashells, and cicada shells. Her collection of essays, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader (1998), is about her deep love of books. She believes that if you truly love a book, you should sleep with it, write in it, read aloud from it, and fill its pages with muffin crumbs.

My biggest challenge isn’t someone else. It’s the ache in my lungs and the burning in my legs, and the voice inside that yells, “you can’t do it”. But I can’t listen because in a minute I WILL hear “I can”. The person I thought I was is no match for the one I am.