Challenges ahead!

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."
Eleanor Roosevelt

Here is a list of things I must "look fear in the face" and overcome:
* Run a sub 3 hour marathon - deciding what Fall marathon to do this in.
* Complete an Olympic Distance Triathlon in a time of 2 hours 20 minutes or less - This is the only distance I will race this summer.
* Complete a Half Ironman Triathlon in under 5 hours - Summer of 09 but training began since my first attempt last year and will continue all through this year.

To kick off the new year I will race a 5K in February to help gauge my training plan for a sub 36 minute 10K in May. The highlight in April will be a Duathlon. May will be the Cleveland 10K where I have unfinished business because of the mishap at last years race. June will start with triathlon racing season and will go through September. Then a sub 3 hour marathon in October or November is in the plans. Additional training and racing plans will be announced soon.

Happy New to all my friends and family!

More Off-Season stuff & Quote of the Day

If you have 3 and a half minutes to watch this video it will give you an idea how my Off-Season training began.

I am in my 3rd week of a 12 week Off-Season program from Cyclo-Core and have progressed beyond what these kids are complaining about. I am able to keep up with Graeme as he does the routines and as a result I'm feeling stronger.

I just found out that Graeme is offering a new Off-Season/Pre-Season Triathlon training workout routine and am looking forward to using it in my up coming Triathlon Pre-Season training.

My little quote for today is:
“If you have people around who are telling you that, ‘Oh you’re too old to do this or that,’ get away from them. Age is an attitude. In endurance sports, you get better as you get older.” Lorraine Moller, Olympic Marathon Medalist

Run Home!

I will start when the gun goes off.
I will run for 5 miles.
Feeling good, I will run to the 10th mile.
At the 10th, I will say, "only 3 more to the half way"!
At the half way mark, 13.1 miles I will know 15 is in reach.
At 15 miles, I will say, "you've run 20 before keep going"!
At 20, I will say, "Run Home"!
The Poem ' Strategy for a marathon' by Marty Mueller.

This poem will be one of my inspirational mantra during the Columbus marathon.

I think I have enough faith in my training schedule and feel I should be physically fit for the race. But I also realize positive mental mind games will be a determining factor for a top performance. And so, I have been focusing on positive thinking and well speaking while running. I am also reading inspirational books and writing down positive thoughts to help prepare my mind for the big race. If all goes well I am looking forward to having a great race.

Follow this link for a little movie clip on the Marathon Course Preview