Time to Reboot

I took over a year off from the blog after I finished the ultra marathon in April '09. As personal achievements go, it was one of the bigger athletic ones I'd completed. And naturally, I ran out of words to describe the return to everyday activities. Logging less than 9 miles each week day, and less than 3hrs each Saturday and Sunday seemed too mundane to write about.

In hindsight, I was wrong. It is in the repeated, mundane workouts where our character is forged and our victories are made. (Many famous quotes stem from this thought).


The completion of Ironman Coeur d'Alene has propelled me back into the world of writing. In fact, it is the connection I share with my West Side Team and the twitter support that I have motivated me to restart sharing my training.

I share for many reasons. I will write because it helps me stay accountable. Just as I log my workouts on Fitness Journal (note: they do not pay me, I just love the site), I will have the internet theater to answer to.

I also will write with the hope that someone reading will find some motivation for themselves. To sign up for a race that sounds insurmountable. To join a running group despite their shyness. To take a risk in athletics or in life that is uncertain and, therefore, scary. I've done all three and lived to write about it. Few, if any, things are impossible.

Over the past two weeks, during the pre- and post-Ironman weeks, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to set a goal and see it through. Where as many of my endurance goals have required only a portion of my brain, body and psyche, IMCDA asked for - and received - all of those.

Six months of formal training and 12 hours, 42 minutes and 28 seconds of my spirit. That changed me. Not in a perceptible way. But in a way that has fueled my passion for pushing the limits with myself and encouraging others who have the same desire to find that extra strength and focus within them. Harnessing that discipline is difficult, and it is not without failure. Fail often, learn often. But I have experienced the reward on the other side of that discipline, and I promise you it is magic.

The upcoming posts will meander through the Winter 2010 Team in Training season (which I am coaching), my future race schedule, my daily workouts and my musings on endurance athletics in general. And at the end of every post I will include a final thought in the form of a quote or original idea to pack up and take with you as you and I both sail on to other reaches of the internet.

Today's Final Thought is about Attitude, something I believe got me through Sunday's race:

Winning is not about headlines and hardware. It’s only about attitude. A winner is a person who goes out today and every day and attempts to be the best runner and best person he can be...Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up. -Amby Burfoot

Cheers, my friends.