What You Get Is What You Seek....Desire!!!!

The first person who knows the 80s glam band that sang those lyrics and sends it in the comment section...RULES.

Today is Friday and I really don't feel like working out today. The baby is sick, I've been up since 5, went to bed at 1, work is bothering me, its tax season and on and on and on. I skipped yesterday to get stuff done. I have to do the same today and tomorrow is normal Saturday workout.

Monday is a big day however. I have a 30 minute time trial at race pace. I have no idea what race pace is. All I know is I need to be 100% for it. I might try to work a swim in today and a ride tomorrow though.

Tomorrow is the Cycle For ALS. It is the yearly Spinathon for my charity, The Blazeman Foundation for ALS. There is no event in my area but I will probably donate on my own or try to schedule a ride by myself. In any event CLICK HERE to learn more about Jon "Blazeman" Blais for he is the inspiration for this blog.

Song in my head - I was thinking about the War On ALS and figured Don't Stop Believing was most appropriate. Currently ALS has no cure and very little has been discovered to be effective in fighting ALS. The War On ALS is here to raise money but also to raise awareness about this horrible disease which is an automatic death sentence to anyone who gets it. Team Blazeman is currently funding a research grant and also raising awareness in the Multisports community. My personal goal is to keep Jon Blais' misson alive while he is no longer with us. Thank you for supporting my efforts by reading my blog.

Progress

I went to bed last night thinking yesterday's post was a little moody and overblown and preachy. I considered taking it down or at the very least heavily editing it. However I woke up this morning with a call from Robert Blais, the father of Jon Blais, founder of Team Blazeman. He got to my blog through Facebook and wanted to reach out. It was a great conversation and really boosted my spirits tremendously.

With that, I set out on a 45 minute "easy" run today. My typical route is pretty hilly and by no means easy. I wanted to pick up the pace a bit so I decided to run to a marker about 2.6 miles away and run back home regardless of how long it took. My goal was to do it in 23 minutes. I ended up hitting my mark at 24, turned around and made it back by 46 minutes or so. I figure I ran at about a 9 minute pace. I felt really good, and I ran fast enough to make me think my season goal of running at an 8 minute per mile clip is attainable.

My workout routine is run-focused so I have a lot of opportunity to improve. I think this focus is good for me because I neglected my run last year almost entirely. It resulted in injuries and lack of fitness. This year, my goal is to build a strong run base and to get some speed in as well.

Song in My head - This Song by Kings of Leon. I have always been meaning to get into this band. I know they are really good, have awesome hair, and are multi-dimensional. Now I am into them.

What Have I Been Doing For 33 Years?

This may be a long post folks so strap in. The title of this post sums up my overwhelming thought process during my 1 hr ride this morning. I was riding along and thinking about how far I am from where I want to be. Professionally, I am not there yet and had to dust myself off after falling off the horse last week. Training-wise I am working my butt off, but my progress is so slow I can hardly comprehend where I was to begin with three years ago.

Let me take a step back. In 2002/03 while bored in a Business School class I started one of those "Bucket Lists" of things to do before I died. I sensed a freedom after two years of business school, preceded by three years suffocating in New York City, and four years drinking in college. I had a decent list going, some are obsolete - as they no longer mean anything to me, while others have been attained. One of those items was to do a triathlon (I had no idea how long, how hard, or whatever). I spent the next year and a half in a similarly suffocating environment in Boston while traveling each weekend to New Jersey where my wife was. Finally I moved out of downtown and had the freedom to swim and run and knock off that triathlon thingy.

Three years later, here I stand suffering through another week of workouts in an attempt to reach my new goal of getting 5:30 in a half-Ironman. In the interim, I have taught myself how to swim pretty much from scratch. Now I am at the point I feel strong in the water over any distance between a mile and probably 2 miles. Similarly I can perform flipturns, do the backstroke, and a lot of other things. I no longer feel self-conscious in Speedo and I regularly pee in the pool with no qualms.

On the bike and run, I am still babystepping my way to proficiency...and it sucks. Yesterday I ran for an hour, but my pace is so slow, I am practically walking at times. Today I am on the bike dreaming about a real live tri-bike. But the whole time I am thinking to myself that I can barely clip in/clip out, I know nothing about road cycling, and could barely make it through one day of a two day endurance ride.

This whole experience left me wondering, if this is where I am after 4 1/2 years of working out religiously, three years of triathlon prep, and 33 years of living, then WHERE THE F*** WAS I BEFORE???? Back in 03, I thought doing a tri and knocking off a slot in Kona was as easy as doing it. I guess my point, is, setting goals is really important, but the followthrough should not be delayed for even a second. I am just starting to realize that because the process is so gradual, it's sometimes hard to even quantify.

If I was to impart any advice on any readers with similar unstarted goals, I'd say, "START WORKING ON THEM TONIGHT, YOU ARE NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER".

Song in my head - Another bucket list item was to learn to play guitar. I started playing in November (a full year and a half after buying one). I am killing myself for not learning it sooner. It's freaking easy. I am a huge Rock fan and always dreamed of kicking ass on stage. I have no real desire to play stadiums, but it would be awesome to know I was good enough to play anything I want. The two songs I have been practicing recently are the very simple but gorgeous Oasis classics Wonderwall and Live Forever. I have been practicing these like crazy for the past few days. I hope to be as awesome as Noel Gallagher one day. Til next time