The July Push

It’s been too long since my last blog. To be candid, there has been so much living going on that I’ve found it difficult to take pause and write any of this stuff down. It’s all good, so here we go!!!

The past few weeks have been all out, head down and focused. (Well, it’s always that way, but to be candid I was getting a little tired tweeting and blogging about my day). Some, I’m sure were/are getting annoyed with the daily posts and updates on the schedule and workouts. (I've lost FB friends :-) )What I’ve come to realize is that after receiving so many nice emails from people who are not exposed to the endurance lifestyle and in part counting on my posts (this is what they tell me) of how I fit it in all that I do are not only flattering, but somehow makes me even more focused and wanting to excel even more for them and for me for that matter!

Jesse, my coach several months back put out a blog about managing your stress budget. Well, this hit home for me more than most items Jesse discusses because it has been a limiter of any advancement I’ll ever make in endurance sports. I’m not only impatient at times with not advancing, but managing all aspects of what Jesse refers to as “the budget” is simply not possible for me at this point in my life. The reality is that I’m not a gifted or talented athlete at any of the three sports. I am good however at mastering the part about the sport with going deep and enjoying the "suffer-fest" that race day brings.  Having so much crammed in daily makes that even more of a limiter. Jesse's Blog here Stress Budget

A typical week looks like this: Work 50-60 hours a week; Commute 15 hours, Train 18-20. If my math serves me well, there are only 168 total hours available during the week and that leaves about 10 total hours to me a day, which has to include sleep, kids and family. My wife calls me superman, but in the same breathe wonders when I’m going to crack. So, this is why I’m pretty sure I am stagnant with not getting faster, but that is "ok" because I have so much I want to do right now. It’s also amazing that I have not been sick or crashed!! It  has a lot to do with hitting a pure diet most of the time (the core diet). I can’t think of any other reason I’ve been able to pull off the last year or so this way!!!

I’ve said this before and it’s certainly the way my brain is wired. These are all choices and by putting so much on my plate I feel as though I’m living life to the fullest!  As soon as there is air, I find myself committing to more with things like filing a patent and inventing something or putting something new as a challenge to improve upon areas that are of interest to me. There are certainly pitfalls to this, but with the love and support of my insanely great wife, I fully feel that there is not and end in site as to what I can achieve.

On April 23^rd, 2011 I full filled a long-standing desire to coach recently via the Spaulding Rehab Marathon Team here in Boston. I want to tell you it’s been beyond an amazing experience and I gave it everything I had! Some of it was frustrating because in the beginning I was so over the top with spewing out all of the knowledge I have accumulated via Jesse. I’m pretty sure I offended a couple of our athletes/Team Mangers after coming down too tough on them with nutrition and rest, etc. I was just too passionate out of the gate but settled down and got into a grove.  I realized that my approach needed adjusting and I’m happy it was not too late! We had 27 athletes and the stories and achievements are what I remember most. We had folks that lost parents, and a couple with tough injuries. We had amazing people run the last miles with their kids like I want to with mine some day. In the end, the athletes crushed it and all 27 of them completed the Boston Marathon with huge smiles on their faces and at the same time rose close to $175,000. I have gained some great memories and friendships. I come away from the process a better man, certainly a better athlete after spending so much time covering race fueling, pacing and life planning. Wow game changer for them and me and this is where it all began for me almost seven years ago!!!

I also want to say that I’ve spent a huge amount of time tasking around goals and working more on living in the moment and working to focus on recognizing that some of my goals do not have to be "all or none", or "black and white" per se.  For instance, it does not have to be "Hawaii  and Kona or I’m not happy", beat my goal to the point of death vs appreciating the process. Right now, I’m very much ok with doing the best I can under all situations. That’s a big step for me and I want to thank my performance coach Joe from IPG for this work IPG.

So here we go with what’s up next.  This has been a year of evolving goals and racing as little as possible to let the family exhale and not put so much stress on my supporting cast. Racing is important to get your grove on for Ironman, but I don’t want to burn my crew out even though the next few weeks it’s all out for this athlete.

1) I’m racing Mooseman 70.3 in NH on June 5, 2011

2) Going to Lake Placid for my big build weekend for training from June 23-26

3) Nubble Lighthouse 2.4 mile Ocean swim on July 9, 2011. This race almost killed me last year and I want at it again!!

4) Lake Placid Ironman July 23, 2011 goal sub 10:30.

5) Atacama 7 marathons in 7 days March 2012 to raise funds for the Marlene Scribner RN Fund

That’s it for now. I promise to do a better job updating after getting the dust off the cover!!! Let’s go rip it!!!