CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Good afternoon. Welcome to February.

Well I signed up for the Chicago Marathon this morning. Doing so made me think back several years because one of the registration questions was, "how many Chicago Marathons have you run?" I answered 4 and then thought back to my first one. I remembered thinking about, should I register or not? I had already lost about 25 pounds of the 60 that I would eventually lose. I remember thinking, " you have been watching the Chicago Marathon for years on TV. You have seen a variety of runners complete the race. Why not you?"

I'm not sure why I was hesitant. Was I afraid of the commitment? What was it? I asked my wife if she wanted to run also. After much hemming and hawwing we bit the bullet and signed up.

What a great decision that ended up being. What a life changing event it turned out to be. I started training with my wife and we were content with 10 minute miles. This was our marathon pace. We never missed a run. I was already a runner. Running 3-4 miles was my routine. But, training for the marathon with all of the various training mileage gave me a whole new outlook. "I can run, 6, 8, 10, 15, even 20 miles." Wow!! Why didn't I do this sooner? I lost 35 more pounds in the process.

Since my first training cycle I can say I have improved tremendously. My life has changed immensely from training and running marathons. I have more confidence in anything I do. It all started with, 1.) The thought, 2.) The choice, 3.) The "act" of registration. Once I registered I felt committed.

Now, I so look forward to more racing events. I look forward to those events because I love training for them. Training is the life changer. The actual event is the culmination of all your efforts realized on one day. It's so cool!!! What a journey. Now triathlons are on my horizon.

Sign up. Change your life.

Yesterday was a 10.7 mile recovery run with my wife. We averaged 9 minute miles and my average heart rate was around 120 bpm. Pretty low.

Week In Review

Exercise Distance Time Calories

Swimming 5720 yds/3.25 Mi 2:55 1773

Biking 45 miles 2:51 2175

Running 40.65 Mi 5:00 4858

TOTALS 88.90 10:46 8806


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" Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction."

* It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before... to test your limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Anais Nin