Recovery

Recovery is probably the most important thing in your training plan.  I mean it.  And I am not just talking about the IronMan.  I am talking about everything.  If all you do is go go go, eventually your going to burn out.  It is inevitable.  This is true whether your talking about working at your job 12 hours a day, or training for an IronMan.  In fact, in the area of physical training, you can actually totally take yourself out if you don't allow for proper recovery.  For example, you can actually run yourself so hard that when you finally do rest, your legs end up being dead for weeks!  Your body is trained and conditioned to overcome amazing odds and keep running in the most harsh environments and through the most difficult circumstances, all in the interest of keeping you alive.  However, although these bodily functions are amazing, and are very handy on a short time line (say, like running from a LION) they are not designed, nor are they healthy, for long time frames.

Over time, if you keep running yourself ragged, adrenaline levels cause cellular damage and hormones and chemicals build up in the body and cause damage.  Stress is one of the biggest contributors!  I watched this documentary on stress on the discovery channel the other day and wow!  Being stressed, actually releases different hormones in your body than a normal health person.  These hormones actually lead to heart disease, obesity, and a host of other health problems!  It seems strange that the body would poison itself but that is actually what happens!  Apparently it happens in dogs, monkeys, meerkats, and all over the mammalian animal landscape!  The more stressed out you are, the more health problems you have too!  It sounds like a bad joke but it's true.  Your stress level also really depends on the framework from which you define yourself.  Say you go to a job every day and your the low man on the totem-pole and your boss hates you and yells at you everyday.  Well if you define yourself from the framework of your job, then you'll be very stressed out, since that situation sucks and you may be tempted to feel like a loser.  Now let's say you are  also is the short stop in your companies softball league and everybody looks to you for softball leadership and coaching.  Well if you chooses to define yourself from THAT framework, then the job isn't so unbearable, you are the alpha the second you walk onto that softball field (alpha does NOT equal jerk FYI).

Success in your goals depends on your ability to NOT get taken out by circumstances, both the ones that come with the territory for what your trying to accomplish, and the external ones that will surely rear their ugly heads and get in your face the second you start to accomplish something great.  Success greatly depends on your ability to manage all the craziness of life with an even temper and a steady keel.  So you've got to find the thing that gives you back your balance, and put that in your calendar FIRST!  Round two is knowing that your going to have to defend that time because it's going to be assaulted by the world and your circumstances.

Having said all that, I think i'm going to go spend some quality time with my calendar, make sure there is enough room in there for my muscles to recover, my mind to recover, and my soul to recover.  See the awesome photo of a meerkat family below.  They rock.

Photo:  Meerkats are awesome.

NCMEC

Swimming in lake Ontario while the sun comes up over the water might just be one of the best experiences you can have.  Furthermore the swimming at Braddock bay is second to none!  The water is clean and crisp, and never too deep.  It is the perfect spot for swimmers of all levels; whether your a super IronMan Kona Island contender, or a total novice like myself you will not be disappointed.  However, as much as I would love to talk all day about how fantastic swimming is and why it is the perfect way to start your day, I have something else in mind that I think deserves special attention.

If your going to do something awesome, like an IronMan for example, you will need a good reason why.  You will save yourself a lot of mental anguish if your reason for doing it is bigger than the problems you'll face along the way.  If your reason for doing it is smaller than the problems, then the problems might just take you out.  On top of that, if your going to do something way outside the norm, like walk across Niagara falls on a tightrope or jump off the Eiffel tower or something, you might as well raise some money for a charity while your at it!  It is really really easy to raise money for a charity when your doing something that is off the beaten path.  So pick a cause that is dear to you, and make a phone call.  While I am training for this IM I am raising money for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Why?  Because children are AWESOME!  Trust me, i have two of the best kids on the planet myself and I, like most parents out there, would give my life to keep them safe!  I know this entry is a little more serious than most but this is something I think about as a father almost every day!  The figures are mind blowing, despite the amazing advances we have made in law enforcement and investigation in recent years.

According to the National Center, a staggering 800,000 children are reported missing each year!  There is no typo there, not an extra zero.  Eight-hundred-thousand children each year!!  If you do the math that's more than 2,000 each and every day.  An estimated 1 in 5 girls, and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized before age 18!  Yet, only 1 in 3 will tell anybody about it.  These numbers seriously leave me speechless.  It breaks my heart to hear about just one story on the news of a child being taken from their family.  The numbers are just too much to take in.

The center itself is up to some incredible things to help eliminate the problem.  They offer training for local law enforcement on how to handle these situations, offer fun events for children and parenst to attend across the nation that serve to train and instruct kids and parents on how to avoid abduction, and do tons of events to raise awareness on a national level about the issues.  They offer resources for everybody from parents and guardians, law enforcement, attorneys, and even the media!  Check out their history and resources for yourself at their webpage.  Also, we have set up a donation page that i will be putting on my website and social media pages, including this blog, so that you can donate to their cause.

About the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Resources for Parents and Guardians

Click here to donate.

Please consider donating or participating in one of their events.  In the words of Mr T "I pity the foo that would lose or exploit my kids!!"

Seriously though, together we really can make a dent in those totally unacceptable numbers.

It's all in your head.

Your mind is first and foremost, to be considered a weapon of amazingly fearsome power.  As far as human weapons go, it is by far our greatest and most powerful.  With the power of our mind we can level mountains, build cities, and unite nations.  The mind harnessed the power of fire, electricity, steam, even the atom.  It has carried us to the moon and back.  It has conceived and built machines capable of everything from farming to mass murder.  We have built and sent our machines to every imaginable place from the bottom of the sea, to the insides of volcanoes, to the far reaches of the solar system!  All from the imaginings and careful discipline of our mind!  There is no argument that the human mind is the most dazzling and incredible thing nature has yet produced.  It is truly the crowning jewel in the achievement of life.  Having said that, we must be careful with it, because if not properly harnessed it can be the most devastating of the enemies we have in our lives.  Our mind, for all of its glory, can and does turn against us even to the point of paralyzing us from making any advances in our lives.  This is where will power comes in.

Will power is  something truly incredible.  It is the thing that takes total wilderness and turns it into a hay field or a cornfield or a garden.  It takes raw materials and constructs them into something ordered and wondrous.  A house is not built by random power or accident.  It is built by planning and careful execution of knowledge and strength.  You don't build a space station by throwing a bunch of metal into the air with all your might!  Will power is the halter we use to tame the wildness of our minds.

To paraphrase a good book I once read (As A Man Thinketh - James Allen)

We as humans must learn to encourage the presence of all good emotions as the dominating thought in our minds, and at the same time discourage the presence of all the destructive emotions and thoughts.  We are creatures of habit, just like our mind.  It thrives upon the dominating thoughts we feed it.  And through the use of our will-power we can discourage the presence of any emotion, and encourage the presence of any other.  Controlling our minds, through the power of will, is not so difficult.  Control comes from persistence, and habit.  The secret of control lies in understanding the process of thought transmutation.  When any negative emotion pops into our head, we have to change it out for a positive or constructive one, simply by changing what we are thinking about at that moment.  This get's easier and easier the more we do it and ultimately leads to more and more positive circumstances in our lives.  It's even a good idea to keep a few really positive stories or super happy moments in your mind, ready to replace a bad one when it shows up.  Remember: thoughts lead to words, words lead to actions, actions determine your decisions, and your decisions ultimately dictate every element of your life from how much money you make, what you do with your time, and how much you enjoy it!  Thoughts are living breathing things that will manifest if we give them a chance.  So be careful which thoughts you are giving life to.

The truth (which can set you free), is that your life is a reflection of what your thoughts were a few years ago.  Furthermore, your thoughts now will become your life over the next few years.  It's true, the natural progression of thoughts into words into actions into decisions and finally into circumstances is a truism in life.  You will be tomorrow, what you allow to dominate your mind today.  So go take control of the source!  Your amazing, believe it!

Pride goeth before the hiss

I just biked 40 miles for the first time, which is a fairly AWESOME feeling; if you'd asked me two months ago I wouldn't have been able to bike 4! I also just got my first FLAT TIRE!! And that is not a nice feeling at all. Let me tell you something, I may have been lucky that I've made it this far without a flat but they are a total bummer! I don't know anything about changing a flat bike tire. How could this happen?!? Let's replay the events of the flat shall we?

I hit this tiny little insignificant baby of a rock, and instantly heard the most evil hissing sound! It sounded like half a dozen angry Canadian geese coming to kill me because I had chased down and picked up one of their children (don't ask how I know what this sounds like). My first thought was snake, then goose, then I am going to die, then flat tire, in that order. I pulled my bike over and inspected the damage, which to my eyes, there was none. Everything looked a-OK to me! But still, despite my protests to the universe that this wasn't fair and everything looked OK, the tire was still flat. So I tucked my tail between my legs, swallowed my pride, and called for a ride. ugh... All of this as it turned out, happened after I had ridden 39.96 miles. There is absolutely zero chance that I am going to end this ride at 39.96 miles... no way, no how, nevah!!! So I took off my fancy bike shoes (only to be used for biking and really hard to walk in) threw my busted bike over my shoulder and walked. That's right, I carried the bike. The Irony is NOT lost on me, thank you very much! Now before you throw up a red flag and comment that technically, I did not ride 40 miles, I want you to know that walking with your bike is allowed in the IronMan, so I choose to believe that it counts if I carry my bike!

Just try to imagine me walking down the road, in my socks no less, carrying a bike on my back which LOOKS perfectly functional. I can only imagine what people must have been thinking. Worse yet is a couple people actually asked if I were ok and needed help. High-five for the demonstration of cumulative humanity looking out for our fellow man and all that, but totally humiliating...

So I walked. While my super supportive wife tucked our twin daughters into the mini-van to come get me. I actually walked about a quarter of a mile before my wife found me, well over the required 0.04. The lesson here is you better be prepared, or else you might find yourself in a supremely awkward and ironic position on the side of the road in your socks while people laugh at you from the anonymity of their cars.

General info on how to change a flat tire on a bike:

http://www.ehow.com/video_224_change-flat-tire.html

Tricks of the trade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIYE6z5W0o8&feature=related

Coach...

If you want to go somewhere you've never been, you might want to find somebody who's already been there.  This is a truism in life I think.  Whether we are talking about triathlon's, financial independence, or traveling around the world , if you have a goal to get somewhere you've never been, find somebody who knows the territory.  This is particularly important if there are risks involved and the higher the risks the more people know they need a coach.  For example, you'd never dream of going sky diving for the first time with no experience or education, doing it by yourself without a coach to at least show you how to strap on the shoot and which cord to pull, right?  If your heading to Mexico for a stay in an all inclusive resort, then maybe reading some online reviews will fit the bill.  No matter the case, people who have been down that road already aid you in your trip.  I am not saying you couldn't go the solo route and figure everything out yourself, I am just saying that you can do things ten times faster and better with a coach who knows the ropes.  However, just because someone has information that you do not does not make them a coach.

Being in the know is definitely helpful, but it is far away from being a coach.  A coach needs something far more important than information indeed.  The ability to motivate.  You need to choose who you listen to very carefully.  Do they make you feel empowered to accomplish your goals when you talk to them, or do they make you rethink your direction every time.  Do they have faith in your vision?  You've got to avoid the neg-heads for sure.  The real question here, is do you believe in your own vision?  Do you believe in your vision and get excited about it?  Does it pump you up and make you excited to the point where other people make fun of you for being ADD?

Here is the deal, if you want people to believe in you, you better believe in yourself.  If you want a great teacher, you better have faith in yourself and be ready to learn!  You need to become the kind of person a great coach would want to be around.  This goes for coaches, for students, for players and winners, and for everyone around you.  To borrow the words of a world class leader / visionary and huge roll model for me, "You've gotta be excited, because no one is gonna follow or believe in a negative, dull, disillusioned, dag-gon crybaby".  Thank you Art Williams.

The bottom line is this: if you have a vision, and you are in love with it and believe in it fully, others will too.  The tools and the information you need will find YOU.  You need to have faith and direction FIRST!  As you figure out yourself, the rest of the world figures itself out for you.  Anything is possible!  There are people out there every day doing amazing things that we never even hear about and they do it with crazy illogical belief FIRST and training information and planning SECOND!  People are Awesome!

---

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world.  This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right; and during the process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.

-James Allen

As a Man Thinketh

---

People are awesome! Go out and make something happen!

Running, Part 1:

Running, as it were, holds a very special place in my heart.  Both as the thing I hate above all other things, and one of my favorite things to do.  I know this may sound strange, but I think many new-to-running individuals would agree.  You see the first time you go out running can potentially be one of the most defeating experience a person can go through.  Because you start out with these expectations of doing a couple miles, maybe two or three if your smart.  If your like me you think you'll just be able to kick the ground until you've gone 10 miles the first time out.  What actually happens though, is more like 100 yards or so before you feel like vomiting all over your shiny new running shoes and you are sure you're going to die since you have somehow lost your ability to breath!!  Gasping for dear life after such a short little jog may make you feel humiliated and alone there on the side of the road, but it shouldn't.  Actually, this is the biggest mistake new runners make: going to far to soon and overdoing it.

When you start out, running is some seriously HARD stuff!  I am not exaggerating when I say 100 yards broke me down to the point where I was bent over on the side of the road, leaning on my knees, staring at the ground and my beautiful yellow laces wondering when in the world I got so old and fat!!  The truth however, will set you free from this overwhelming feeling of failure.  Most good running coaches will tell you even 100 yards when your getting started is way to far.  These guys know what's up too.  We need to start with something much smaller.  I would say go outside and walk for 2 minutes, and then run for 30 seconds before dropping down to another 2 minute walk.  Do this for 15 minutes or so and then go home.  That's more like it.  Grab an app like Couch to 5K, or 5K to 10K from the app store if your an iPhone user or something similar and get started gradually. Then you won't injure yourself early on. I know, to my ears, hearing that I only had to run 30 seconds at a time was like manna from heaven, but believe it or not there is better news still for you aspiring runners!

The most amazing thing happens after some time doing this, as you push past the inability to breath suddenly running starts to feel good. The walking breaks become more annoying and less welcome and BAM, you can run!! This is something called cardiovascular fitness, or in other words your heart.  What has happened is your heart has become strong enough to support you and your running and is no longer the weak link in the chain of required metabolic processes required for you to continue putting one foot in front of the other at a a rate faster than walking!  I want you to have a health respect for your heart here so take a moment and do a little exercise (no pun intended) a gym teacher in high school made my class do.  Take something in your hand that is roughly the size of a baseball and squeeze it once ever second for say, the next 5 minutes.  Can you even do it?  No?  well your heart has to do that even faster than once / second, and for how long?? only for the rest of your life.  And by the way if your heart takes a little rest, you die.  So respect it's pulmonary awesomeness.  Furthermore, your heart get's the luxury of getting much stronger much faster than the rest of your body because it already has some endurance training and some strength when you start running, since it's been beating already since before you were born.

Anyway, here is the point where it actually get's a little risky.  Summery:  your heart is strong enough to run, you feel great when you run, nothing is holding you back anymore right?  WRONG!  Remember those frail little weak toothpicks sticking out from the bottom of your hips?  That's the next limiting factor, so remember don't over do it or the next thing you'll get is a knee / running injury, like your IT band or shin splints.

So the short version is, running is hard, it get's way easier, don't get hurt by doing to much to soon, and don't hate yourself if your not where you wish you were just yet!  Go get em' champ!

Read the follow up info on Running Part 2 here:
http://www.ironaaron.blogspot.com/2012/08/running-part-2.html

Read the follow up info on Running Part 3 here:
http://ironaaron.blogspot.com/2012/09/running-part-3.html

Biking, Part 1:

Biking is an amazing way to get in shape and really boost your cardio let me tell you. The first time I biked anywhere though, after about 5 minutes my legs were full of acid, my lungs were outside my body, and I was lying on the side of the road feeling a few inches from death! The second time I made it 6 minutes before I felt like puking all over the whole IronMan idea in the first place! Good thing I am insanely stubborn! I tell you what though, after a little bit of biking, this becomes really fun. What I mean is the pain stops and instead you get to look around and enjoy the fact that you are biking again! It reminded me of when I was a little Aaron and biking was the only way I had to get places. Why did we ever grow up exactly?

Anyway back to being stubborn for a moment. This is actually a very good quality in a human. When you decide to step out of the norm and go for something big, say an IronMan, or starting your own business, or whatever. The first thing that’s going to happen is everyone will try to stop you. Seriously! It sounds backwards at first but if you think about it for a sec it’ll make sense. I call it the Crab Trap theory (My inner geek is showing). Here is how it works. If you want to catch crab in the wild, it’s actually very simple. You keep a couple crabs in a big bowl until they get cozy in there and call it home, then you sink that bowl in the ocean where there are other crabs that eventually crawl in with the others in the bowl.  When the new crabs try to leave, the original crabs actually pull them back into the bowl trying to protect them from leaving, since the bowl is “safe” and outside the bowl is “unknown”.  Before too long the new crab buys the story and starts pulling new crabs into the bowl himself!!  Something like this happens with people too, especially the ones that love and care about you.  They just want you to stay safe and don’t go into uncharted waters, even if those waters are in fact safer and better, they will want you to stay away as long as they are “unknown”.  What is the point of this you ask?  Well I will tell you.  If you want to accomplish something you’ve never done, you’re going to have to do what you’ve never done.  The best thing you can do is find someone who HAS done it and make a friend.

So go to your local YMCA and start asking about triathlon clubs or biking groups.  It won’t take you very long before you find one that will be more than happy to ride with you.  Assuming you don’t kill them and you obey the normal rules of the road, you’ll have new friends that can answer all your questions about biking and gear and even give you great deals on bike upgrades (these guys are always upgrading their stuff and you can pick up their old stuff on the cheap!)

If you do decide to go solo, I will do my best to keep you informed and educated about bike gear and whatnot here in my humble little blog.  If you want to buy all the latest bike gear and equipment, then your first missions is to go win the lotto.  You’re going to need it in order to fund your bike buying because there are some NUTSO expensive things you can get out there for a bike!!  The good news is though that you actually don’t need any of the crazy insane equipment they sell out there.  Most of my IronMan training up to this point has been done on a Mongoose mountain bike I got 10 years ago for a couple hundred!!  Seriously, you don’t need fancy or innovative or expensive, plug in with a local biking club or triathlon club and get their old stuff.  If you’re a good friend they might even let you borrow it for free!!!  Now get out there and meet some new people you social butterfly!

Read the follow up: Biking Part Two, HERE:
http://ironaaron.blogspot.com/2012/08/biking-part-2.html

Here is a special article on a special kind of biking:  Aqua-Biking!
http://ironaaron.blogspot.com/2012/08/aqua-biking.html

Swimming, Part 1

Swimming is actually pretty cool. I feel obligated to tell you, I have never been much of a swimmer. I mean I can flop around in a pool with the best of them, and probably knuckle my way through a short swim if I had to, but I've never had to swim anywhere before. Never been on a swim team, or even went to a school with a swim team for that matter! Haha! After some time thinking about it and reading and whatnot, I gave it a shot and was naturally TERRIBLE at it! I swam a grand total of like 50 yards before I ended up totally exhausted. This actually brings me to a great point. You can't learn to swim by thinking about it!! Actually you can't learn anything by thinking about it. I know this sounds fairly straightforward but you'd be surprised how many people spend gobs of time thinking about doing something, and never actually get around to doing anything! I am probably guiltier of this than most, to be sure, but let me tell you something, it's good for nobody. Never starting means you never finish. You wouldn't believe how the world will line up for you when you are on a mission though.

Literally the first time I stepped into a YMCA (simply because they have a pool at every location in the city) I met the coach of the master swim program there. Now, I am NOT a master swimmer by any stretch, but the coach was still able to teach me quite a few things in a very short amount of time. Now let me pause here and talk a little about the Young Men's Christian Association. They are a fantastic organization, which is not (as you might guess) just for men. They are actually a not for profit organization that specializes in helping people who otherwise wouldn't have access to fitness education programs, get access to them! So don't think of them as just another Gym chain or fitness club, they are so much more than that. In fact, regardless of what your situation is, you can go to the YMCA nearest you and do any of the things I talk about in this series, no matter what. I will talk more about the YMCA later on, just go do some research on their mission so you understand it better, use these links:

http://www.ymca.int/who-we-are/mission/

http://www.ministrywatch.com/profile/ymca-usa.aspx


Anyway, I digress; back to talking about swimming. Don't go nuts and think you can swim a mile on your first day, and whatever you do don't be discouraged if you can't! The real trick to swimming is... well... learning the tricks. There is a technique to the strokes and it get's easier the more you practice and the more you know. The secret here is to realize it's more about understanding and knowing the right movements than it is about strength and endurance. When you’re getting started, just focus on learning the forms not how far you can go.

As far as which forms?? You've got to learn at a minimum, the Breast Stroke. If that was the only stroke you knew you could do an IronMan. Seriously! If you must know more, the next in line would have to be freestyle (or crawl as I call it). I don't want to name any others mainly because I don't really know any others and to focus on too many would just be confusing and pointless. You can get by on those two with no problem.

For now, when it comes to swimming, do yourself a favor and get yourself plugged into a place that people go to swim and start making friends. Tell them you are training for an IronMan and just watch how things will line up for you! I highly recommend the YMCA because you will get what you need no matter who you are! God loves a good story and so do people, so go on a mission and you will find the tools and skills you need to get the job done along the way! Faith is a powerful thing, try stepping out in it!!! Just do it!

Read the follow-up on swimming PART TWO: HERE!

http://www.ironaaron.blogspot.com/2012/08/swimming-part-2_8.html

The IronMan

Now, for those of you  (like me) who don't know what an IronMan is, let me tell you.  Basically, it is a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride, followed by a marathon, 26.2-mile run.  Which if you are as disconnected from the world of endurance as I am, probably sounds like no big deal.  At least it didn't to me.    I figure well that's about 140 miles and I can drive 140 miles in a little over 2 hours so how hard can it be?

Pause.  I have a little advice for you folks out there reading this.  There are only two ways to accomplish anything amazing in life.  The first way is to be totally naive with an absurdly sunny outlook on everything.  These kind of people have a bad rap, but they don't deserve it!  They are actually some of the most incredible people on earth and are capable of pushing themselves harder than most would.  They are capable of enduring hardships simply because they choose not to fully feel the weight of what they are experiencing, instead they instinctively focuses on the positive and blocks out the negative.  Incredible!!  This is what allows them to plow through difficulty without really acknowledged it or giving it any space in their heads.  Wonderful.

The second way to accomplish something great in life, is to be tough.  Really tough.  Now these folks are really amazing.  They are self-declared realists, but not the kind that always spouts off the negative side of things.  These guys will never bring you down.  They are actually really smart people, who are able to at the same time fully see the world for what it is, in all of it's shadowy darkness, in all of it's difficulty and turmoil, and are tough enough to say screw you I am doing it anyway.  They use their perceptions to plot a course through the difficult rough world and get it done in spite of the hardship.

So basically, you better be really naive and plow on not seeing the hardships.  OR  You gotta toughen up to the point where hardships, though very real, aren't going to take you out and make you give up.

Naive or Tough.  problem is you cant make yourself more naive, so you better just go get tougher  ;)

OK.  So now that we know what an IronMan is we can learn a little about where it comes from and who's terrible idea it was to combine these three grueling events into one insane race and then put the world championship on one of the hottest and remote islands in the world.  Kailua-Kona Island: Hawai'i

For some more info on who dreamed up the idea of a triathlon in the first place, check this out:

http://www.triathlonhistory.com/

For some more info on the IronMan and where it came from, read this stuff:

http://ironmanworldchampionship.com/media/history-of-ironman/

Introduction

Blog post number one.


First off, like most things, I am totally new to blogging and writing in general, so do be patient with me. Second of all, I want you all to know that the most important thing in life is setting a direction; having a mission. Just deciding to do something is the hardest part, and the second hardest part is sticking to it even when it gets difficult. So let me begin by telling you a little bit about myself and where my head was at when I started this whole crazy thing.


Before starting my IronMan training, I was not a runner, a biker, or a swimmer. I had never done any of these things before, save a little sprinting in track and field when I was a teenager. In fact, the only athletic competition I had ever done was the 100m dash and the high jump in high school, and I was seriously terrible at both! The biggest reason I decided to do an IronMan in the first place, was because I liked the title. As you get to know me, and read more of these blogs, you'll realize that I am first and foremost, not at all like everybody else - seriously. When God made me he threw out the mold for different reasons than usual, trust me. So, deciding to do an IM without knowing the first thing about the competition just because I like the title fits pretty well with my style. The second thing is that I am super stubborn, just ask my wife. She has a host of stories of me just not giving up even when all reason and logic indicates that continuing is insanity. Honestly though, what a cool title: IronMan. Take a second and say it out loud... Listen to it. Seriously, I think it's one of the coolest things you can be called in life. Just ask Stan Lee; he will tell you. As a bonus, having my wife introduce me as an IronMan is just the greatest concept my feeble little mind can imagine. Is there a better definition of STUD? I don't think so. So I picked a date six months out and started researching what it would take to do an IM. I will let you know what I found tomorrow.


Also, just to let you know, I have about as much free time as the average guy. I have a full time job as an engineer at Elo Touch Solutions. I own my own business part time. I am married, and I have perfect identical twin daughters who are the BEST thing EVER!!! So naturally, you see I have all the time in the world to train.


Furthermore, I had no equipment or knowledge of nutrition or endurance events or anything. I hadn't even really heard of triathlons except a few times in passing over the course of my life and definitely didn't understand them. My version of a triathlon was a 15 mile drive, followed by sitting for 8 hours, followed by 2 hours of TV. What a workout!!


So I went to town. Six months is enough time to do just about anything, right?


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