Couch to ATHLETE!

I discovered something yesterday and I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it. I was doing the Toyota Women Only Triathlon in Ohio with my friend Erin and realized my times are more and more important to me. You see, I transitioned from being concerned only about finishing an event to wanting to improve my times. Technically this is a good thing; it means I have enough confidence to know I can finish what I got myself into. On another note, it means something has to change in how I prepare for these events. For the last few months I have been hanging onto the words by Scott Tinley: “Everyone has the desire to win but only champions have the desire to prepare.” I have taken these words seriously in both mind and practice; however I know I can train more, harder, and smarter. In the words of Ironman Dave Scott “If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, to just finish the rac...

A couple of weeks ago my friend called me to ask me to participate in a 5k race for Multiple Myeloma. I of course jumped on the opportunity since it was one week after the triathlon and I am committed to staying active. It was the first time I started a 5k very comfortable knowing that I would finish it without much of a problem. What I didn’t know when I started was that it was going to be my best run time ever. I finished in 37:07; which translates to 11m 57s miles. A few weeks ago I told my sister and her husband that my goal is to be able to run 11m 30s miles; my goal is in sight… I was already searching for the next event, I could not have even guessed what was going to come next… Earlier this week my friend facebooked me to tell me she was doing this 20 mile ride called Night of 1000 tacos, and asked me if I was interested in participating. I quickly learned that it was basically a tour of Taco trucks on the north side of Columbus. I quickly responded with a Heck Yeah!!! Last nig...

First of all I have to say this; Three miles??? Piece of Cake!!! That is at least how I felt Wednesday when I ran three and a half miles, and today when I ran three and three quarter miles. The first three miles have been easy, anything beyond that and my posture crumbles and I have to pull something out of my core to get myself to keep going. Today I was running (or what most people would call jogging) and into my last three quarters of a mile when a speed walking pregnant lady passed me. It made me remember something that happened when I lived in Colorado. My sister had a friend who was training for the Hawaii Marathon. She joined a training club to assist her with motivation, form, and endurance. On her first outing with the training club they started running and about five minutes into the run she was all alone with the training club long gone. I remember feeling insecure for her. I also remember talking to my sister and her friend about how I wanted to be able to run a few miles. ...