Pics Instead or Words

Facts:
1) I qualified for my second World team in 3 weeks.
2) There is no better competiton than a USAT national championship
3) I will race better next year, and not be that guy who is really fast just on training days
4) Mountpelier VT Is breathtaking
5) Thank you Wendy (my cousin) and Peter(her husband) for an unbelieveable time and letting me stay on "Paradise Farms" with you.
6) Below are picturess of their property (where I stayed for 5 days), and pictures of my Sprint National Championship weekend.

A celebratory beer after the race

Walking w/ my cousins puppy on their 80 acre land

The view I woke up to for 5 days with coffee

Confirming My World's Slot

Race Morning

The running trails in Vermont

Fog sneaking in..

I loved looking at the Mountain Layers..

Who gets to go for hikes on their own property?? They do...

Swim Start..

First time shooting a gun..

Key Moments!

    As I am sitting on my cousins porch literally looking over their 80 acreage property and seeing mountains, Im reflecting on the 2012 season and how it all boils down to this Sunday. Im thinking of workouts that I put in the "bank" and how I need to cash them this weekend. Before I go into those workouts- let me just say that I believe Key Moments are apart of everyones life. Whether its the events that led to your significant other, or the events that led to a death, a bike crash, an injury, a job, anything really. And most of the time, we never go deep enough to think of the key moments or even have a clue what the key moments are. Thats exciting in some way. But here are my 3 workouts that come to mind for what hopefully will be a successful race on Sunday:
       1) Every Wednesday I have been doing a ride w/ our local Triathlon Store (TrySports) and its a Tri-bike ride only. We get 5-10 people who absolutely kill it for 30miles. We normally avg. 23-24mph for the entire ride and thats with some easy spinning in the beginning. These workouts help me realize that I can put some serious power out of my legs
       2) I did a 24x400 track workout on the 4th of July. All by my self. The goal was to get to 30 repeats all under 1.20 but when I do one over 1.20 - I call it quits so if the first one was 1.21 then it becomes an ez run rather than a workout. However, I avg. 1.18 for all 24 (the 24th one i went 1.21) and had a .45 sec rest after each including a 100 ez jog. Being that this was all by myself and no music- this really pumped me up. I look back and think this workout really helped me for the run section on Sunday (a 5k- short but Fast!).

The Track where the pain begins!

     3) My real good friend and Running Mentor went up to the mountains on A Saturday and rode 3.5 hours of just brutal climbing avg. a whopping 14mph and then later that day ran 1.5 hours in the mountains as well. This is where the strength comes in. I feel like Sunday, I have the strength needed to put me in a good position to compete. See Cheezy video we made of our mountain training below :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwmf-jFGJXk&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Our mountain training Camp.

Here is where I get deep- Whatever you do in life or goal you have, give yourself some time to reflect on the positives that helped you get to where you are. You put in the work, so cash it in when necessary. I also know, come Sunday- if I do not have a "good" race, all is not lost. The journey is what its all about and I know I will have many more opportunities. Just like you in whatever you are trying to accomplish.
All Endings are Also Beginnings, We just might not know it at the time!

The Stuff I Notice in the Every Day Life

- I love seeing a storm come from the West during Sunset. The view from my home lets me see it miles out

- In the morning, I have to walk my dog to this Farm Land near me - b/c when the Sun rises over it - I feel closest to the ones I love in Heaven.

- No matter the grudge you have towards someone, if you become the better person and begin a positive conversation all is MOSTLY lost.

- I love to wake up super early for workouts so I have extra time to relax afterwards before I go to work. Some like to sleep in and rush in the morning. Both are good I suppose :)
- Paying it forward is so worth it. Even if its a $2 coffee at the coffee shop.

- Separating Work/Training/Relaxing is a hard thing to do but a necessity and when I do this, I am at a good High.

- I will end it with this- on how I look at Life - and hope you attack your day w/ a purpose as well. 99.9% will not have the same outlook on life as mine but this is mine. I think of Life as an enemy- I go against it every day,hour, minute, second. If it beats me one minute, I try and comeback and beat it the next. Same with the hours. But very rarely do I let it beat me in the entire day- meaning me going to bed extremely angry or really stressed out. How can it beat me in a minute you ask - Picking up my Kitchen table after an hour drive to find out it is broken in the box- getting ready to go ride but realizing I have a flat tire- Parents getting divorced - needing to see an eye doctor, the dentist, an annual check up, the dog annual checkup but all of course are only open from 8-5.- everytime I go to ride outside it seems to rain. Getting home from my PM workout and not doing anything other than relaxing and yet I needed to do anything BUT not doing anything (hope that makes sense). Leaving my lights on in my car and waking up to a dead battery All of this is little stuff that Life tries to bring me down.
     However, in a quick turn of events - i try and think positives or think of the next solution since the problem has already occured. Why moan about it when its in the past. Also, I always think of my immediate friends/family who have lost so many loved ones and have gone through cancer that I quickly realize I am selfish to let my little issues get to me. If you think this is a lunatic way of thinking- I cant disagree w/ you b/c sometimes I ask myself if I am thinking OK :). However, it has worked for me in the past.
 So- there it is- Dont let "Life" bring you down! Happy Friday....