My Fitness Investment

  In my yesteryears, I was something of an amateur athlete in the world of triathlon, adventure racing, and half marathons.  I have some of the fondest of memories of these days.  The comradery among athletes is unlike any I have ever experienced and is reason enough itself to be a part of the racing community.  Other memories include: my first 5K at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in 2003 and the excitement that came when I unexpectedly saw my name in the local paper for finishing in the top 50; running my first half marathon and making every rookie mistake from buying new shoes and saving them for race day to wearing WAY too many articles of clothing and having to shed gear after the first mile; setting a PR (personal record) in the Hogeye Half Marathon '04 of 1:39:47...enough for a 3rd place age group finish and 17th place overall; hyperventilating and thinking I was going to die during the swim portion of my first triathlon at the Memphis in May tri of '05; the exhileration in crossing the finish line 22 and some odd hours after starting a "24 hour" adventure race in Missouri; the trails, the views, the battle wounds, the searches for a checkpoint marker via map and compass with a headlamp in the black of night, the challenging 'mystery events' from jumping bales of hay to ziplining across a river to rappelling off of a 10+ story building, the godawful time we had to canoe upstream and into the wind during an 8 mile canoe section of an urban adventure race (it didn't help that I despise the wind); getting up at 2:00am and spending race day morning with my grandpa in Chicago before the Chicago Triathlon '05...I could go on and on.

It was my love for all of these things that directly contributed to me essentially giving them up.  The world of training and racing, especially multi-sport, can be very tricky.  If you're not careful, you can end up burned out very easily.  That's what happened to me.  I got so into it, before I knew it, I was doing 2, sometimes 3 workouts a day, and did 4 adventure races, 3 triathlons and a half marathon in a six month period.  I needed a break.  

That was 2005, and since then I pretty much stopped training or even working out, thus getting out of shape and gaining weight.  That didn't stop me from wanting to do a half marathon in 2007.  I was bartending at the time, and since I had to work the night before the race, the race was just down the street from the bar, the race started at 8:00am, and I usually didn't get off work 'til 3:00am...it sounded like a perfect time to pull an all-nighter.  So, no sleep, some drinking, maybe a few cigarettes, McDonald's breakfast, and a dare to take 4 shots of tequila in the hour leading up to the race later, I ran a half marathon.  I spent the first four miles focusing on not throwing up and the remaining 9 struggling from dehydration.  But, 2 hours, 3 minutes and 48 seconds later I had one fine finish line race photo and, to say the least, something of a unique race story.

I once came across a quote about running taken from the last published column written by Dr. George Sheehan who wrote for Runner's World for more than 25 years... 

• "We know the effects of training are temporary.  I cannot put fitness in the bank.  If inactive, I will detrain in even less time than it took me to get in shape.  And since my entire persona is influenced by my running program, I must constantly be in training.  Otherwise, the sedentary life will inexorably reduce my mental and emotional well-being.  So, I run each day to preserve the self I attained the day before.  And couple with this is the desire to secure the self yet to be.  There can be no letup.  If I do not run, I will eventually lose all I have gained-and my future with it."

The sedentary life had done just that, reduced my mental and emotional well-being.  It was time to do something.  Armed with experience, I excitedly decided to start training again.  I ran the Dallas half marathon in December '08 and had an absolute blast.  My new goal is simple...keep it fun.  No more overtraining and taking it too seriously.  Does that mean that I'm not going to try to do it well?  Nope.  Just no longer would I relate training and racing well with overtraining and reduced enjoyment.  So far, so good!

Blago incognito

So, with all the news about Rod Blagojevich, I thought it would be worth sharing a joke that I heard a couple weeks ago. When I saw it, it was the funny news of the day at the end of "Special Report with Brit Hume", now hosted by Bret Baier. In searching the internet for the exact joke, it was credited to Seth Meyers. Enjoy! :)

"On Friday, the Illinois house voted 114 to 1 to impeach governor Rod Blagojevich on charges that he tried to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. His sole dissenting vote was cast by first term representative Smod Smagojevich."

The Scroll Marked 1

In my mere 28 years, never have I come across anything that so concisely combines educational teachings with heart-felt inspiration as the book "The Greatest Salesman in the World" by Og Mandino.  It is a book of principle that teaches sincerity, selflessness, humility, accountability, love, and patience among many, many other values.  The catch?  The reader must be at a point in their life to be open and accepting of these teachings.  I feel like I can say that because I first read the book at the age of 25 when a Mr. Jim Potts, during a short-lived mentoring relationship, recommended it.  He did not just recommend reading it, rather on said day told me to go buy the book and have it read by the following day.  I did just that.  I recall being inspired, but do not recall the level of inspiration matching that which filled my heart when I re-read it for a second time yesterday.  My inspiration was such that I couldn't be more excited about deciding, just a few days ago, to begin writing my thoughts in this blog with no way of knowing how many or few people it may actually reach.  I think I have found a therapeutic outlet in this blog to just be able to put my thoughts into words and maybe, just maybe, be able to reach others.  With this in mind, I would like to share with the world wide web the chapter in "The Greatest Salesman in the World" called "The Scroll Marked 1"...

 Today I begin a new life.  

 Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.

 Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.  Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest and fullest vines in the vineyard, for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come before me, generation upon generation.

 Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily I will swallow the seed of success buried in each and new life will sprout within me.

 The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those who have failed, were they piled one atop another, would cast a shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth. 

 Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts which will guide me through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream.

 Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle.  Just as nature made no provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my life to suffer failure.  Failure, like pain, is alien to my life.  In the past I accepted it as I accepted pain.  Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principle which will guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness far beyond my most extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides will seem no more than just my reward.

 Time teaches all things to him who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity.  Yet within my allotted time I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never in haste.  To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required.  An onion plant is old in nine weeks.  I have lived as an onion plant.  It has not pleased me.  Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesmen.

 And how will this be accomplished?  For I have neither the knowledge nor the experience to achieve greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity.  The answer is simple.  I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience.  Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated, usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.

 In truth, experience teaches thoroughly yet her course of instruction devours men's years so the value of her lessons diminishes with the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom.  The end finds it wasted on dead men.  Furthermore, experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable and impractical tomorrow.

 Only principles endure and these I now possess, for the laws that will lead me to greatness are contained in the words of these scrolls.  What they will teach me is more to prevent failure than to gain success, for what is success other than a state of mind?  Which two, among a thousand wise men, will define success in the same words; yet failure is always described but one way.  Failure is a man's inability to reach his goals in life, whatever they may be.

 In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits.  Good habits are the key to all success.  Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure.  Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedeth all others is---I will form good habits and become their slave.

 As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am a slave to my habits, as are all grown men.  I have surrendered my free will to the years of accumulated habits and the past deeds of my life have already marked out a path which threatens to imprison my future.  My actions are ruled by appetite, passion, prejudice, greed, love, fear, environment, habit, and the worst of these tyrants is habit.  Therefore, if I must be a slave to habit let me be a slave to good habits.  My bad habits must be destroyed and new furrows prepared for good seed.

 I will form good habits and become their slave.

 And how will I accomplish this difficult feat?  Through these scrolls, it will be done, for each scroll contains a principle which will drive a bad habit from my life and replace it with one which will bring me closer to success.  For it is another of nature's laws that only a habit can subdue another habit.  So, in order for these written words to perform their chosen task, I must discipline myself with the first of my new habits which is as follows:

 I will read each scroll for thirty days in this prescribed manner, before I proceed to the next scroll.

First, I will read the words in silence when I arise.  Then, I will read the words in silence after I have partaken of my midday meal.  Last, I will read the words again just before I retire at day's end, and most important, on this occasion I will read the words aloud.

On the next day I will repeat this procedure, and I will continue in like manner for thirty days.  Then, I will turn to the next scroll and repeat this procedure for another thirty days.  I will continue in this manner until I have lived with each scroll for thirty days and my reading has become habit.

And what will be accomplished with this habit?  Herein lies the hidden secret of all man's accomplishments.  As I repeat the words daily they will soon become a part of my active mind, but more important, they will also seep into my other mind, that mysterious source which never sleeps, which creates my dreams, and often makes me act in ways I do not comprehend.

As the words of these scrolls are consumed by my mysterious mind I will begin to awake, each morning, with a vitality I have never known before.  My vigor will increase, my enthusiasm will rise, my desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew at sunrise, and I will be happier than I ever believed possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow.

Eventually I will find myself reacting to all situations which confront me as I was commanded in the scrolls to react, and soon these actions and reactions will become easy to perform, for any act with practice becomes easy.  

Thus a new and good habit is born, for when an act becomes easy through constant repetition it becomes a pleasure to perform and if it is a pleasure to perform it is a man's nature to perform it often.  When I perform it often it becomes a habit and I become its slave and since it is a good habit this is my will.

Today I begin a new life.

And I make a solemn oath to myself that nothing will retard my new life's growth.  I will lose not a day from these readings for that day cannot be retrieved nor can I substitute another for it.  I must not, I will not, break this habit of daily reading from these scrolls and, in truth, the few moments spent each day on this new habit are but a small price to pay for the happiness and success that will be mine.

As I read and re-read the words in the scrolls to follow, never will I allow the brevity of each scroll nor the simplicity of its words to cause me to treat the scroll's message lightly.  Thousands of grapes are pressed to fill one jar with wine, and the grapeskin and pulp are tossed to the wind.  Only the pure truth lies distilled in the words to come.  I will drink as instructed and spill not a drop.  And the seed of success I will swallow.

Today my old skin has become as dust.  I will walk among men and they will know me not, for today I am a new man, with a new life.

Obama's Promise to Close Guantanamo

I am dumbfounded by the seemingly obtuse chants heard 'round the world for "Change". So many people seem to have no clue what they want, but rather that they want something different. Has anyone taken the time to think what that 'different' will be like? I don't know what the future of America will be like should President Obama succeed in making all the changes he promised during his campaign, but I will say that I am fearful. In my youth, I was never much of a student of history, or maybe even much of a student, but it took graduating college for me to develop what has since turned into an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and information. In the last 5 years I have spent an increasing amount of time educating myself on history, politics, news, etc...to the point that an exciting morning for me is drinking coffee while the news is on TV, reading the newspaper (anxiously awaiting the crossword puzzle usually found on page A5 of the local paper) and following it up with some talk radio (oh, and I dvr Jeopardy).

I say that to say that I am by no means an expert on any of these talking points; rather, an interested and concerned citizen of the United States of America. On that note, my observations as of late lead me to believe that many of the crucial things that this country was founded on, seem to be going by the wayside. I'm not saying our founders hit every nail on the head, but there is something to be said that America was able to achieve it's greatness in a relatively short period of time.

Is closing Gitmo a good idea? I don't know. Is waterboarding and other questionable methods of interrogation good? Probably not. Are they necessary? I think so. Does America have enemies? Unquestionably. Will those hate-filled enemies stop planning attacks on us and just talk nice? Doubtful.

I want America to be successful. I want the economy to be strong again. I want citizens to experience equal rights. I want truth, justice, freedom, liberty, faith and the opportunity for the pursuit of happiness. Am I saying I have the answers on how to obtain these things? No. But as a self-proclaimed skilled observationalist, I will say that it doesn't seem like the increasing majority knows WHAT they want. It seems more like an increasing majority just wants to find a way to take away something from someone else...even if it's their own country.