Did you ever have one of those moments?

Have you ever had one of those moments when everything just seems to be right? I hope that if you think for a moment a few will come to mind right away. The moments cover all aspects of my life: my family, triathlon and even work. What they all have in common is that single moment when you know it cannot get any better.

Seven years ago, I was sitting with my wife in a small thatch roof bar on a remote island in French Polynesia. The sun was setting and the sky was a brilliant shade of red. The trade winds were blowing just enough to cool you off from the late afternoon heat. The view was of the open ocean and a small island in the distance. It was perfect.

Moments like those are what keep me going day after day, and yesterday I was lucky enough to have another one. My training schedule called for a quick run consisting of 2 one-mile repeats. As I left work, I found myself surprised by the near-perfect weather. It was 65 degrees with a slight wind. I made my way to the local college track to find that the track team was finally moving outside for the season. I have been running along with them throughout the last few months and they generally let me be. However, the more I see them, the more exchanges we have. "Keep it up. Nice job." These little exchanges help you along when you are trapped on the track doing a set of 1000-meter repeats alone in the dark of winter. As I jogged around the track for my warm up, I felt transported back in time to my collegiate track days. The camaraderie, the hard workouts, they brought out the best of you. It was an amazing time in my life and now it was like I had never left. As I lined up for my first mile, one of my "A+" workout songs came on and I was off.

I was running effortlessly. Maybe it was the weather, maybe the peering eyes of the track coaches, I am not sure what it was, but I really felt good. As I rounded the far turn of my first lap, I looked up to a beautiful sunset. I looked at my watch at the 1/4 mile and holy crap. I was aiming for 86sec quarters for a 5:44 mile. Well, 1/4 number one ---77 sec! Wow, I hope my legs don't actually fall off my body. I did my best to slow down a little bit but my legs just wanted to run. At the half, my time was on pace for a 5:22 mile. It felt so good that I just kept going. Some of the others on the track would give me word of encouragement as I went by, and that only fueled my desire to finish that mile. I finished winded, but not spent. A quick look at my watch: 5:24! 5:24 -- I don't know the last time I ran a mile that fast. The smile on my face must have been a mile wide.

Enough of the happy-fest. I had one more mile to go and now I only had 1:30 of rest left. A quick recovery jog and I was off again. I was certain that the next mile would be slow. There was only so much my legs could take. However, as I ran, something amazing was happening. I just kept feeling better. My mind began a review of every good workout or race that I could remember. My legs just kept moving. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere remarkable and in some way I was 17 years younger, running with youthful exuberance and not a care in the world.

And then it was over. My workout and that perfect moment had passed. As I cooled down running through campus, I thought about my run and how truly nice it was. I can only hope that as I continue to live I will have more and more of these moments in every aspect of my life. They are what really keep me coming back for more.

If anyone is wondering, the last mile, it was 5:20.

Enjoy the moment,


JTG

Moving right along

One week down and whole lot more to go. This past week was a good one for me. I was able to get in some pretty consistent workouts and felt pretty good doing them. My swim is starting to come back into form. I do not have the speed nor the form that I used to, but it is feeling easier to get myself up and down the lanes everyday. Sometimes, I wish I had continued to swim as a little kid. I might be one of those guys at my next race who can move through the water in an effortless fashion. I guess I will be happy with moving kinda quick in the waterwith a fair amount effort.

As for my bike, I did my real first back to back hard days of biking and my legs are still reminding me about it. I am trying to continually push my upper limits during those rides and believe it is going to pay off in the end. I really wish that I could get an extended time of temperature over 40f so that I could get outside.

Lastly, my run.....well it is even better than before. I said it before, but it is weird to be running faster at age 37, than I did in the years following college. I ran, not so well, for a Division III college during the early 90's. Thanks in part to living in a house with 50 guys and little supervision, I was not as dedicated as I could have been. Today, I find myself running just off some of my collegiate times, wondering what could have been if I had just applied myself. I think I can hear my coach saying those very words.

Honestly though, I would not change one single thing. I'll take being an OK swimmer, a descent biker and a competive runner. Sure, I could have focused a little more on athletics, but then I might not have been apart of four incredible years, living with my best friends, witnessing some of the most amazing things you could ever imagine. That is a tale for another time.

Staying focused,


JTG

What in the world happened?

Holy Crap! The last entry on this blog is way back in October. I was 6 weeks into a training program, horribly out of shape and about to have my world turned upside down. I will not bore anyone or myself with the details, but..... it invovled changes at work, two moves and trying to figure out how to spend time with my wife and three kids.

Now here I sit roughly 20 weeks away from my goal or "A" race. Somewhere in one of my many unpacked boxes is a list of goals that I want to achieve at Ironman Couer d'Alene. I think I will try to make a future post about them so that they will be out there for all see. I hope that it will keep me honest.

This is a week to rest and evaluate my current level of fitness. Even with all the chaos of the past few months, I managed to keep most of my fitness. I recently ran a 1/2 marathon in 1:23 and change. I was hoping to be a little faster, but another bad virus got a hold of me the week before the race. My cycling is hanging on by a thread. I have begun to ramp up the miles when able. However, with the extra work, I feel like my top end has suffered a little bit. Two month's ago my FTP was 306 watts. If I can fit it in, I am going to try to test again later this week. Swimming, yes swimming. I really went swimming. Honestly, I think that since Ironman Florida '07 I had probably only swam 4-5 times up until January. I have been trying to work on my stroke mechanics and get myself back into shape with twice weekly swim workouts. They must be working, because I decided to do a 1000 yard time trial this morning. My overall time was 14:45. I think swam a little fast in the beginning, but was able to hold 1:30/100yrds over the last 800. I can not find it, but I had a chart that documented my swim improvements during my last IM build up. I seem to remember being even slower at this point that year.

So that is it. A very simple recap. I don't have much to report. I am going to try to keep this bog updated with twice weekly entries. I am going to keep my traing going. And, I am going to always remeber that nothing takes the place of hard work.

Keep Focused.