"Those who gossip with you will gossip of you."

"You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind."

"Your feet will bring you to where your heart is."

"Praise the young and they will blossom."

"A silent voice is music to the ears."
-Irish Proverbs


I'm a drinker with a writing problem.
-Brendan Behan

And...

"I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted."
-George Best

How many times in your life have you heard a short quote and thought it simply captures your raw feelings and emotions better than a 1000 words could ever describe. This has happened to me many times. Another one of my favorites is

Discipline is doing what you don't want to do so you can do what you really want to do....

Jeff Fischer--Tennessee Titans Head Coach

That quote has carried me through the past 2 years and 3 half marathons, 1 duathlon, numerous 10k's and 5k's, 3 sprint triathlons, 2 olympic distance tri's, and a 100km bike ride. Those 19 words can better describe my inner personal drive than I could. Today those words will take me through my 4th sprint triathlon.

As I sit here at 5am on a saturday only after going to bed at 10am on a Friday night, which by the way is the earliest I have gone to bed on Friday since my last saturday morning race many a moons ago. I pondered many things before I went to bed last night. I am a big advocate of visualisation and actively imagining each step and movement of a race. While I am thinking of the process I am constantly reminding myself of the way my body is going to feel physically and mentally. I try to imagine the intensity I will be racing at and draw back on those hard mornings in the pool, long winter days on the trainer in my hotel room in Houston, where the hotel staff knew me as the "Bike Guy", and not to mention the long morning in Austin at my first marathon.

It is critical to remember the experiences and feelings your body goes through in training because those thoughts and emotions will be what takes you to the finish line, and in my honest opinion, the longer the race the more important your mental state affects how you will finish.

Have you ever asked yourself "What was Chris McCormack thinking when he hopped off his bike after riding 112 miles in the heat and humidity of Kona, HI only to strap on his shoes to run a 2:20 something marathon." www.chrismccormack.com  What drives him and how do you emotionally and mentally take your body to that limit. As I sit here and write this I already know the answer for myself, and that is what is important, My answer is that he believed he could do it and nothing was going to stop him from doing it. When I believe I can do something, it's just a matter of time before I can get my body physically to the place where my mind already is.....

So didn't write much this week but I had a good week. I had good swims on monday and wednesday, a good bike on monday and thursday, my first tempo run since the marathon. This felt good. On Tuesday I did a 5mi 38min run on the katy trail, and friday was a rest day and I am racing this morning at and I hope to go out 100% and post a good time. www.stpatrickstriathlon.com I am going to leave it all out on the course and learn by failure... If I get a medal then thats great if not, I just ran a race with 2 good friends and am already looking forward to the next. Its gonna be nice to sit around afterwards with friends and talk about what we each learned and struggled with at the race.

Well off for now and I am already getting the butterflys, but that is good thing to me, if you don't have those then your not nervous and if your not nervous then your mind has been put in a place where what ever you are about to do doesn't really have much meaning to you. I mean think about why do you get nervous? I get nervous because I am concerned about performing well in the race. But what does that really mean? It means that this race is really important to me and that no matter what time I post its a big thing in my life that has significant meaning in my life. Fail or succeed, to not be nervous or anxious or what ever you want to call it before a big event in my eyes means you don't care two shits about the event or presentation or what ever it may be.