Clarity and a PR to boot!

After a lot of thought, a little advice and some re accessing of my goals, I have formulated a new plan and made peace with it. I have decided not to do the Camp Pendleton Triathlon July 19th. Instead I will focus my training on running. Specifically I will be training for the Mt. Disappointment 50K on Aug. 9th. I will continue to ride my bike to work 3 days a week and I will weight train 3 days a week. I figure that this will be around 16 hours of training, but I am gaining back time because 6 hours of that is free since it is replacing time spent sitting in traffic. So, 10 hours of training will then leave plenty of time for my other goals, which are of equal if not more importance. I am going to start dedicating time to acting and music again. I have let them slip since there just wasn’t any time. The plan had been to set them aside till after IMAZ then hit it hard after. Somehow, after IMAZ I felt lost without all of the training and I made a less than wise decision. Not that doing another triathlon is a bad decision, it is just that right now I have to weigh time spent with return.

I am seeing great returns with running. Running is also logistically much easier to do. And I LOVE TO RUN. I have plenty of goals to keep me motivated, I plan on running a sub 4 hour marathon in Long Beach in October and LONG term eventually qualifying for Boston. I will keep trail running on my way to a 50 miler then perhaps a 100 miler. I am also hitting the weights again. I don’t really like the scrawny upper body I seem to be getting. It is typical for runners and cyclists because of all the attention our lower bodies get. This plan leaves time for weight training and that’s a good thing!

Finally, I am setting specific goals for music and acting. I will start talking about this part of my life more in this blog since it will be more a part of my life again:) I am attempting to be a more well rounded person. I tend to get obsessed with things and that can be good. But, it has it’s draw backs too. I needed to be obsessed with Ironman training to achieve that goal. But, I have no delusions of being a professional triathlete. So it becomes a question of risk vs. reward. I need to spend time doing things that give some return on investment. If I spent even 3 hours a week on writing a new song or submitting to casting agents, I would be so much closer to my professional and creative goals.



So, this is the beginning of a new and more well rounded life for me. And to kinda start it off, yesterday at the HB 4th of July 5K I ran my ass off for a PR of 23:26 (per my garmin). That is :30 faster than previous fastest 5K. it was not champion chip timing, so official gun time was 23:41. It was a great day. Brittany also PR’d the course by :30. We ate a great lunch, then I rode my bike to the beach and watched the fireworks.



Oh, and I will do another Ironman. Most likely IMAZ ’09. I can’t wait to actually race that Mutha’

Paul