calm before the storm

after all these years of day dreaming about doing an ironman (or just an official ironman distance event), i've finally started to put all the pieces of the puzzle into action. i turn the big 4-0hh next year and wanted to do something special to commemorate/celebrate it since i believe in getting better with age. slowing down is not an option here. my goal is to do the great floridian race on october 23, 2010. this race is an ironman distance and in a very hilly part of florida too!

a little bit about me: i love to challenge myself and i'm my own worst critic. i expect the best out of myself. i was always very active as a child but once i got into the teen age years, it wasn't "cool" anymore, so i followed the crowd and became a couch potato. i didn't play any kind of sport in high school but was eventually talked into doing cross country my senior year so i could have something else listed in the yearbook besides just a class picture. needless to say, this couch potato could barely run 3 times around the track without gasping for air. so sad! i even remember my first c.c. meet and i think i finished 2nd to last and back then i believe that it was a 2 mile distance and if my memory serves me correctly, i finished in about 28-29 minutes. disgraceful! did i continue to run after that? hell no! back to couch potato status. eventually, i had an epiphany of sorts thanks to the most important person in my life, and decided to make some serious changes. i did not like the unhealthy road i was heading down. i joined a local fitness club on valentine's day 1989 (yes, i remember that day very well) and i have never looked back. i have worked out ever since and it has evolved widely. started out with just weight training, added a little stairmaster for cardio, bought a fully rigid mountain bike, started riding the trails at flatwoods before anyone hardly knew these trails existed, went to the university of south florida and got a degree in exercise physiology and made it my life's work. all of a sudden i found myself running a little, bought my first roadbike a steel lemond-alp'd'huez, started dabbling at north shore pool in the mid to late 90's and felt fit enough to do St. Anthony's a couple of times and a few sprint distance tri's. eventually, i lost my way to the pool (no secret that i'm not fond of swimming) and started really hammering out the marathons. to this day, i've done 4 boston mary's, 3 ultra marathons, and about 25 other marathons. but enough of the marathons already. i need more! and that leads me to now. with such a solid base of running and cycling (11,000+ miles to date for the year 2009), i am ready to add the swimming in...my weakest and most loathed activity. i sound negative about it but really, i'm looking forward to it very much and can't wait to get started. the love of my life asked me what i wanted for christmas and i asked for a year membership to the Y by our house so i can really work on the swim. i am determined now more than ever before to get it down this time around. i want to embrace swimming like i do the running and cycling. i will begin my swimming on January 4th and will be blogging about the good, the bad, and the ugly as i go along.
Much love and peace out!